As expected, the Hillsborough County Commission voted yesterday to approve the nonbinding MOU put forward last week for a $2.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays stadium (and unspecified other development) on what is currently Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry Campus. The final tally was 5-2, with the two sure no votes, Donna Cameron Cepeda and Joshua Wostal, in opposition, while all the predicted yeses and maybes voted yes.
Some of the comments by commissioners during the voting session, courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times:
Chris Boles, yes: “It has to be about what comes with it. Does it create real jobs? Is there real taxable value? Does it expand our economic base? Those are real questions that we need to ask.”
Donna Cameron Cepeda, no: “We have so many important infrastructure projects that would be pushed back and also there’s mention of ‘no general revenue funds would be used’, but yet we’re showing that reserves and cash of $103 million would be used.”
Harry Cohen, yes: “This really can be a transformative project, but it can only be a transformative project if we have a little bit of courage and a little bit of faith. And that means saying ‘yes’ today. This isn’t a final yes. It’s a conditional yes.”
Ken Hagan, yes: “At the end of the day, regardless of where you stand on the issue, today’s vote is on a nonbinding [memorandum of understanding]. There’s zero downside with letting [County Administrator Bonnie Wise] and staff continue to negotiate in order to reach the best possible deal for the county and the taxpayers.”
Christine Miller, yes: “Our city would not be on the entertainment map, being compared to the likes of Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans or any other hub without these investments. Champa Bay was not built overnight.”
Gwen Myers, yes: “This is an opportunity bring almost 12,000 jobs to the community. … I’m gonna support this deal. This is a good deal only for us only to move forward until … the county administrator can bring us back a final document that we can approve.”
Joshua Wostal, no: ”This [memorandum of understanding] absolutely imposes risk and harm, not only to law enforcement and first responders, but also the general taxpayers, and nobody can suggest otherwise. … Any move for approval of our taxpayers’ funding should be made to put on the November ballot.”
That’s some pretty lukewarm enthusiasm, but you know that Rays officials don’t care so long as they get their (nonbinding) approval. Team CEO Ken Babby declared himself “grateful” to the commission but also noted that “it is only the first of several crucial steps this week to keep the project on track and ultimately make it all come to life.”
The next step was for the Hillsborough College board of trustees to approve a ground lease for the stadium project, which they did yesterday as well. A third will come this morning, when the Tampa city council is also expected to approve the MOU.
The baton will then pass to the state legislature, which will have to decide whether to approve its share of around $2 billion worth of public subsidies for the deal, mostly in terms of free state land but also some actual state cash, without knowing if the city and county are fully on board. That’s the only piece of the deal with a real deadline, as Gov. Ron DeSantis, old pal of Rays owner Patrick Zalupski and to a large degree the impetus for this deal, leaves office at the end of 2026.
After that, it’ll be back to the county commission and city council to ask those “real questions” and come up with a final deal, likely later this year. (One piece will involve coming up with a way to show what return the public will get on its $2 billion-plus expense, something county staff are confident they can do even if it takes a whole stack of clear plastic binders.) It certainly looks like the skids are at least partially greased for ultimate approval at this point, but we said much the same thing in 2024 in St. Petersburg, so everyone involved surely knows that it ain’t over until it’s over.
Questions:
Where is “the entertainment map?”
Why would a taxpayer GAF about comparing their city to Atlanta, Nashville or New Orleans? Who cares? That’s the kind of nebulous appeal-to-dumbassery that elected officials spout all the time.
12,000 jobs? Really? Show your work, please.
I’m sure there are others.
I honestly thought “Champa Bay was not built overnight” was 5x more cringe than that. That very term comes off as though the Bucs, Bolts, and Rays were the ones that “made” Tampa Bay, as opposed to Tampa Bay having earned those teams long before any of them ever sniffed title contention.
Fun fact, the NFL awarded Tampa the franchise, not an ownership group, which is what they normally do.
For all of the talk about how the bridge makes it to far to drive to St Pete, the Lightning in Tampa have only beat the attendance in St Pete twice in 30 years. The population of the area is 50% larger today btw.
Rays were awarded to St Pete in large part to avoid lawsuits over the Giants deal falling apart.
Playing at a much larger building during the honeymoon phase after the franchise started had a hand in that. The Lightning routinely sells out in downtown at the seventh-biggest arena in the league.
Who is even comparing Tampa to New Orleans and Nashville? I am sure bachelorette parties are just dying to see the Titans. And who doesn’t go to New Orleans for the Pelicans?
When I hear people say they are going to Tampa the first thing on their mind is sports not the Beaches or the theme parks in Tampa and Orlando. For real, the baseball in tampa that brings in tourists is Spring Training where the tickets go for as much or more than Rays tickets.
The 12000 jobs is still somehow only the 3rd most ridiculous number being floated. 10 billion total investment in the site has it beat but nothing is touching the 10 million vistor numbers the synchophants are throwing around.
Electeds seem to always talk about comparing their cities to others. It’s so dumb. “Oh, you have a better hospital? Good for you.”
And yeah, the 10 million visitors is as ridiculous as the “loan them a billion, we’ll get three billion back!” nonsense.
If this were Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary of Mark Cuban would require a 33% equity stake in the team before forking over $1.5B. The naming rights alone will be hundreds of millions given it’s location between the airport and Buc stadium and on the busiest highway in town.
Brain rot extends past sports team owners. Jamie Dimon is considering Nashville to be a “global powerhouse” that can take businesses away from NYC if Zohran Mamdani isn’t nicer to rich people.
https://nypost.com/2026/05/21/us-news/jpmorgans-jamie-dimon-has-blunt-message-for-ideologue-mamdani/
Jamie Dimon should be in prison at the moment.