A new report released today by members of both the Greater Tampa and St. Petersburg Area Chambers of Commerce said that a new $500 million baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays could be built without imposing new taxes on local residents — but the time is running out for a stadium-financing plan to be put in place.
Although there's been considerable play in the local press about possible locations for a new stadium — including a proposal for a stadium in St. Pete's Carillon Parkway area, the most concrete plan that surfaced two months ago — what's been missing from the discussion is serious attention about how it might be funded (team ownership said it will commit up to as much as one third of the total costs).
Enter the Baseball Stadium Financing Caucus. The group was formed in the summer of 2011 to come up with possible sources for financing a new ballpark for the Rays, who despite a fifth consecutive winning season, drew an average of less than 20,000 fans a game — the worst in all of Major League Baseball.
On Monday, the group's work was presented to the public, with Chuck Sykes from the Tampa Chamber giving a detailed 45-minute presentation to members of the media at the Chamber's headquarters in downtown Tampa.
"We don't have a lot of time," Sykes said with urgency. "Despite the fact that we've got a lease that goes out to 2027, here's where we see the concern: You've got almost 60 percent of the debt that's going to be paid off by 2016."
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2012.