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Rays Say Park Development Well Worth It

Artist rendering by Tampa Bay Rays

The council is set to decide June 5 whether to authorize a referendum in November on a new downtown stadium at the site of Al Lang Field.

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A staff report

Published: May 15, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Tampa Rays are telling the city council today that new tax revenue from redeveloping Tropicana Field would far exceed the public share needed to build the team a new waterfront ballpark.

The stadium would open for the 2012 season if approved by the city council, the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners and local voters.

"This financing plan will create the most beautiful ballpark in America and generate millions of dollars for our schools and public services by redeveloping Tropicana Field and its surrounding parking lots," Rays president Matt Silverman said in a news release.

Here's the team's version of how the financing plan would work:

Funds from the sale of the Tropicana Field site would be used immediately to pay off all the current city and county stadium debt that is set to expire in 2016.

Private funding sources would comprise a majority of the funds needed for the new ballpark. These sources include a $150 million team contribution, proceeds from the sale of the Tropicana Field site and new parking revenue.

Public funding for the ballpark would come from extending the community's current financial support for Tropicana Field and Major League Baseball. "The public contributions to the new ballpark amount to far less than the hundreds of millions of new tax dollars generated by the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site," the Rays news release said.

The combined projects, said Rays senior vice president Michael Kalt, represent more than $1.2 billion in new investment in the region and "would be the single largest development project in the history of St Petersburg."

The two downtown development projects would generate an estimated billion dollars in new tax receipts over the next 35 years and produce more than 10,000 construction jobs and 2,500 permanent jobs.

Stay tuned to TBO.com for updates.

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