TAMPA, Fla. — Leaders in Hillsborough County could soon be asked to take a deeper look at the financial picture of building a baseball stadium in Tampa.

The owners of the Tampa Bay Rays have picked Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus site to build a new ballpark.

The project could cost more than $2 billion.

On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis stressed again his support for that move and the state’s willingness to secure the spot on the HC campus.

“I do think Tampa Bay, that’s where the team was berthed. We do it want to see it succeed in this region,” he said. “I think it can succeed. A hundred percent, I think it can succeed. Our role can be just to help HC negotiate something that’s going to be good for them and be good for the Rays. And we’re happy to do that.”

But the money has to be there. According to our newsgathering partners at the Tampa Bay Times, building the stadium would cost about $2.3 billion.

That is a billion dollars more than a previous proposal for a new stadium in St. Petersburg two years ago.

Tampa Councilman Charlie Miranda on Wednesday said the Rays ownership should foot the entire bill for it.

“If they have the money to buy it, they should have the money to build their own house,” he said.

Two weeks ago, Rays CEO Ken Babby spoke on the Hunks Talk Junk podcast about the need for a partnership.

“We’re going to do our part. We’re going to write a big check. We already wrote one to buy the team,” Babby said at the time. “We are going to write another big one to buy the ballpark, but we need a good public-private partnership.” 

Next week, the Tampa Sports Authority is expected to vote on whether there first should be an economic study done for the city and the county.

Miranda said he welcomes it — as long as it is by an independent group.

“I support any study, but it’s got to be verified,” Miranda said. “I want it statistically from a non-committed organization — not committed to them, not committed to us. An unbiased study that’s done so everybody understands where you’re at, including the land that they’re going to have, that they pay no tax. How would, we the city, benefit from that if they weren’t here? It’s got to be a two-way study, it can’t just be one way.”

Spectrum Bay News 9 reached out to the Rays on Wednesday but didn’t hear back.

Most professional stadiums have been built using public-private partnerships, but there are exceptions. Gilette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots, recently got a $225 million renovation that was completely funded by the owner.