Thrive
Rays respond to county’s financial information request

Pinellas County Commissioners want the Tampa Bay Rays to prove they completed several planning and funding requirements before authorizing a stadium bond sale. The team has acquiesced.
While the Rays have until March 31 – the bond sale’s deadline – to meet the requirements, proof of the team’s commitment to a now tenuous deal was a sticking point at a Dec. 12 commission workshop. Home Runs Matter, a group opposed to plans for a new $1.37 billion stadium in downtown St. Petersburg, subsequently urged local media members to “ask the Rays to show us the money.”
Documents obtained by the Catalyst state the team has met multiple requirements outlined by commissioners and those opposed to agreements signed in July. Rays president Matt Silverman provided the information in a Monday evening email to County Administrator Barry Burton, before the commission was to consider their bond authorization for a third time Tuesday afternoon.
“As you are aware, the information you requested is not required until the county is ready to commence the bond issuance; however, in an effort to be responsive to your request, we have created the attached checklist that details the status of the requested information,” Silverman wrote. “We have also provided an accounting of stadium expenditures as of 7/31/24.”
The Rays will contribute at least $700 million to a new stadium, critical to the Historic Gas Plant District’s $6.7 billion redevelopment. In an op-ed published Tuesday morning by the Tampa Bay Times, Tom Mullins, a retired Raymond James investment banker, suggested the team lacks the capital to uphold their end of the deal.
According to the documents, the Rays received a $100 million Major League Baseball (MLB) Infrastructure Facility loan Oct. 18. That was nine days after Hurricane Milton shredded Tropicana Field’s roof and 11 days before the county’s initial bond authorization delay.
The team must also provide a “firm commitment letter” from each project lender, excluding the MLB loan. Documents state the Rays and Hines development team received a “preliminary financing commitment” from Goldman Sachs for $600 million on Oct. 21.
“It’s very expensive to go out and get financing commitments for $700 million, and they have not done it,” Commissioner Chris Scherer said at the Dec. 12 meeting.
“I talked to my architects yesterday; 50% (design development) of a stadium that costs $1.3 billion is significant,” Scherer added. “It would cost them approximately $25 million just to get to 3%. That’s significant, and they haven’t done it yet.”
Documents sent to the county state otherwise, despite recent uncertainty and several months remaining before the agreed-upon deadline. The Rays reviewed detailed design efforts with city officials Nov. 5.
At a Nov. 19 commission meeting, City Administrator Rob Gerdes told the board, “We have been a part of that, and that’s been actively engaged. There has been a lot of work happening behind the scenes on design.”
“We will also provide a hard copy of the 50% design document presentation to you this week,” Silverman wrote Monday evening.
Multiple commissioners expressed disbelief that the team has incurred and paid $10 million in project costs. Documents outline $11.67 million in expenses through July 31 – when the team and its local government partners signed previously approved contracts. The Rays shared that information with the city Sept. 13.
Here is the provided expense information:
- Startup expenses, including initial designing, legal counsel, community outreach and a financial feasibility analysis: $3.6 million.
- Sales and marketing: $430,000
- Site development, including property surveys and environmental and geotechnical assessments: $624,755.
- Design and professional services, including consultancy and safety, transportation, traffic and parking studies: $6.9 million.
- Project administration and management: $121,860.
In a Nov. 19 letter, the Rays told commissioners they already committed $50 million to the project. The team clarified Tuesday afternoon that they spent $11.6 million before the July vote and the remaining money to maintain a since-delayed 2028 timeline.
Silverman’s email stated that the Rays are “happy to provide the county commission with a comprehensive project update prior to bond issuance.”
County Administrator Barry Burton requested the information in a Dec. 12 email shared with commissioners and obtained by the Catalyst. It did not include an invitation for the team to attend Tuesday afternoon’s meeting.
Burton asked the Rays to provide an updated project budget and schedule. The Rays wrote that the information “must be dated within 15 days prior to the commencement of the city and county’s bond sale.”
The submitted document also states information related to principal owner Stuart Sternberg’s “available liquid funds” and “evidence of design and pre-construction progress” to meet a “time frame set forth in the project schedule” are not currently available.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify that the Rays spent $11.6 million before July 31 and $50 million total on the project.

S. Rose Smith-Hayes
December 18, 2024at11:31 am
There is no trust here. This is bad. Proof is being requested and it is only fair that proof be given
HAL FREEDMAN
December 17, 2024at6:29 pm
I just watched the County Commission meeting. Latvala clearly indicated his distrust of Rays’ ownership. He hopes the Rays are sold and that the new owner is more like Glazer or Vinik, who he feels have integrity and care about their team beyond the bottom line. However, he went on to say he trusts the MLB…wtf?? The MLB thinks of nothing beyond the bottom line. They are a monopoly legislatively exempt from antitrust law. Maybe the new Federal administration will change that…unlikely.
Alan DeLisle
December 17, 2024at2:29 pm
The issue is this deal should be dead because the Rays have rejected paying for cost overruns per the agreement. This article does not address this real issue at all. The Rays are just spinning wheels again, hoping they deflect from what matters most, and Catalyst complies.
I guess that is what happens when the Rays know how easy it is to negotiate with the city. Give them what they want; don’t worry about requiring any proof of their positions. Why would the Rays ever play it straight. Wall Street!