The meeting comes just near the same time the Rays submitted a proposal for a new stadium on the site of Tropicana Field to the City of St. Petersburg. Time is of the essence for the Rays to come to an agreement with either the City of Tampa or the City of St. Petersburg since their contract with Tropicana Field expires in 2027. 

Hillsborough County Commissioner Michael Owen told the Tampa Bay Times it would be difficult to sell a commitment for a baseball stadium at this time. In the recent election, Hillsborough County Voters said no to a sales tax referendum that would pay for the county’s transportation needs including building and maintaining roads, intersections, and sidewalks. The county announced back in November that it is facing a $1.5 billion shortfall on its transportation system for the next 10 years, and this number doesn’t include the estimated $700 million it will take to preserve current transportation facilities. Funding a baseball stadium would not be the priority for the county government when transportation needs are much more important. 

Commissioner Ken Hagan who also sits on the board of Tampa Sports Authority expressed that his goal is “for the ballpark to be primarily financed with user fees, not tax dollars.” Tampa Sports Authority has previously commissioned a study on another site that Shaw owns in Ybor City. The study was released in February suggested paying for the public portion of the costs through a levy or an assessment within a new ballpark district that would take in the stadium site and areas beyond. It calculated $14 million a year in property taxes from 6 million square feet of “ancillary” development. The projected cost of the stadium was $960 million. The stadium was a part of the Rays proposal to split the season with Montreal, which was put to a halt in January when Major League Baseball said no to the proposal. 

The Rays have not submitted a specific proposal to Hillsborough, leaving the county with questions as to what the teams needs and their plans. There is no specific understanding as to what is being proposed or what they would be requesting from Tampa. Financing, infrastructure, and more will need to be addressed before any talks move past the preliminary stage, which leaves the Rays with some work to do.