Gov. Ron DeSantis reiterated his support for building a Tampa Bay Rays stadium at a press event on Monday to sign the $117.6 billion state budget.
The gathering was at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus, where the baseball team hopes to build the $2.3 billion ballpark with private and public financing.
The budget includes $50 million for the school for infrastructure and relocation of buildings to another part of the 130-acre property in the Drew Park neighborhood.
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The Rays are negotiating with Hillsborough County and Tampa on the definitive documents needed to secure $976 million in public financing for the stadium, which would anchor the team’s $8 billion multiuse development. The Rays have committed to pay more $1.25 billion on just the ballpark.
DeSantis was instrumental in getting state lawmakers to set aside the money for the 50-year-old campus. College president Ken Atwater has said the school needs $75 million to $100 million to renovate the existing buildings if no stadium is built.
DeSantis said he talked with Atwater about the benefits the school will get out of the project.
“We're going to continue to work with Hillsborough College,” DeSantis said. “I think this is probably got to come to a head pretty soon one way or another, and then, you know, we'll have a discussion if somehow it doesn't happen, but I know we're both very excited about what's going to happen on this campus with the potential facility here and everything surrounding it.”
DeSantis said the state has done more than anyone thought possible for the stadium proposal. He did not say whether he would do anything else, opting to leave that to local governments to negotiate with the Rays.
But DeSantis, a friend of Rays managing partner Pat Zalupski, did stress what would happen if all sides are unable to come to an agreement.
“I know that there's people in Orlando that want it, and I know that they have opportunities to do stuff in a variety of ways there. And then, you know, North Carolina, Tennessee, some of them want a baseball team,” DeSantis said.
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Atwater has said the Rays consider Hillsborough College an integral part of development. He has also noted that the college only uses about 10 to 15 acres of the property, while the rest is unused or for parking — contributing very little revenue to the college or government.
“The college endorsed this deal from day one, and we've been on board because we literally saw the benefits of it,” Atwater told JP Peterson’s Fan Stream podcast on Friday. “So the opportunity to redesign that and really interject us in the middle of a professional sports stadium, that's incredible.”
WUSF's Rick Mayer contributed to this report.
