If Tampa officials and the region’s Major League Baseball team want a Governor invested in getting a stadium deal done, the window may close in January.
Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds plans to let the ongoing discussions between the Tampa Bay Rays and local officials proceed without his input, both as a candidate and, if he’s elected in November, as the state’s chief executive.
“It’s between the Rays and Hillsborough County. I think that this is something that the county has to make the best decision on behalf of the people that they serve. I don’t think that’s something that you want the Governor weighing in on. Because then what, you’re going to be doing stadium deals all over the state? I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think that’s something for local governments to manage and control,” he said at a news conference Friday.
The Naples Congressman, who carries President Donald Trump‘s endorsement into the August Republican primary, is the front-runner to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis. The current Governor has been far more willing to get involved. The Legislature set aside $50 million this year for improvements to Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus, the site the Rays are eyeing, and DeSantis has said the state “can do more on the infrastructure,” though he won’t put state dollars into the stadium itself.
For now, the deal Donalds would inherit is stalled in Tampa. The same seven City Council members hit pause twice Thursday, once sitting as the Council and once as the board of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), a separate legal entity with identical membership.
First, the CRA Board voted 5-2 to pull discussion of the agency’s proposed $100 million contribution from its Aug. 20 agenda. Board Member Bill Carlson requested the removal, arguing the item should return only after the Rays negotiate directly with the CRA and present a finished proposal.
Board members have repeatedly argued that negotiations among the Rays, Mayor Jane Castor‘s administration, city staff and Hillsborough County are no substitute for direct talks with the CRA itself.
Hours later, the Council voted 4-3 against transmitting a comprehensive plan amendment for the Dale Mabry campus to reviewing state agencies. The vote did not formally reject the stadium, its financing package or a binding redevelopment plan. But it blocked an anticipated state review and wiped out the September adoption hearing Hillsborough College had envisioned.
The Rays and local governments have spent months assembling a roughly $2.3 billion ballpark and surrounding district on the college’s Drew Park campus, across from Raymond James Stadium. The team has pledged more than $1.2 billion plus any construction overruns. The public share would come from Hillsborough County tourist development and community investment tax revenue, along with the CRA’s proposed $100 million in future Drew Park property tax collections. County Commissioners and the Council both signed off on a framework for the deal in May.
The Rays’ lease at Tropicana Field expires after the 2028 season, and the team wants to open in Tampa in 2029. Financing decisions could come as soon as next month, team officials have said.
Thursday’s votes are the latest turn in a stadium search that has dragged on for the better part of two decades. It accelerated after Hurricane Milton shredded Tropicana Field’s roof in October 2024 and sent the team to Steinbrenner Field for the 2025 season. Former owner Stu Sternberg walked away from a planned ballpark in St. Petersburg’s Historic Gas Plant District in March 2025. A group led by Jacksonville homebuilder Patrick Zalupski bought the team for a reported $1.7 billion last fall, pledged to keep it in the region and quickly zeroed in on Tampa. The Rays returned to a repaired Trop this season.
Castor sharply criticized Thursday’s votes, arguing some Council members were attempting to halt the proposal before negotiations were complete.
Meanwhile, Rays co-owner Ken Babby has held discussions with Carlson in an attempt to get the project back on track.
And DeSantis, a noted baseball fan, is anxious for a deal to get done before he leaves office.
“I think this has got to come to a head pretty soon, one way or another,” DeSantis said last month. “We’ll have a discussion if somehow it doesn’t happen.”
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A.G. Gancarski and Jesse Mendoza contributed reporting.
