In June 2024, the Tampa Bay Rays agreed to a $1.3 billion deal with both the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. Publicly released cost estimates initially showed the city and county sharing $600 million, while the Rays would contribute $700 million. These numbers are insanely misleading for several reasons. First, they don’t include the hundreds of millions the city/county will need to spend on infrastructure improvements. Two, these numbers don’t include the lack of property taxes. Third, there are still so many things that we still don’t know about the agreement. Florida Tax Watch’s report calculates the combined city and county costs at approximately $2.4 billion.
In July 2024, the parties involved in the negotiations reached an agreement to build a new ballpark. But completing this agreement required approval from both the city council and county commissioners, a process expected to last months. The city council signed off on the deal, but in late October, Pinellas Commissioners had to delay their vote due to two hurricanes hitting the area. Because of these delays, two newly elected commissioners would now vote on this deal, rather than the previous commissioners. These two had some issues with this deal, and the county pushed back the vote to December. At the December meeting, the county passed the agreement thanks to the MLB commissioner talking to the two new commissioners.
However, the Rays didn’t attend the vote and had other plans:
“As we have made clear, the County’s delay has caused the ballpark’s completion to slide into 2029. As a result, the cost of the project has increased significantly, and we cannot absorb this increase alone. When the County and City wish to engage, we remain ready to solve this funding gap together.” – Rays president Matt Silverman, Tampa Bay Times, 12/17/24
Everyone thought the deal was back on. Even though the county had pushed back the vote several times, there were no missed deadlines. IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: THE AGREEMENT DOES NOT GIVE DATE DEADLINES FOR THE CITY/COUNTY TO APPROVE THE DEAL.
One member of the Pinellas County Commission sent a letter to the team asking for a response from them on whether the Rays intend to “commit to a new $1.3 billion ballpark, or if they’re walking away from the deal”. The team wrote back and declared that the current ballpark agreement was in effect “until a party terminates”. The team also claimed that they had “fulfilled its obligations to date and continue to wait on the city and county”. Wait, so the Rays just said that the agreement is currently in effect? Then why do they keep running to the local media and demanding additional money from the city/county?
Essentially, the Rays in writing argue that the deal is currently moving forward until someone officially backs out. But during interviews with the local media, the team clarifies they need more taxpayer money in order for the deal to continue because the vote in December caused “significantly increased construction costs”. The problem with this argument is that the Rays continue to either hide or lie about these increased costs. Nobody has seen any evidence or proof of this increase. One commissioner, who supported the Rays deal, called the team’s comments “laughable”. The Tampa Bay Times has reported that other city leaders blame the Rays for this public war of words and “expressed skepticism that construction prices have risen so much in so short a time”. When one commissioner asked a consultant who had worked on 25 stadium deals whether he had ever seen a team lose $200M because of a 30-day delay, the consultant “said he had never seen that”.
Thankfully, some city leaders are putting their foot down with the Rays and telling them to make the next move. One city commissioner mentioned to the Tampa Bay Times that “The onus is on them” and another noted that everyone is now looking to see if the “Rays uphold their part of this deal”. Currently, the Rays contractually have the next obligation to meet. By March 31, the team must prove that they have completed several obligations if they want more public money to be unlocked and given to them. If the Rays do not fulfill their obligation by March 31, then the “deal automatically terminates”. Backing out would cause the Rays to be “in default” and therefore lose “their development rights for the district”. The team responded by asserting that they were “meeting four out of 13 conditions”.
My favorite part about this response was that the team “did not send any documentation as proof”. However, the team did state that they “had spent $11.6 million” already. Hold on. Didn’t the team send a letter in November to county commissioners claiming that the team had spent $50M on the project? I wonder why the Rays are giving different numbers to different people. Weeks have gone by, and everyone waits for the Rays to say something or produce some evidence of this increased cost. Nothing.
However, I saw an article today in the Tampa Bay Times, where the Rays owner admits that “they are still deciding what to do”. When asked how much money he is asking from the city/county, he “wouldn’t say how much more money the Rays need” to compensate them for the delayed vote.
But what blew my mind was what the mayor of Tampa Bay told the media:
Welch met with Sternberg last week and has another meeting with him Tuesday to ask if Sternberg has made any progress in his thinking on the deal and if the team is prepared to meet its obligations…Welch said they’ve talked about the Rays’ position of having increased costs because of the county’s delayed votes, but said he still hasn’t seen anything that itemizes or shows what that cost is in terms of dollars. “I don’t know if that’s still an issue for them or not, but we need to get some certainty” Welch said, adding that he wants to be “clear and transparent” about what the potential path forward — Tampa Bay Times, 01/27/25
Wait, what? The team has not even given the mayor a single thing that showed what they have been crying about for a month? Will they ever? Let’s keep this simple and look at the contract between the city/county and the team. Who specifically is on the hook for cost overruns? Wouldn’t this just be an increased cost? According to the contract agreement: “Rays are on the hook for all cost overruns”.
Since the Rays owner isn’t even putting in more than $150M of his own money, why not look at him to pay?
