While we ponder the formidable variables involved in an Ybor stadium for the Rays, the ultimate reality hasn’t changed.
When you have a bay-dividing region that is absent serious mass transit, has few corporate headquarters, features roof-requiring weather, has plenty of summer diversions besides baseball and is home to lots of people with other baseball allegiances, you have quite the challenge. If your stadium location and design aren’t spot on, you have no chance of preventing a franchise relocation to another market. MLB knows it. The Rays know it. Montreal knows it. Hell, Ray Naimoli knows it.
An urban core, synergy-exuding Tampa-Ybor stadium just makes sense. Tampa is the hub of the 18th largest metro market in the U.S. The downtown/ Water Street Tampa/Ybor City revitalization has more in store.
The facility will have to be built for more than serious baseball fans, because there aren’t enough. We’re talking millennials and families. Those who need interactive social media enclaves and kiss cams and those who need interactive entertainment for kids. Baseball in a coolly-designed, next-generation stadium is the requisite vehicle.
The facility will also have to be ready for repurposing when baseball isn’t on the calendar. It has to be a community—in the broadest sense—destination. From kitchens that offer culinary classes and a fitness center to yoga classes and Wi-Fi work spaces.
To the Rays’ credit, their plans are open to all of the above.
What they don’t include in the $892 million project, however, is how it will all be paid for. We don’t know how much—beyond $150 million—the Rays will actually ante up. We don’t know all the details about public money sources—from resort taxes to tax increment financing to a federal economic opportunity zone. And most importantly, we don’t know how the business community will do at crunch time. That includes Pinellas County—most notably Tech Data and Jabil. It also means Mosaic, WellCare and Bloomin’ Brands. That means serious season-ticket commitments and serious money for naming rights.
It would also be beyond helpful if the streetcar becomes more transit than amenity and if Jeff Vinik decides to buy in.
Some metro areas, such as New York and Los Angeles can—and have—lost professional sports franchises. They didn’t miss a beat. Tampa Bay is not New York or Los Angeles.