Tampa's CRA again delays vote on $100M funding for new Rays ballpark

Tampa’s Community Redevelopment Agency is again delaying a vote on allowing negotiations to begin on its portion of a financing package to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays.

The CRA’s board, made up of city council members, voted 4-2 Thursday morning to push discussions and a vote on negotiating on a non-binding memorandum of understanding until it’s Aug. 23 meeting.

A previous motion to delay it until the July meeting failed and a conversation about completely shelving the discussion for the time being went nowhere.

Council members Charlie Miranda and Lynn Hurtak voted against moving the item to August. Both argued that the matter should be taken off the agenda, with Miranda saying the board and the city should pause discussions until after November’s statewide vote on a constitutional amendment to cut property taxes.

Speaking from the dais, Miranda says the potential budgetary hit the city could take if voters approve the amendment “I guarantee is going to be over $35 (million), $40 million the first year.”

“That’s my calculation," he says. “I’m not a math genius. I just know it better than most. Remember what I said.”

How the decision to delay the vote will affect the timeline to begin construction on a new $2.3 billion ballpark on the site of Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus is unclear.

The city and Hillsborough County have both approved negotiations to begin on details for the public funding portion for the proposed stadium based off of the memorandum of understanding.

A spokesperson for Tampa Mayor Jane Castor says in an email that “she has no comment on the CRA’s scheduling vote, which shouldn’t hamper ongoing efforts to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay.”

And in a statement, Rays CEO Ken Babby says: “We are working alongside the county and city on definitive documents and look forward to bringing those forward to the county and city very soon.”

The nonbinding agreement between the Rays, the county, the city of Tampa, the Tampa Sports Authority and the Tampa CRA calls for the team to pay about 57.5% of the cost for the ballpark that would be built on the site of Hillsborough College.

According to a breakdown of the financing, the team will pay about $1.32 billion for the cost of a new 31,000 seat ballpark. Hillsborough will put in approximately $796 million with the city pitching in about $80 million and the CRA about $100 million.

The team will be responsible for all cost overruns and will pay for the development of a mixed-use project to be built around the stadium.

This story has been updated to include a statement from Tampa Bay Ray's CEO Ken Babby.