As leaders weigh a potential Rays stadium, officials are also preparing for costly upgrades to Raymond James Stadium ahead of the Buccaneers\u2019 lease expiration.<\/p>\n
TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 While much of the focus in Hillsborough County has been on a potential new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays, another major project is approaching.<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2019 lease at Raymond James Stadium expires in 2027, and early discussions suggest significant upgrades could come with a hefty price tag.<\/p>\n
At this week\u2019s Tampa Sports Authority meeting, leaders confirmed they are preparing to meet with the Buccaneers to begin initial conversations next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a definitive on what the numbers will look like,\u201d Tampa Sports Authority CEO Eric Hart said. \u201cBut there\u2019s been enough national reporting on keeping up with the jones\u2019, so to speak. It\u2019s a significant number.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estimates being discussed are around $1 billion, raising concerns about how the region could manage multiple large-scale projects at the same time.<\/p>\n
Those concerns date back to when the Rays stadium deal was first publicly discussed. During a Hillsborough County Commission meeting on Feb. 4, 2026, commissioners questioned whether taking on both projects could stretch resources too thin.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we overextending ourselves?\u201d Commissioner Chris Boles asked during that meeting.<\/p>\n
County leaders have acknowledged the nearly 30-year-old stadium will require upgrades and say funding sources are already being considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that\u2019s something that\u2019s forthcoming,\u201d County Administrator Bonnie Wise said during the Feb. 4 meeting. \u201cWe have been using the 4th cent tourist tax for that, and we also have some CIT dollars set aside for the stadium as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, commissioners have emphasized that funding designated for the Buccaneers will not be redirected to support a new baseball stadium.<\/p>\n
“They [the Rays] know we\u2019re not going to take anything away from the Bucs to help in this effort. That was made very clear at the beginning,” Commissioner Ken Hagan said.<\/p>\n
As discussions move forward, Tampa City Council member and Sports Authority board member Alan Clendenin said the focus will be on balancing improvements with protecting taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my perspective, as the landlord of the NFL team, we have to do what we need to do as a good landlord but we don\u2019t have to bend over and take it like we did with the first deal,\u201d Clendenin said.<\/p>\n
The full Tampa Sports Authority board is scheduled to meet again on April 30, when more details could emerge about both the Rays project and negotiations with the Buccaneers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As leaders weigh a potential Rays stadium, officials are also preparing for costly upgrades to Raymond James Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-851879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116342611766412363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}