City council approves a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark — and the existing site’s transformation

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Rays are on track to get a long-sought new ballpark following a city council vote Thursday on a major redevelopment project that also guarantees the team will stay where it is for at least 30 years.

The ballpark is part of a broader $6.5 billion project that supporters say would transform an 86-acre (34-hectare) tract in the city’s downtown, with plans in the coming years for a Black history museum, affordable housing, a hotel, green space, entertainment venues, and office and retail space. There’s the promise of thousands of jobs as well.

The site, where the Rays’ domed, tilted Tropicana Field and its expansive parking lots now sit, was once a thriving Black community displaced by construction of the ballpark and an interstate highway. A priority for St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch is to right some of those past wrongs in what is known as the Historic Gas Plant District.

“This is a day that has been more than 40 years in the making,” said Welch, the city’s first Black mayor with family ties to the old neighborhood. “It is a major win for our city.”

The St. Petersburg City Council voted 5-3 for the plan, which also must be approved by the Pinellas County Commission. A county vote is set for later this month.

“This has far-reaching implications far beyond the baseball field,” said council member Ed Montanari.

The linchpin of the project is the planned $1.3 billion ballpark with 30,000 seats and a fixed roof, scheduled to open for the 2028 season. That will cap years of uncertainty about the Rays’ future, including possible moves across the bay to Tampa, or to Nashville, Tennessee, or even to split home games between St. Petersburg and Montreal, an idea MLB rejected.

Stu Sternberg, the Rays’ principal owner, said final approval of the project would settle the question of the team’s future location.

“It’s always been our intention and my intention to have the team remain in Tampa Bay, specifically St. Petersburg,” Sternberg said before the vote. “We have never considered taking the team elsewhere, out of the region.”

The Rays typically draw among the lowest attendance in MLB, even though the team has made the playoffs five years in a row. This year, at this week’s All-Star break, the Rays have a 48-48 record, placing them fourth in the American League East division.

The financing plan calls for the city to spend about $417.5 million, including $287.5 million for the ballpark itself and $130 million in infrastructure for the larger redevelopment project that would include such things as sewage, traffic signals and roads. The city envisions no new or increased taxes.

Pinellas County, meanwhile, would spend about $312.5 million for its share of the ballpark costs. Officials say the county money will come from a bed tax largely funded by visitors that can be spent only on tourist-related and economic development expenses. The county commission is tentatively set to vote on the plan July 30.

The rest of the project would mainly be funded by a partnership between the Rays and the Houston-based Hines global development company. It will take decades to complete.

The ballpark plan is part of a wave of construction or renovation projects at sports venues across the country, including the Milwaukee Brewers, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Oakland Athletics, who are planning to relocate to Las Vegas. Like the Rays proposal, all of the projects come with millions of dollars in public funding that usually draws opposition.

Although the city’s business and political leadership is mostly behind the deal, there are detractors. Council member Richie Floyd said there are many more ways the ballpark money could be spent to meet numerous community needs.

“It still represents one of the largest stadium subsidies in MLB history. That’s the core of my concern,” Floyd said.

A citizen group called “No Home Run” and other organizations opposed the deal, with the conservative/libertarian Americans for Prosperity contending the track record for other publicly financed sports stadiums is not encouraging.

“The economic benefits promised by proponents of publicly funded sports stadiums fail to materialize time and time again,” said Skylar Zander, the group’s state director. “Studies have consistently shown that the return on investment for such projects is questionable at best, with most of the economic gains flowing to private interests rather than the general public.”

Still, the project seems to have momentum on its side. For former residents and descendants of the Gas Plant District neighborhood, it can’t come soon enough.

“All over this country our history is erased. That will not happen here,” said Gwendolyn Reese, president of the African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg. “Our voices will be heard. And not just heard, but valued.”