(Bloomberg) -- The Tampa Bay Rays’ new stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, may not be ready in time for the 2028 season after a board of county commissioners failed to finalize a crucial bond resolution by an Oct. 29 deadline, the team said on Tuesday.
The funding delay could derail the entire project, Rays Co-Presidents Brian Auld and Matt Silverman said in a letter to the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners.
“We are saddened and stunned by this unfortunate turn of events,” they said in the letter. “We’ve spent over $50 million and decades of work to bring this project to reality, but now that investment has been jeopardized.”
In July, Pinellas County committed $312.5 million from its tourist tax fund toward the stadium project, whose cost was originally pegged at $1.3 billion. However, the county’s share of the funding cannot be unlocked unless the commissioners board approves the bonding.
The delay came as a surprise to the Rays. The team said it had been in regular communication with county officials, including St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, and had no indication that the resolution would not be passed on time.
The Rays had hoped to open the new stadium in St. Petersburg’s Historic Gas Plant District following the expiration of the team’s lease at Tropicana Field, which runs through the 2027 season. The franchise will be relocating to Steinbrenner Field — the spring training home of division rival the New York Yankees — for the 2025 season, after their ballpark sustained roughly $56 million of damage when Hurricane Milton struck the region in October.
The team has been lobbying to get a new stadium built for over a decade. In 2019, the Rays received permission from Major League Baseball’s executive council to explore a plan that called for them to split their seasons between Florida and Montreal. However, that proposal was rejected by the league in 2022, forcing the Rays to double down in its efforts in the Tampa Bay region.
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