On Thursday, Florida Politics broke the news that the Rays, Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa have drawn up an MOU sketching out a public-private partnership to build a stadium to be built on the current Hillsborough College campus.
According to Florida Politics sources, the city and county contributions to the stadium have been reduced just a tad, from an earlier $1.1 billion to a “mere” $976 million.
The Rays confirmed the news with their own press release:
An MOU is a positive step for those rooting for this deal to go through. It will outline a basic understanding of the responsibilities of those involved and most likely a timeline for getting the project underway. We will update this story as we get more detailed information.
But an MOU is just a first step. First, this has been most likely negotiated between the Rays and city/county staff. Florida sunshine laws make it very difficult for members of the County Commission and City Council to engage in negotiations outside the public eye. No doubt staff have ways of communicating with individual elected officials to be assured that they are pursuing an agreement likely to be supported, but at least in theory the next Commission and Council meetings where this MOU is an agenda item will be the first time the members of these bodies will have debated the details.
Also, and MOU is ALWAYS just a first step. It’s in the name — memorandum of understanding. It’s not a binding agreement. It’s like an engagement (which is a mutual promise but not a legal commitment) rather than a marriage. MOUs can be cancelled, as we saw in the case of the Rays/Hines/St. Petersburg agreement to redevelopment the Gas Plant district.
No doubt there is a reason the news of an MOU was released today. The state legislature is currently in special session to agree on a state budget. One item in that budget is $150 million to Hillsborough College to get them started on redeveloping their campus as part of the larger stadium/entertainment district plan.
No doubt that lit a fire under everyone involved to have at least a final MOU in the works. If they can get this approved before the special legislative session ends then they are much more likely to have the $150m in college funds approved this year.
