Tampa City Council approves Rays stadium deal. It's up to Hillsborough commissioners
By Rick Mayer
August 27, 2026 at 6:04 PM EDT
The 4-3 vote came near the end of an eight-hour meeting. The Hillsborough County Commission has a special meeting at 9 a.m. Friday to take up what has become a fluid "final" financing agreement.
One vote down, one to go. Tampa City Council on Thursday approved the deal to build a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium, leaving Hillsborough County commissioners to make the final decision Friday on the $2.36 billion project.
The 4-3 vote came near the end of an eight-hour meeting. Chair Alan Clendenin, Bill Carlson, Louis Viera and Naya Young voted yes. Charles Miranda, Linda Hurtak and Guido Maniscalco voted no. The council also approved assocated agreements that prevent relocation and guarantee the team’s obligations.
The financing contract covers stadium construction on a 115-acre parcel now used by Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus. A privately funded multi-use development would go up around the ballpark over the 35-year lease.
Tampa’s end of the deal is significantly different than a memorandum of understanding approved 4-3 in May. The city agreed to provide four annual installments of $20 million to use only on infrastructure in the stadium district. The city would be paid back with interest from property tax growth collected from the multi-use development.
Those annual payments would not be up front and would not go to the team. City attorney Scott Steady explained the money would be released on a reimbursement basis and only for completed improvements, a term recently added to the documents.
ALSO READ: A timeline of Tampa Bay's ballpark saga
In the old deal, Tampa was to pay $80 million from the Community Investment Tax, plus $100 million from Tampa’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The amendments were mostly negotiated by Carlson with the Rays over the past four weeks. Before his ideas were included, he was planning to vote no after approving the MOU.
"I didn't change my mind - the deal changed," Carlson said.
It turns out the swing vote was Young, who has pushed throughout the process for an extension to the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area, which includes her district. She also felt a Rays' pledge to provide community benefits would be metamorphic for her constituents.
"It has nothing to do with baseball for me," she said. "It's about the community impact and opportunity. That's what this is for me. I have had extensive conversation with the Rays ownership, with our staff, with the administration about my expectations.
"We've spoken about the history of unfulfilled promises to communities when transformative projects and opportunities like this come about and the impact it has had on public trust. And I believe that they have listened and heard me."
Tampa City Council member Naya Young voted for the Rays stadium project but emphasized it had "nothing to do with baseball" and more about community impact and opportunity. (570x645, AR: 0.8837209302325582)
Both provisions came with last-minute concerns. Neither flipped Young’s vote.
“This deal is not perfect,” she said. “We can all admit that. But what I see is opportunity.”
One late hurdle involved CRAs, designated blighted areas that pump future property tax growth back into public projects within the boundaries. A CRA board, made up of council members, oversees them. Extending the CRAs in East Tampa, Drew Park and West Tampa were among the items Carlson got the Rays to agree on.
However, council members learned an hour before the meeting that while the county agreed to an extension to the East Tampa CRA, it would not continue contributing its tax-increment revenue after the original sunset in 2034. The city will continue with its 100% contribution.
County Attorney Julia Mandell said that contribution could still be negotiated later. All CRA changes will require approval by the CRA board, which will meet later on revisions, including "carving out" the Drew Park CRA from the stadium district.
Meantime, the Rays have pledged to honor a Community Benefits Agreement and released a framework this week that included affordable housing, local hiring, minority- and women-owned business enterprises, small-business and workforce development and youth programs.
However, the team has not said how much it plans to spend on those programs.
The county will receive 65% of the community benefits commitments and the city 35%. Each municipality can determine what benefits they would request at a later date.
Councilors had also expressed a concern that there is no penalty against the Rays for not following through on plans for the multi-use development, which would include space for businesses, residences, retail, a major hotel and a "reimagined" Hillsborough College.
ALSO READ: Renderings show a 'reimagined' Hillsborough College campus in the Rays' stadium district
A Community Development District overlaying the stadium district will receive tax-increment revenue from the multi-use development used to fund public infrastructure for the district. But a limited build-out would drastically lessen the property taxes collected.
Instead, city finance director Dennis Rogero explained, there is a financial incentive based on the square footage completed.
A schedule divides future city/county tax-increment revenue generated by the district into three tiers based on taxable assessed value. For the first $350 million, 30% goes to the district and 70% remains with the city/county; for $351 million to $650 million, it’s split 50%-50%; and above $650 million, 85% goes to the district and 15% remains with the city/county.
The district’s share will be used under the agreement, while the city/county share is used in part to repay the city’s contribution plus interest.
Steady also said the city will need to enter into an interlocal agreement with the county to carry out CRA covenants and creat the the CDD.
