ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners has given the Tampa Bay Rays a deadline of December 1 to either commit to the agreement for a new stadium or provide a notice of termination.
The new deadline was announced in a Monday letter from Pinellas County Commission Chair Kathleen Peters, which targeted the team's recent comments that the new stadium deal is dead.
"The notion that it was the County that 'killed the deal' is categorically false based on the Rays President's own statements prior to the county's action," Chairwoman Peters said.
The latest salvo came after the Rays released an open letter to the Pinellas County Commission last week stating that because of the delay in issuing bonds for the stadium.
"As we have informed the county administrator and St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, the county’s failure to finalize the bonds last month ended the ability for a 2028 delivery of the ballpark," the Rays said in their letter November 19 letter.
Chairwoman Peters refuted this, saying there was no specific timeframe for issuing the bonds, and it could be delayed until as late as March 31, 2025. Peters said the Rays have also not been meeting deadlines for documents to be supplied to the County.
Peters said the if the Rays met their obligations in time, Pinellas County still has "adequate time" to have bonds offered for sale.
"Therefore, the foregoing quoted statement in your letter is contrary to the clauses within the Agreement which the Rays negotiated and executed just months prior to said letter," Peters wrote.
Read the full letter from Pinellas County Chairwoman Peters to the Rays
11.25.2024 Letter to Rays F... by ABC Action News
In their letter, the Rays had also said that a 2029 delivery of a ballpark would "result in significantly higher costs that we are not able to absorb alone." But Peters said that is not the case based on the negotiated deal.
"The Agreement not only requires that the Rays pay all cost overruns as noted above, but also includes a date (negotiated by the Rays) that the Agreement cannot be terminated by the city and county unless the stadium project is not completed by Feb. 1, 2030," Peters' letter stated.
Peters also took aim at Ray's team presidents Brian Auld and Matthew Silverman, criticizing them for attending the County Commission meeting on Nov. 19 but refusing to speak or answer clarifying questions.
Chairwoman Peters said the Nov. 19 letter from the Rays "approaches being in inelegantly stated notice of termination" even as the County is still scheduled to consider the supplemental bond resolution on Dec. 17 and the County could still offer the bonds "weeks (and potentially months) before the Rays's deadline to meet its conditions precedent to such offering."
Peters then hit the Rays with an ultimatum about their intentions.
"The Rays (StadCo.) must either indicate in writing that they intend to move forward under the Agreement as executed or provide a clearer Notice of Termination pursuant to section 3.6 (a)(ii) of the Agreement by not later than Dec. 1, 2024," Peters said
She continued, "Pinellas County has operated in good faith, working toward the stadium deal while balancing the needs of our community after back-to-back hurricanes. If the Rays want out of this agreement, it is your right to terminate the contract. Clear communication about your intentions will be critical to the next steps in this partnership."
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