Fastball

Tampa Bay Rays Get Ballpark Bond Vote Passed By St. Petersburg City Council

This doesn't mean that the Rays new ballpark will be built, but it's one less obstacle in the way.
Brady Farkas|
A general view of a Tampa Bay Rays hat and glove during the seventh inning of the game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in 2023.
A general view of a Tampa Bay Rays hat and glove during the seventh inning of the game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in 2023. | Scott Taetsch-Imagn Images

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Tampa Bay Rays

UPDATE, Dec. 6: The ballpark bond vote passed through the St. Petersburg City Council. This doesn't mean that the new ballpark will be built, but it is one less obstacle in the way. The Pinellas government needs to vote on their end of the deal, and the Rays have to still want to follow through.

Per Josh Rojas of Spectrum Bay 9:

Breaking: The St. Petersburg City Council just voted 4-3 to approve $287.5M in bonds for the Rays new $1.3B stadium and $142M for Gas Plant infrastructure. The vote now tees up Pinellas Commissioners who’ll vote on their $312.5M bond portion on Dec. 17.

DEC. 5: The Tampa Bay Rays long-term future could start to get a little clearer on Thursday night, as the city of St. Petersburg will vote on bonds that would approve or vote down their financial contribution to a new ballpark.

Per the Tampa Bay Times:

The St. Petersburg City Council has scheduled a vote for Thursday on whether to approve bonds to finance the city’s contribution toward a new $1.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays stadium and Historic Gas Plant District even as the team has said the project as proposed is no longer viable.

Council members received notice Wednesday morning that the item has been added to their agenda for the following day. Thursday marks the council’s first meeting since it voted to delay the bond issue Nov. 21, deciding instead to revisit the matter no later than Jan. 9.

The bond issues have been delayed because of Hurricane Milton.

If the city votes down the bond issues, that would seemingly kill the idea of the Rays getting a new ballpark. However, if they approve, that doesn't necessarily mean that things will go through. The Pinellas County government would also have to approve its own funding, and the Rays would have to continue to want to go through with the deal.

As of now, the Rays have said that if this project gets delayed any further, they won't be able to absorb any overage costs, so there is a chance they could end up backing out as well, leading to the possibility of them leaving Florida entirely in the future.

The Rays will spend the 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Single-A home of the New York Yankees. Tropicana Field was rendered unplayable in the wake of Milton.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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