Tampa approves the Rays' $21 million benefits promise, with $4.2 million due by 2031

What the Rays promised Tampa

Tampa's city council voted 4-3 on Oct. 29 to accept the Tampa Bay Rays' promise of cash, programs and services for the city, valued at $21 million. Tampa taxpayers owe up to $80 million toward public works at the team's new ballpark. The city cannot hold back those payments if the team falls short. The council also let the team skip the benefits process the city code normally requires. It found the team's offer "of substantially similar value" to what the code requires.

The story so far: In late August, Tampa's council and Hillsborough County's commission approved the funding deal for a new Rays ballpark at Hillsborough College's Dale Mabry campus. Tampa agreed to pay up to $80 million from 2027 to 2029. The county's share is capped at about $796 million. The team's stadium company pays the rest.

Why it matters: Only $4.2 million of the Rays' promise to Tampa is fixed, due from 2027 to 2031. That is about $840,000 a year, by our arithmetic. The other $16.8 million depends on a new project list the team must bring the council every five years. The council must approve each list. If the team falls short, the city's only remedy is to ask a court to order the team to deliver.

What's new: On Oct. 29 the council approved the benefits agreement and exempted the project from Tampa's standard community benefits rules, both by 4-3 votes, the Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Bay Business & Wealth report. Council members Charlie Miranda, Guido Maniscalco and Lynn Hurtak voted no.

Who's who

The Rays' stadium company, Tampa Bay Rays Stadium Company, LLC, signs the agreement; it and the team are owned by Florida Baseball Partners, LLC, the agreement says. Bill Carlson, Alan Clendenin, Luis Viera and Naya Young are the council members who voted yes. Lynn Hurtak, who voted no, wanted more of the money to reach the neighborhoods by the stadium. Nicole Travis, a former city administrator, now consults for the team and presented its offer. Rebecca Johns is a senior assistant city attorney.

The $21 million is Tampa's share of a $60 million promise

The stadium funding deal splits the value of the team's community benefits 65% to Hillsborough County and 35% to the city, the agreement's opening section says. On Aug. 28 the county commission set the total at $60 million. That makes Tampa's share $21 million and the county's $39 million, the Times reports. The city agreement ends once the stadium company has delivered $21 million in benefits.

The first five years, 2027 to 2031, carry $12 million: $4.2 million for Tampa and $7.8 million for the county, under a separate county agreement. Tampa's $4.2 million is fixed, "not subject to escalation, indexing, or other adjustment." In the last year of each five-year period, the team must bring the council a new project list that spreads what remains in equal shares.

The posted plan for Tampa's first $4.2 million lists housing and neighborhoods at $2.35 million, jobs at $650,000 and youth programs at $540,000. Mobility gets $250,000, public safety $200,000, inclusion $110,000 and family access $100,000. Those lines add to $4.2 million, by our arithmetic. The agreement calls them planning estimates that may shift between years, so long as the $4.2 million is delivered.

Seventy percent of the first $4.2 million will be cash, the Times reports. The rest can be services or programs. Cash counts at face value. A program or service counts at its cost or its appraised market value, whichever is greater. The team can deliver through affiliates, its charitable foundation or nonprofit and public partners, and all of it counts toward the total.

The terms changed the morning of the vote

The Rays submitted a revised agreement at 7 a.m. on the day of the vote, the Times reports. Florida Politics reports that the revision sets the cash floor at 70%, or $2.94 million, which is $210,000 more than before. It says the floor drops to 50% in later periods, and that complimentary tickets and advisory board work cannot count.

The revised line items are not posted. In the posted Oct. 23 draft, housing stability and anti-displacement is the largest line at $1.25 million, the Times and Tampa Bay Business & Wealth report. Florida Politics reports the revised figures as $1.2 million for housing, $625,000 for Al Lopez Park and $600,000 for drainage, sidewalks and traffic calming near the stadium.

Tampa Bay Business & Wealth reports that the team can change individual allocations and schedules without another council vote. It also reports that the stadium district's first phase has no affordable housing, and that the agreement does not require the team to build any there.