Discussion among council members became heated at times, with a brief dustup between Miranda and Clendenin as the panel questioned city staff and a closing verbal jab by Young toward Hurtak before the vote.
https://x.com/JaneCastor/status/2093101124177842686
"You do not have to believe every provision is perfect to recognize that this is the strongest agreement available to Tampa," Clendenin said. "Our responsibility is not to wait for a perfect proposal that doesn't exist."
Hurtak, an admitted Rays fan, has been against the proposal from the start. Like many opponents, the economic climate and a November ballot measure on cutting property taxes were difficult to reconcile with committing millions of dollars to the stadium plan.
"We were elected to solve problems, not create new ones, like those which will result from us having to borrow money at the worst possible time, interest rate-wise, from canceling planned infrastructure repairs," she said, "and that's before the specter of a property tax amendment passing."
In an overflowing council chamber, public comments were more peaceful but equally divided.
Several speakers against the project were concerned about the effect of the property tax amendment. Others raised issue with the late release and fluidity of a "final" agreement.
“The reality is you guys don't have enough information. I sat in this room and I heard one of these attorneys say that they just were working on documentation on Tuesday. They couldn't answer questions,” said Amy Scott. “I am just asking, take a beat, wait until the (Nov. 3 vote) because this is your legacy.”
Michelle Dyson, a bartender at Tropicana Field, said officials are too quick to provide public dollars to some nonprofit initiatives and too skeptical of private investors.
“I don't see any financials. I don't see a lot of vetting. But then, when a private partner comes and steps up to the plate offering over a billion dollars to bring massive income growth, thousands of jobs, it switches gears,” she said.
Robin Lockett, a proponent of the stadium project, asked council members to not vote based on their political futures.
“I think about the affordable housing. I think about the infrastructure,” she said. “You cannot govern in fear.”
Endorsements came from the Tampa police union, hospitality industry, construction workers union and Westshore Alliance.
On Friday, the county commission, which will own the stadium, will hold a special meeting at 9 a.m. to vote on the project.
Approval would allow the Rays to move ahead on bond validation and prepare the college with temporary classrooms and lot grading to ease the inconvenience during construction.
ALSO READ: Hillsborough releases latest stadium documents while Rays detail community benefits agreement
The county contribution will be capped at $796 million, including $360 million from the Community Investment Tax, $263 million in Tourist Development Tax-backed funding, $103 million from other county funds and $30 million in federal disaster-recovery money.
Per the agreement, the city and county would contribute no more than $876 million toward the stadium project, while the Rays will cover more than $1.3 billion and all cost overruns.
“The Tampa Bay Rays are grateful for the leadership and support of the city council members to approve an investment that, when accompanied by the private funding guaranteed by the Rays, will secure the future of Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay while creating a landmark destination neighborhood that will serve our region for generations,” Rays CEO Ken Babby said in a statement.
The 4-3 vote came near the end of an eight-hour meeting. Chair Alan Clendenin, Bill Carlson, Louis Viera and Naya Young voted yes. Charles Miranda, Linda Hurtak and Guido Maniscalco voted no. The council also approved assocated agreements that prevent relocation and guarantee the team’s obligations.
The financing contract covers stadium construction on a 115-acre parcel now used by Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus. A privately funded multi-use development would go up around the ballpark over the 35-year lease.
Tampa’s end of the deal is significantly different than a memorandum of understanding approved 4-3 in May. The city agreed to provide four annual installments of $20 million to use only on infrastructure in the stadium district. The city would be paid back with interest from property tax growth collected from the multi-use development.
Those annual payments would not be up front and would not go to the team. City attorney Scott Steady explained the money would be released on a reimbursement basis and only for completed improvements, a term recently added to the documents.
ALSO READ: A timeline of Tampa Bay's ballpark saga
In the old deal, Tampa was to pay $80 million from the Community Investment Tax, plus $100 million from Tampa’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The amendments were mostly negotiated by Carlson with the Rays over the past four weeks. Before his ideas were included, he was planning to vote no after approving the MOU.
"I didn't change my mind - the deal changed," Carlson said.
It turns out the swing vote was Young, who has pushed throughout the process for an extension to the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area, which includes her district. She also felt a Rays' pledge to provide community benefits would be metamorphic for her constituents.
"It has nothing to do with baseball for me," she said. "It's about the community impact and opportunity. That's what this is for me. I have had extensive conversation with the Rays ownership, with our staff, with the administration about my expectations.
"We've spoken about the history of unfulfilled promises to communities when transformative projects and opportunities like this come about and the impact it has had on public trust. And I believe that they have listened and heard me."
Tampa City Council member Naya Young voted for the Rays stadium project but emphasized it had "nothing to do with baseball" and more about community impact and opportunity. (570x645, AR: 0.8837209302325582)
Both provisions came with last-minute concerns. Neither flipped Young’s vote.
“This deal is not perfect,” she said. “We can all admit that. But what I see is opportunity.”
