Officials Unveil New Stadium Financing Plan

ST. PETERSBURG - The Tampa Bay Rays released new details of their plan to finance a proposed $450-million downtown waterfront ballpark Thursday, including millions of dollars from the team in guaranteed parking revenue. Rays officials say the plan is among the most generous by any team in baseball.

The financing package includes:

$150-million from the team.

$100-million from extending a 1 percent tax on Pinellas County hotel stays for 25 to 30 years.

$75-million from extending the city's contribution to Tropicana Field for another 25 to 30 years.

$70-million from the developer purchasing Tropicana Field.

$55-million in guaranteed parking revenue associated with the 34,000-seat ballpark.

As part of the agreement, the Rays said they would pay any cost overruns if they oversee construction of the stadium.

The Rays also said the public's contribution - $175-million - would be dwarfed by the taxes generated by redeveloping Tropicana Field.

Using the most conservative of the two proposals the city is considering for redeveloping Tropicana Field, the Rays estimated that the project would generate $303-million in new tax revenue over 35 years. The city has not made its own tax projections.

Since news of the stadium proposal first spread last November, the Rays have maintained that the project would cost $450-million and that the team would contribute $150-million.

Thursday's details fill in that $300-million gap.

Rays officials said that neither the city nor the county would be asked to provide additional funding to baseball before 2017.

Instead, the developer buying Tropicana Field would repay the debt on the stadium through the sale of the land. And the city and county would shift the roughly $11-million a year it was paying on Tropicana Field to help build a new ballpark, though the annual payments would increase.

The $11-million annual contribution would begin to rise in 2017, Rays officials say. By 2025, the city and county would be contributing $14.5-million a year to cover new debt on the new ballpark.

In that same year, 2025, Rays officials say, local governments would receive $22.5-million in new tax revenues.

"There's new revenue to the local tax base on Day One," Rays president Matt Silverman said Thursday during a meeting with the St. Petersburg Times. "The reason to do this plan is not about baseball. It's really about the opportunity to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenues on Tropicana Field because it can be redeveloped."

Rays officials want 1 percent of the county's 5 percent tourist development tax. The tax is levied on overnight hotel stays and is intended for tourism promotion. The money cannot be used to fund general county services.

A coalition of Pinellas beach elected officials this month voiced opposition to the funding plan, saying the money should be used to aid beach tourism.

The Rays' proposal must be approved by the St. Petersburg City Council and the Pinellas County Commission because local taxes are involved.

The proposal also must pass a November referendum in St. Petersburg because the Rays want to build a new stadium on the city's waterfront.

City Council members on June 5 are expected to make the first of three votes required to schedule that referendum.

A public hearing on the project also is scheduled at City Hall on May 22.