What Tampa can do if the team falls short

The team must update the city every year. A shortfall at the end of a period must be made up within 12 months, the agreement says. The team is not in default if it keeps working in good faith and delivers the shortfall within 24 months. That grace period does not apply to promised cash.

A court order to perform is the city's "sole and exclusive remedy," the agreement says. A default "does not entitle the City to withhold, offset, or condition any payment" under the stadium funding deal. The agreement also says it puts no payment duty on the city.

The link runs one way. In the draft posted before the vote, the benefits agreement ends if the city misses a stadium payment and does not cure it within 60 days of the team's notice.

What Tampa's $80 million pays for

Tampa's contribution comes in four payments of $20 million, on Jan. 1, 2027, and on Oct. 1 of 2027, 2028 and 2029, the funding deal says. The money can go only to public works that serve the ballpark, such as streets, sidewalks, signals, lighting, plazas and parking. The city's promise is unsecured, and no one can force a property tax to pay it.

A resolution on the council's Oct. 15 agenda starts a court process to validate up to $80 million of city bonds for the payments. The city's cover sheet says borrowing "may be necessary and/or desirable" for any of them. It also says the step does not commit the city to borrow, and any bonds would need a later council vote.

Hillsborough County's share is capped at $796,010,300 and Tampa's at $80 million. The stadium company pays everything else, overruns included, the funding deal says. Public money totals $876 million, and construction is expected to cost $2.3 billion, The Center Square reports.

The debate on the dais

Carlson asked whether the team could drop the benefits agreement and instead cut the city's $80 million. "It's not like the Rays are giving us something," he said. "We're taking the people's money, putting it in and then taking part of it back." Johns answered that the change would mean amending the stadium funding deal, with the Rays' consent. Carlson then voted yes.

Hurtak estimated that only about $1.5 million of the first $4.2 million targets District 6, where the stadium would be built, Florida Politics reports. "Please reject and postpone this agreement," said Jaime Jones, president of the West Tampa Heights Neighborhood Association. "Give more time to all of your constituents to provide input."

Johns said the Rays asked to skip the city's standard benefits process because they felt they had already sought public input and offered similar benefits, the Times reports. The council's resolution finds the benefits "of substantially similar value" to what the city code requires. The agreement lists community sessions in March and April, a council workshop on May 5 and a Drew Park redevelopment board meeting on June 10.

Their side

Travis defended the citywide approach, Florida Politics reports. She said the agreement is meant to help residents throughout Tampa while still addressing impacts near the ballpark. Young, whose district covers East Tampa, pushed back on Hurtak: "What I was elected to do was advocate for my district." Viera said: "The community benefits agreement is all about buy-in for the community."

What's next

What's next: Hillsborough's own $39 million agreement still needs the county commission's vote. The county's required public hearing on using sales tax money for the stadium is set for Nov. 10, the Times reported Oct. 13. Viera leaves the council Nov. 2 to run for the Legislature, which will likely leave a 3-3 split on Rays votes until a replacement is chosen, the Times reports.

Hillsborough College's president, Ken Atwater, said only $50 million of an expected $200 million in state money to rebuild the Dale Mabry campus is secured, Florida Politics reports. He said he was confident lawmakers would provide the rest but could not guarantee it.

Sources we read

City of Tampa: the Oct. 29 special call agenda and its Oct. 28 addendum; the community benefits agreement with Exhibit A, posted Oct. 23; the draft resolution; the Oct. 15 cover sheet on bond validation. The Stadium Development and Funding Agreement, hosted by WFLA. Hillsborough County newsroom, Aug. 28. Tampa Bay Times, Oct. 13 and Oct. 29. Tampa Bay Business & Wealth, Oct. 29. Florida Politics, Oct. 29. Spectrum Bay News 9, Oct. 29. The Center Square via the Citrus County Chronicle, Oct. 28. MLB.com, Aug. 27. The Tampa Monitor, Aug. 30.