With discussions between the Tampa Bay Rays and the city of St. Petersburg about a possible new ballpark apparently non-existent, Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan says he wants to see if the county could talk to the baseball team about stadium locations without being sued.
Saying his motion was only about having the county attorney research whether it's even legal for such discussions, he was able to convince all of his colleagues today on a 6-1 vote, with only Commissioner Al Higginbotham dissenting.
For the past couple of years Hagan has been the most aggressive member of the commission in trying to find ways for the county to get involved with the Rays. After the ABC (A Baseball Coalition) group finished its report in 2010 advocating that three of the five best locations for a new Rays park would be in Hillsborough, he invited that group to present its findings to the BOCC. And last summer he suggested that tax increment financing (TIF) could be used as a way to provide funding for such a park.
The Rays have a lease to play in Tropicana Field until 2027 but have made it clear that they don't intend to play there for 15 more years. But a new park would cost roughly around $600 million, and while Rays owner Stu Sternberg has suggested the Rays could foot a third of that bill, that still leaves $400 million to construct a stadium.
For the past year a group of Chamber of Commerce executives with both Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties have been working to solve that problem.
But in the meantime, Hagan says he's been frustrated by the "lack of progress and the apparent lack of ability to break this logjam."
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.