TAMPA, Fla. – After the Rays’ announcement that they would not follow through with plans for a new stadium in downtown St. Pete, city officials in Tampa are seeing if there are any options on their side of the bay for a new stadium.
“We are clearly going to dust off our proposal here in Hillsborough County and see where that takes us,” said Mayor Jane Castor.
The Rays’ 2018 proposal for Ybor City never made it to the next step.
The backstory:
Now that St. Pete says it is done negotiating with Stu Sternberg; Tampa, Hillsborough County, and the Tampa Sports Authority are willing to pitch it again.
PREVIOUS: Tampa Bay Rays nix stadium deal
The mayor says they’d focus on a ballpark and leave the rest of the development for another day.
Mayor Jane Castor speaking about the City of Tampa preparing a new pitch to build the Rays stadium.
“It’s going to have to be in the best interest of our community and our taxpayers,” said Castor.
The mayor could not give a specific amount of public financing they could offer, but the Rays say no deal works without at least some public help.
Dig deeper:
Rays President Matt Silverman told FOX 13 on Thursday they’re hunting for private investors as well.
“We’ve had conversations, ongoing conversations, about selling parts of the franchise as part of any stadium build,” said Silverman.
PREVIOUS: What’s next for the Rays with stadium deal nixed?
By leaving behind $600 million of public funding in St. Pete and Pinellas County, the Rays left the question open of how much they still needed.
Rendering of the potential new stadium in St. Petersburg.
“Investors want to know what the plan is,” said Silverman. “They want to know where the stadium will be, (and) how much it will cost. Once those details are finalized, it’s much easier to finalize the details of that investment.”
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They blame the hurricanes for those things, which were all true in the St. Pete deal, and still didn’t secure an investor.
“We need to have a Major League Baseball franchise in this part of the state,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We’re one of the fastest-growing parts. This is one of the fastest growing markets in the country. It’s already a massive market. There is no way that it can’t be successful.”
What’s next:
While the City of St. Pete says it is done negotiating with this ownership group, the Rays do not have the same opinion of St. Pete.
They say they would have no problem discussing how to move forward with another proposal in St. Pete.
The Source: FOX 13’s Evan Axelbank collected the information in this story.
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