A deal to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays might be done with less or no money from the city of Tampa.
That's the word from Hillsborough County Commission Chair Ken Hagan.
He told WDAE radio on Wednesday that the team is working on a plan that could limit how much money the city would have to chip in to build the $2.3 billion stadium.
Hagan said the team is working to get a deal done quickly.
"Ways are being explored to essentially carve the city out to the extent that's possible," Hagan said. "So one way or the other, I'm confident that we're going to be able to get a deal done here very, very soon."
The stadium is proposed to anchor a privately financed $8 billion multiuse development on about 130 acres of land currently used by Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry campus in Tampa's Drew Park neighborhood.
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A non-binding memorandum of understand has Tampa paying $180 million, $80 from the city's portion of the Community Investment Tax and $100 million from a state-designated community redevelopment area in Drew Park.
With a CRA, future taxes would be used to help pay for the stadium. But city council members, who act as the CRA board, were cool to that portion of the plan at their last meeting.
So there might be a way to shift that $100 million onto Hillsborough County, which is already looking at providing the lion's share of the nearly $1 billion public contribution.
One idea is transferring the CRA from Tampa to Hillsborough County.
The council, meeting as the CRA board, is not scheduled to vote on that part of the financing until Aug. 20.
Hagan said it would be worthwhile to build the stadium and surrounding development.
"When you look at the numbers, when you get beyond the billionaire owners and the ballpark and all that stuff, and you look at the project itself, The return on investment is incredible," he said, "And that's what's so frustrating when people are so short-sighted and can't see the big picture."
The Rays have committed more than $1.2 billion for just the ballpark, plus all cost overruns. The state will contribute $50 million to help relocate the college to another area of the property.
