ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Pinellas County commissioner will vote against issuing the bonds necessary to finance the Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal after the team announced it will play its 2025 season in Tampa.
The team needed a temporary place to play after Hurricane Milton shredded the fiberglass dome of Tropicana Field.
After a month of speculation, the Rays announced Thursday it will play at George M. Steinbrenner Field next season, which is also the spring training home of the New York Yankees.
"I think that it's unfortunate,” said Chris Latvala, who represents Commission District Five.
Latvala believes the team should have played next season at a minor league ballpark in Pinellas County, and he said he has no evidence the team even tried to do that.
“In total, there's going to be over $1 billion public funds dedicated from Pinellas residents to the Tampa Bay Rays, and the thank you that the Rays gave them was to play the games across the bridge in Hillsborough County,” he said.
For that reason, he plans to vote against funding the team’s longer-term effort to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg as part of the city of St. Pete’s Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment.
He said spending those tourism dollars on the team is not in the county’s best interest with the team temporarily playing in Tampa.
"Our tourism has already suffered after the two hurricanes,” Latvala said. "The only reason they decided to stay in St. Petersburg was because St. Pete and Pinellas County was the only place that had the public funds to give them."
Neal Coffey has a different take. The Rays fan lives in St. Petersburg part-time, and hopes commissioners will not jeopardize the stadium deal.
He believes the temporary move to Tampa is just a minor inconvenience before baseball returns to St. Pete in a major way.
“It’s still in the Tampa Bay area. The Tampa Bay base of fans will still be there,” Coffey said. “Possibly even more.”
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said he’s grateful the Rays will be close to home next year.
“The City is taking the necessary steps and doing our due diligence to make repairs at Tropicana Field so that the Rays can return to St. Petersburg for the 2026 season,” he wrote in a statement.
Welch said the city is also doing everything possible to keep the redevelopment deal on track.
