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Rays Face Financial Hurdles On Stadium

PETER MASA / News Channel 8

Replacing Al Lang Field with a stadium like that in San Francisco could be aesthetically appealing to fans weary of the Rays' domed home.

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By BAIRD HELGESON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2007

TAMPA - The Tampa Bay Rays' proposal for a new waterfront baseball stadium made no mention of wanting money from St. Petersburg or Pinellas County taxpayers.

Instead, the team would like proceeds from the sale of land it doesn't own - taxpayer-owned Tropicana Field - to help finance a new $450 million, open-air stadium.

"It's a nice trick if you can pull it off," said Neil deMause, author of "Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit."

He and other stadium financing experts said they have never seen a team try to use the money from sale of public property to build a stadium for a pro franchise. Normally, any profit from the sale of the land would go to the county, which owns the property.

The Rays' proposal includes a 35,000-seat stadium in downtown St. Petersburg with water views for fans and the chance for batters to send balls splashing into the water.

The Rays offered to pay $150 million of the stadium cost and plan to ask the Florida Legislature for a $60 million sales-tax rebate. The team hopes money from the sale of the 70-acre Tropicana site would make up part of the remaining $240 million. Team officials have not said how they would pay for the cost difference or any overruns.

Stadium financing experts said the plan is part of a new breed of stadium proposals that don't ask local communities to come up with cash, which has become less appealing politically.

Instead, teams find other ways to make money, like getting development rights on public property.

For instance, by building the new stadium on the site of publicly owned Al Lang Field, taxpayers won't benefit from the sale of the land, money that could be used for street repairs, parks or more police officers. In the past, city leaders said they might turn the land into a park.

"The teams are getting more and more brazen in what they are asking for," said Rick Eckstein, author of the book "Public Dollars, Private Stadiums."

Team officials declined to comment. They are meeting privately with government leaders to build support for the proposal.

Revise Tropicana Lease

Before the Rays could move, the organization would need to revise its Tropicana lease, which expires in 2027.

The city of St. Petersburg built the stadium in 1990 for $138 million to lure a team to the area. Today, the facility remains $94.3 million in debt, due in part to refinancing of the bonds to improve the stadium.

City, county and state taxpayers pay the stadium debt, expected to be paid off in 2025.

The city could recover what it owes if a developer purchased Tropicana Field and the surrounding land. But St. Petersburg doesn't have to pay off the bonds immediately if it sells the property, said Jeff Spies, city finance director.

The city could sell the property and continue to pay the debt on the normal schedule, he said. The bonds are backed by future tax collections, not the actual building.

Taxpayer costs could increase if the Rays moved to the new stadium and Tropicana Field sat vacant.

The Rays control the stadium and pay operating costs, but St. Petersburg pays about $2.5 million a year mostly to insure the building and provide traffic control during games, said Joe Zeoli, who oversees Tropicana Field finances for the city.

The city collects 63 cents for each game ticket sold, which brings in about $800,000 a year to help pay its costs. The city would lose that revenue if no games were played at the stadium.

City taxpayers must cover a shortfall of about $1.6 million this year, Zeoli said.

For stadium repairs, the city sets aside another $500,000 a year from the ticket charges and part of the money from the naming-rights agreement.

That money could move to the new stadium.

Tropicana Field, like other pro sports venues in the state, gets $2 million a year in state sales tax money to pay the debt. It's unclear what would happen to that money if the team built a new stadium.

St. Petersburg City Attorney John Wolfe said the stadium plan is in its infancy and that nobody knows how the details will get worked out.

"If we have an agreement, if everything falls into place, and everybody approves it, we'd terminate that lease or amend it in some way," he said.

Wolfe said he is bound by a confidentiality agreement and can't discuss the team's plans.

Perhaps the team's biggest challenge could be persuading Florida lawmakers to turn over $60 million in a rebate of sales tax receipts.

Marlins Stadium Efforts Failed

The Florida Marlins repeatedly failed to secure the same amount for a new stadium in the Miami area even though House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, is a loyal backer.

"I can't see using any tax dollars for a stadium in the near future, certainly the next few years," said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

He chairs the Senate's economic development committee, which would get one of the first looks at the Rays' stadium plans.

The timing of the proposal is especially poor, Fasano said.

Lawmakers held a special session in October to trim about $1.1 billion from the budget due to declining tax collections. Fasano expects that lawmakers will make deeper cuts to the budget in the next few years.

State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, and other lawmakers said the Marlins would surely tack on their proposal with the Rays' request, making it a $120 million stadium subsidy.

House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said the money is better spent increasing high school graduation rates or providing health insurance for children.

He consistently voted against stadium subsidies, even for his hometown Marlins.

"I haven't seen a stadium deal that I like," he said. "And I don't buy studies that say the teams provide economic development."

Lawmakers and sports business experts said the Rays' final proposal will probably look a lot different than the current plan. And they agreed it will probably cost a lot more than the projected $450 million.

"They are floating a lot of trial balloons at this point," said deMause, the stadium financing expert.

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.

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