Rays’ new stadium approved with $300 million in public funding: ‘The best neighborhood ballpark’

Pinellas County commissioners voted 5-2 on Tuesday to approve more than $300 million in public funding toward the construction of a new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays, the team announced. Said vote was considered to be the final major hurdle in the Rays’ decades-long quest for a new stadium.

It’s worth noting that the actual cost to taxpayers is likely to far exceed that $300 million figure — perhaps several times over. Here’s more on that particular subject, courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times:

The entire project —  stadium and Gas Plant —  is expected to cost $6.5 billion in public and private investment. The stadium is pegged at about $1.3 billion of that, with the Rays covering $700 million plus cost overruns. The city and county likely will pay hundreds of millions more in the end, as they’re financing their contributions with the sale of bonds that will accrue interest.

The Rays celebrated the vote by publishing the following video, featuring franchise legend Evan Longoria and a collection of memorable moments:

“This is quite a momentous day for our franchise, our fans and the entire Tampa Bay region – the Rays are here to stay in St. Petersburg,” team owner Stuart Sternberg said in a statement. “We look forward to building the best neighborhood ballpark in Major League Baseball, which will blend in beautifully with a world-class, mixed-use real estate project that honors the past and looks toward the future.”

The ballpark designs include a capacity of 30,000 for baseball, according to the team. As with the existing Tropicana Stadium, the new park will feature a sloped roof. The Rays also envision year-round non-baseball events at the stadium, as well as a planned mixed-use development in the area that will include 5,400 residential units, 750 hotel rooms, 1.4 million square feet of office and medical space, 750,000 square feet of retail space, a new Woodson African American Museum of Florida, a concert/entertainment venue of 4,000 to 6,000 seats and 14 acres of green space, the team said in a statement.

As part of the deal, the Rays have vowed to contribute $50 million to community benefits, including “money for job training, educational programs and support for local entrepreneurs and small businesses.” The team also cited “ambitious goals for hiring disadvantaged and minority workers, and (plans) to put a particular emphasis on attracting locally-owned small businesses and local residents to the district.”

The Rays’ journey to a new stadium in the Tampa Bay region has been a long and winding one, complete with myriad threats to relocate that proved to be hot air. To wit, Rays co-president Brian Auld once declared that the team would walk away from a deal if they were stipulated to change their name to reflect their St. Petersburg residency. Auld, at another point, told the Wall Street Journal that he “concluded that it’s next to impossible that full-season baseball can succeed in Tampa Bay today.”

As it turns out, it wasn’t next to impossible to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay on a full-season basis — it just required an exorbitant amount of public funding dollars.