Term sheet reveals Rays stadium to cost taxpayers $500m, or more, or less, or something
February 7, 2023 Neil deMause
The Tampa Bay Times has unearthed a draft term sheet that Rays management and their development partners Hines submitted to the city of St. Petersburg in December, and it says … well, we don’t know exactly what it says since the Times didn’t bother to link to the actual document. So we’ll have to just go with what the paper chose to share in its summary:
A new Rays stadium is expected to cost $1 billion, with the surrounding development costing $4 billion.
The Rays have “given some indications” that owner Stu Sternberg would pay half the cost of a stadium, which would imply $500 million covered by the public.
The city has offered to kick in $75 million in property tax revenue for infrastructure; the team wants $150 million.
Right now the Tropicana Field site is part of a TIF district called the Intown Community Redevelopment Area; Hines and the Rays want it carved out into its own new district, which would require county approval. How much money would be kicked back via TIFs is “unclear,” says the Times, but given local property tax rates, it could certainly amount to as much as $400 million or more if all taxes are funneled back to the Rays and Hines.
The Rays will want a slice of county hotel tax money, which last year alone amounted to $94.7 million, but 60% of that by law has to go to the local tourist bureau, and the other 40% is split between beach replenishment and other projects. Pinellas County administrator Barry Burton told the Times the Rays have thrown out “all kinds of numbers” for how much they’ll request in hotel tax money, but if it’s, say, 10% of the total, that would be enough to finance around $150 million in spending, so $100-200 million seems like a reasonable guesstimate here.
The stadium could also be funded by revenue from the city renting out the stadium for “a certain number” of community events? Maybe? (It’s unclear whether this was a proposal in the term sheet or just the Times authors riffing.)
As for the rest of the development, the Times reports that Hines and the Rays plan to raise $1.8 billion through “financing” (i.e., borrowing money), and the other $2.2 billion through some means the Times did not deign to mention.
That adds up to … well, who knows. It’s $500 million if you use the “Sternberg will pay half” calculation method (based on those “indications”), or between $250 million and the sky’s the limit if you add up all the individual public financing pieces, especially that TIF district. Definitely a lot for a new domed stadium in the exact same place as the old domed stadium, but this time with more barstools.
https://www.fieldofschemes.com/2023/02/07/19636/term-sheet-reveals-rays-stadium-to-cost-taxpayers-500m-or-more-or-less-or-something/
