Pinellas County commissioners are set Tuesday, for the third time, to vote on whether to authorize bond sales that would allow the plan for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium in downtown St. Petersburg to move forward.
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Once seen as a formality in a project that was all but a done deal, the bond vote — which has been delayed twice in two months — has become a choke point in the wake of two hurricanes and an election that changed the makeup of the County Commission.
Its passage, needed to unlock the $312.5 million in funding the county has pledged for the new stadium, wouldn’t guarantee the project’s success. But it would put the onus on the team, which has said that cost overruns have already made the deal as agreed upon untenable, to either hold up its end of the bargain or back out.
Rays brass has sent mixed signals over the past month, first publicly declaring the deal dead, then saying that it expects commissioners to pass the bond authorization Tuesday while adding that the team would still need more money to continue.
But approving the bonds would rely on a yes from at least one of three swing-vote commissioners: Dave Eggers and Chris Latvala, who both voted against the stadium deal in July, and newcomer Chris Scherer, who has been critical of the deal and said last week he’d rather delay the vote again. Fellow new member Vince Nowicki is solidly against the plan, while Brian Scott, Kathleen Peters and Rene Flowers, who all voted for the deal over the summer, are expected to be yeses Tuesday.
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Tuesday’s meeting begins at 2 p.m., though with the bond item in the middle of the agenda, it may take some time for commissioners to take it up. Read on for updates.
2 p.m.: Rays absent from meeting
The meeting is just underway, and it could be a while before the board takes up the bond issue, which is item No. 26 on the agenda. But one thing already sticks out: Once again, the Rays do not have a representative in the room.
County commissioners have been frustrated for months over what they say is poor communication from the team, and the club’s approach to county meetings — its leaders have been either absent or silent — has further strained the relationship.
— Jack Evans
1:30 p.m.: Rays say they’ve met 4 out of 13 requirements
At the request of commissioners, Rays president Matt Silverman emailed the board Monday evening with a checklist of which benchmarks the team has met in order to receive public funding to build a stadium.
Though the deadline isn’t until March 31, which Silverman pointed out, the team has met four out of 13 conditions. The Rays have provided evidence that design documents are half complete to the city, and the team said it will be provided to the county this week. There is also evidence that the Rays can use a $100 million loan from Major League Baseball and that the team had spent $11.6 million through July 31.
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Among the things the team hasn’t provided: evidence that it has cash on hand to pay its estimated $700 million share of stadium costs. That should come in the form of a letter of “owner-equity commitment.”
Scherer has pushed for another delay, saying that the commission should not vote on bonds until all conditions are met by the Rays. Regardless of when the bond sales are authorized, the team would not be able to access any public funding until all conditions are met.
— Colleen Wright