(The Center Square) – With a crucial vote scheduled Tuesday for the Pinellas County Commission on previously-delayed stadium bonds, the Tampa Bay Rays’ owner is saying a move to another city isn’t off the table.
The commission is scheduled to vote on the $335 million worth of bonds to help build a new $1.2 billion stadium in St. Petersburg. The Major League Baseball team will receive $600 million from taxpayers for the Tropicana Field replacement, which is scheduled to open in 2028 and anchor a $6.5 billion development in the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District.
Team owner Stuart Sternberg told the Tampa Bay Times that relocation “is not an unlikely conclusion” with some members of the commission balking over the cost of the bonds.
“Last month, the county commission upended our ballpark agreement by not approving their bonds, as they promised to do,” Sternberg told the Tampa Bay Times. “That action sent a clear message that we had lost the county as a partner.
“The future of baseball in Tampa Bay became less certain after that vote.”
Category 3 Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on Oct. 9 and tore 18 of the 24 panels on the roof of Tropicana Field, the home for the Rays since the inaugural 1998 season. The stadium opened in 1990 and has at various times been home to Davis Cup tennis, the NHL’s Lightning, a college football bowl game and an Arena Football League franchise.
The team will play next season at the New York Yankees’ spring training park, George Steinbrenner Field, in Tampa.
Kennesaw State professor J.C. Bradbury said in a post on X that “Redeveloping the Trop land without a stadium would probably bring more economic benefits to St. Pete’s citizens than if the stadium was included. Stadiums are not good development anchors.”
Bradbury is a skeptic of the public financing of stadiums and has done research showing that stadiums aren’t drivers of economic growth, a key argument of team and local officials on why the subsidies are needed.
The St. Petersburg City Council will take up the issue at its Friday meeting on whether to replace Tropicana Field’s roof for two seasons before a new stadium is scheduled to open.
The council voted Oct. 31 to spend $6.5 million for cleanup efforts.
A report released by the city of St. Petersburg and written by Hennessy Construction Services says Tropicana Field repairs could cost $55 million, with $26.3 million needed in just the roof replacement alone.
