DeSantis, MLB commissioner support Tampa Bay Rays' stadium plans

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred threw their considerable — and collective — weight Tuesday behind a plan to build a new baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays on the site of Hillsborough College.

The pair visited the school on Dale Mabry, across from Raymond James Stadium, for a press conference that featured the team’s new owners as well as county and city officials in the audience.

The event focused on DeSantis and Manfred talking about how the project — a mixed-use development with a stadium as an anchor — could be the solution the Rays and the community have long been waiting for.

The Rays have famously announced new stadiums in the past to great fanfare only to see the plans fall apart for one reason or another. But with new owners in place there is cautious optimism this go around and the current plan may be different.

And though the positivity is a welcome respite after the handwringing following the previous owners backing out of an agreement to build a St. Petersburg ballpark last year, there was a dose of reality Tuesday.

DeSantis says no state money would go toward building the stadium and Manfred, given the opportunity, did not specifically rule out the Rays moving if this plan does not work out.

And Orlando was mentioned at least once as a city primed for a Major League Baseball team.

“I’m not big on predictions about last chances, more chances,” Manfred says.

“I do think that the governor made an important point. Florida is vibrant. There are alternatives in Florida, and I do think we're at a point in the history of the club that something needs to get done.”

The Rays are in active talks with the college about a plan that will transform about 113 acres of the campus. That plan keeps the college on the property, though on a smaller footprint, allowing Rays to build a stadium and a mixed-use development on the property that would include multifamily, retail and hotel space.

To make it work, DeSantis says the state-owned property the college currently sits on would be conveyed to Hillsborough College, allowing it to work with the team on a development plan. And though he says direct state funding won’t go toward a stadium, the state could help in other ways.

“I think when you look, some of the buildings need massive amounts of deferred maintenance,” he says. “Well, I'd rather put that money to the reimagined campus than trying to rehab some of the old buildings.”

The visit to the campus came a day before the Hillsborough County Commission is set to hear an update on discussion with the team about funding for the project.

The Rays have committed to paying for at least half the stadium’s construction but to make the project work it’s going to take, as Manfred says, “a partnership between the community, the local government and the team.”

What that will look like is unclear at this point. Both Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and Hillsborough Commissioner Ken Hagan said after the press conference that while there have been initial conversations, dollar amounts have not been discussed.

That will be reiterated at Wednesday’s meeting where, according to an agenda item, commissioners will be told that there have been no negotiations with the Rays’ new ownership.

“While the Rays have requested information about potential funding sources as part of researching and evaluating options for a ballpark site and ballpark financing options, the singular purpose of those requests has been to determine whether a feasible framework exists on which to predicate future negotiations of business terms.”

While there is still a long way to go before the first shovel turns the first piece of dirt, there does seem to be a consensus, at least among business and local leaders, that this plan could be the one that finally works after several false starts.

DeSantis' support may just prove that.

“If it wasn’t something that was compelling, I would say I wasn’t sold on that,” he says. “But I think that when people see it, I think they’re going to realize the potential is going to be huge.”