One late hurdle involved CRAs, designated blighted areas that pump future property tax growth back into public projects within the boundaries. A CRA board, made up of council members, oversees them. Extending the CRAs in East Tampa, Drew Park and West Tampa were among the items Carlson got the Rays to agree on.
However, council members learned an hour before the meeting that while the county agreed to an extension to the East Tampa CRA, it would not continue contributing its tax-increment revenue after the original sunset in 2034. The city will continue with its 100% contribution.
County Attorney Julia Mandell said that contribution could still be negotiated later. All CRA changes will require approval by the CRA board, which will meet later on revisions, including "carving out" the Drew Park CRA from the stadium district.
Meantime, the Rays have pledged to honor a Community Benefits Agreement and released a framework this week that included affordable housing, local hiring, minority- and women-owned business enterprises, small-business and workforce development and youth programs.
However, the team has not said how much it plans to spend on those programs.
The county will receive 65% of the community benefits commitments and the city 35%. Each municipality can determine what benefits they would request at a later date.
Councilors had also expressed a concern that there is no penalty against the Rays for not following through on plans for the multi-use development, which would include space for businesses, residences, retail, a major hotel and a "reimagined" Hillsborough College.
ALSO READ: Renderings show a 'reimagined' Hillsborough College campus in the Rays' stadium district
A Community Development District overlaying the stadium district will receive tax-increment revenue from the multi-use development used to fund public infrastructure for the district. But a limited build-out would drastically lessen the property taxes collected.
Instead, city finance director Dennis Rogero explained, there is a financial incentive based on the square footage completed.
A schedule divides future city/county tax-increment revenue generated by the district into three tiers based on taxable assessed value. For the first $350 million, 30% goes to the district and 70% remains with the city/county; for $351 million to $650 million, it’s split 50%-50%; and above $650 million, 85% goes to the district and 15% remains with the city/county.
The district’s share will be used under the agreement, while the city/county share is used in part to repay the city’s contribution plus interest.
Steady also said the city will need to enter into an interlocal agreement with the county to carry out CRA covenants and creat the the CDD.
Discussion among council members became heated at times, with a brief dustup between Miranda and Clendenin as the panel questioned city staff and a closing verbal jab by Young toward Hurtak before the vote.
https://x.com/JaneCastor/status/2093101124177842686
"You do not have to believe every provision is perfect to recognize that this is the strongest agreement available to Tampa," Clendenin said. "Our responsibility is not to wait for a perfect proposal that doesn't exist."
Hurtak, an admitted Rays fan, has been against the proposal from the start. Like many opponents, the economic climate and a November ballot measure on cutting property taxes were difficult to reconcile with committing millions of dollars to the stadium plan.
"We were elected to solve problems, not create new ones, like those which will result from us having to borrow money at the worst possible time, interest rate-wise, from canceling planned infrastructure repairs," she said, "and that's before the specter of a property tax amendment passing."
In an overflowing council chamber, public comments were more peaceful but equally divided.
Several speakers against the project were concerned about the effect of the property tax amendment. Others raised issue with the late release and fluidity of a "final" agreement.
“The reality is you guys don't have enough information. I sat in this room and I heard one of these attorneys say that they just were working on documentation on Tuesday. They couldn't answer questions,” said Amy Scott. “I am just asking, take a beat, wait until the (Nov. 3 vote) because this is your legacy.”
Michelle Dyson, a bartender at Tropicana Field, said officials are too quick to provide public dollars to some nonprofit initiatives and too skeptical of private investors.
“I don't see any financials. I don't see a lot of vetting. But then, when a private partner comes and steps up to the plate offering over a billion dollars to bring massive income growth, thousands of jobs, it switches gears,” she said.
Robin Lockett, a proponent of the stadium project, asked council members to not vote based on their political futures.
“I think about the affordable housing. I think about the infrastructure,” she said. “You cannot govern in fear.”
Endorsements came from the Tampa police union, hospitality industry, construction workers union and Westshore Alliance.
On Friday, the county commission, which will own the stadium, will hold a special meeting at 9 a.m. to vote on the project.
Approval would allow the Rays to move ahead on bond validation and prepare the college with temporary classrooms and lot grading to ease the inconvenience during construction.
ALSO READ: Hillsborough releases latest stadium documents while Rays detail community benefits agreement
The county contribution will be capped at $796 million, including $360 million from the Community Investment Tax, $263 million in Tourist Development Tax-backed funding, $103 million from other county funds and $30 million in federal disaster-recovery money.
Per the agreement, the city and county would contribute no more than $876 million toward the stadium project, while the Rays will cover more than $1.3 billion and all cost overruns.
“The Tampa Bay Rays are grateful for the leadership and support of the city council members to approve an investment that, when accompanied by the private funding guaranteed by the Rays, will secure the future of Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay while creating a landmark destination neighborhood that will serve our region for generations,” Rays CEO Ken Babby said in a statement.