{"id":714456,"date":"2026-06-01T11:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/714456\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:30:16","slug":"rays-ballpark-ask-puts-core-local-funding-source-under-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/714456\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays\u2019 ballpark ask puts core local funding source under pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

All eyes in Tampa are on the Community Investment Tax, the voter-approved, half-cent sales tax that funds major civic infrastructure, capital improvements and maintenance projects for Raymond James Stadium and Benchmark International Arena.<\/p>\n

Since the CIT\u2019s creation 28 years ago, it\u2019s provided roughly $2.3 billion toward 757 capital improvement projects, everything from a half-dozen new or expanded libraries to 24 fire station projects, 70 intersections and the construction of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2019 stadium. But the CIT is under growing strain. <\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 new ownership group, eager to build a $2.3 billion stadium as part of a larger mixed-use development project that also would rebuild Hillsborough College and firmly plant the team\u2019s roots in the region, is looking to peel off a portion of the CIT for its purposes. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s raised eyebrows because the Rays\u2019 project wasn\u2019t included in the CIT that voters renewed in 2024. At that point, the Rays looked like they\u2019d be building a ballpark in St. Petersburg. Hurricane Milton and the accompanying winds of political change in Pinellas County ran that project aground. The Rays were subsequently sold, changing the trajectory of the team, the stadium effort and now, maybe, the CIT\u2019s sufficiency. <\/p>\n

The renewed CIT begins Dec. 1, 2026. Over the next 15 years, the city of Tampa was projected to receive $783 million \u2014 $165 million of which is earmarked for the likely renovations of the Lightning\u2019s Benchmark International Arena and Raymond James Stadium. Hillsborough County is projected to receive $2.66 billion over the renewed CIT\u2019s lifespan, with $597 million of proposed county spending on public facilities, including Raymond James Stadium, Benchmark International Arena and the Yankees\u2019 spring training and minor league venue, Steinbrenner Field. Hillsborough County\u2019s 6% Tourist Development Tax is another source of sports venue funding.<\/p>\n

The Rays\u2019 ballpark MOU with the city and county would see the county contribute $796 million and the city $180 million of the ballpark\u2019s $2.3 billion cost, which would appear to be the largest-ever public contribution to an MLB stadium.<\/p>\n

The Rays\u2019 portion would be $1.2 billion and they\u2019ve committed to covering stadium cost overruns and maintenance once the venue opens, in addition to the entire cost of the mixed-use development. The state would be on the hook for the Hillsborough College revamp. <\/p>\n

Back-of-napkin, educated guesstimation math says the Rays\u2019 ballpark combined with the Raymond James Stadium and Benchmark International Arena renovations \u2014 neither has been finalized yet \u2014 could cost as much as $4 billion (only some of which would be publicly funded, of course). <\/p>\n

Anti-tax movement<\/p>\n

The Rays\u2019 ask comes at a time when the Florida legislature is potentially undermining the CIT. It\u2019s collected as part of Hillsborough County\u2019s broader 7.5% sales tax, which previously included commercial lease sales tax until that was eliminated last year by the legislature. The absence of commercial lease sales tax has contributed significantly to a 26% year-over-year decrease in CIT collections through May 2026 (from $79 million to $58 million).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a vulnerability out there, absolutely,\u201d Tampa\u2019s CFO, Dennis Rogero Jr., said at a May city council workshop during which the Rays\u2019 potential stadium MOU was discussed publicly.<\/p>\n

More concerning is the interest Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state legislators share in doing away with property taxes. <\/p>\n

Property tax accounts for 72% of American local tax revenue, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, by far the biggest source. Doing away with Florida\u2019s property taxes would spark municipal funding shortfalls statewide, not just in the city that wants to build a baseball stadium, renovate its NFL stadium and likely upgrade its hockey arena. The state already doesn\u2019t collect a personal income tax, one of nine in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elimination of property taxes that\u2019s been discussed would be catastrophic,\u201d Rogero Jr. said during the Rays\u2019 MOU workshop.<\/p>\n

Property taxes don\u2019t contribute directly to the CIT, but their absence could force Tampa and Hillsborough County to dip into the CIT to cover the broader shortfall. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of those scenarios would take revenue away from what we\u2019d like to accomplish,\u201d said Rogero Jr. <\/p>\n

Watching Rogero Jr. self-regulate his level of alarm from my bedroom in Charlotte via the workshop\u2019s YouTube stream made me wonder: Can state government tax cuts undermine the kinds of funding sources that stadiums \u2014 let alone much more critical facets of basic community upkeep \u2014 regularly rely on? <\/p>\n

It appears that once bonds are raised against a tax, a government\u2019s ability to affect that tax is severely limited; just imagine the lawsuits from bondholders. <\/p>\n

But equally, it seems that in many places the ability to handcuff a future state legislature\u2019s power is limited, and that legislatures (usually) have the ability and the right as elected bodies to undo taxes passed in prior years, or to at least redirect their usage. What if a fiscally conservative state legislature capped its cities\u2019 ability to use taxes \u2014 like sales or tourism taxes, for example \u2014 to fund sports venues? Or eliminated that ability altogether?<\/p>\n

Tax-based funding streams\u2019 issues are more often tied to tourism economy ups and downs. The two main hotel tax revenue sources for the Louisiana Sports and Exposition District, which oversees New Orleans\u2019 Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center, were both down 7% from what was budgeted as of mid-March, according to a video stream of that LSED meeting. (Are you getting an idea of how I spend my free time?!) <\/p>\n

DeSantis seems supportive of the Rays\u2019 plan in part because of the unique Hillsborough College component, where in the past he has cold-shouldered state funding for sports venue projects.<\/p>\n

Would DeSantis sign a bill ending property taxes, thus undercutting the Hillsborough College and Rays project? If he did, it could put Tampa and Hillsborough County in the uncomfortable position of deciding between new sidewalks and fire stations, or stadium and arenas.<\/p>\n

Bret McCormick can be reached at bmccormick@sportsbusinessjournal.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All eyes in Tampa are on the Community Investment Tax, the voter-approved, half-cent sales tax that funds major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,23091,35961,297,2550,68,2551,2549,34852],"class_list":["post-714456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-print","tag-raymond-james-stadium","tag-rays","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-the-insiders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116674627253501229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}