Tampa City Council approves Rays community benefits agreement, 4-3

The Tampa City Council voted 4-3 on Oct. 29 to adopt Resolution No. 2026-894, approving a community benefits agreement with Tampa Bay Rays Stadium Company, LLC, according to the city clerk’s proposed minutes of the special call meeting. Council members Guido Maniscalco, Lynn Hurtak and Charlie Miranda voted no. All seven members were present, so the majority was Chair Alan Clendenin, Bill Carlson, Luis Viera and Naya Young; Viera moved the resolution and Young seconded it.¹ WUSF also reported that Carlson and Viera voted yes.²

Before the final vote, the council voted unanimously on two amendments to Exhibit A, the agreement’s project list: one adds Carver City, Lincoln Gardens and MacFarlane Park to the neighborhoods listed for a neighborhood impact and connectivity fund, and the other adds “including youth” to the apprenticeship item, the minutes show. The resolution also exempts the stadium project from the city’s own community benefit program in Section 2-853 of the city code.¹

What the agreement commits

The version of the agreement sent to the council with an Oct. 23 memo from the city attorney’s office sets out these figures, each measuring something different:³

• $60 million: the total community benefits commitment for the project, which the Hillsborough County Commission set on Aug. 28.
• $21 million: the city’s 35% share of that total. The agreement ends once benefits worth that amount are delivered.
• $12 million: the share of the total to be delivered to the city and county together in the first five years.
• $4.2 million: the city’s part of that first-five-year amount, a fixed figure. The county’s part, $7.8 million, is left to a separate county agreement.

Benefits may be cash, in-kind or programs, and the stadium company may deliver them through affiliates, a team foundation or nonprofit and public partners. Exhibit A lists estimated values for 2027 through 2031, including $1.25 million for housing stability and anti-displacement, $1 million for Al Lopez Park, $250,000 for transit station improvements on routes serving neighborhoods around the ballpark district and $200,000 for Tampa police service in New Tampa. The stadium company must file an annual report and return to the council with a new project list for each later five-year period. The city’s only listed remedy for a shortfall is to seek specific performance.³

The minutes say Senior Assistant City Attorney Rebecca Johns submitted a revised resolution correcting an amount and an updated agreement from the Rays at the meeting.¹ The resolution in the agenda packet gave the commitment as “$21,000.00.”⁴ Tampa Bay 28 reported that the Al Lopez Park amount had been reduced from $1 million to $625,000, that Johns said 70% of the first-five-year amount is cash, and that the agreement sets a goal of 8% of ballpark construction labor hours through registered apprenticeships.⁵ Fox 13 quoted Carlson as saying, “It’s not a perfect document.”⁶

The stadium deal

The council approved the stadium agreement 4-3 on Aug. 27, the city said.⁷ WUSF reported that it calls for four annual $20 million city payments for district infrastructure, and that the city and county together would contribute no more than $876 million toward the $2.36 billion ballpark at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus.⁸ The County Commission approved the development and funding agreement 5-2 on Aug. 28 and said its own community benefits agreement was still pending.⁹

What the records do not show

• The updated agreement and corrected resolution submitted at the meeting are not posted with the agenda; the terms above come from the version transmitted before the meeting, and the changes Tampa Bay 28 reported could not be checked against a record.
• The minutes are labeled proposed and have not been approved by the council.
• No county record reviewed shows a date for a vote on the county’s agreement.
• The agreement does not set job-creation or wage figures.