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Rays planned ballpark: new investment or reinvestment?
How much should local taxpayers be asked to contribute to a new plan considering how much they've already contributed to Tropicana Field?"
ST. PETERSBURG (Bay News 9) -- The high cost of what Tropicana Field has cost might scare taxpayers from favoring a new facility for the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays want a state-of-the-art waterfront ballpark where Al Lang Field now sits at a price tag of $450 million.
Bay News 9's newspaper partner, the St. Petersburg Times, looked into the kind of money local governments have already spent on the existing Tropicana Field.
"We went through 20 years of city budget documents," said St. Petersburg Times reporter Aaron Sharockman. "Twenty years of city financial documents and really tried to get a real number. The cost to build, to operate, and all the costs to attract baseball."
When the city decided to build the domed stadium in 1986 it carried a price tag of $85 million.
But Sharockman's research showed the bill grew quickly to at least $233 million and is expected to rise to $323 million by 2016 when the final payment is due.
"Almost every dollar that went into the bricks and mortar at Tropicana Field, another dollar went to the bank to pay off loans," Sharockman said. "So, that's a huge number."
The largest portion of the money comes from the city, footing two-thirds of the bill mostly from state sales taxes. The county pays for the other third from tourist development taxes.
"The city has never really done a true accounting of the costs to bring baseball to the area," Sharockman said.
The Rays want a state-of-the-art waterfront ballpark where Al Lang Field now sits at a price tag of $450 million.
Sharockman points to what the city calls soft costs as another big contributor to the final payoff amount.
"For instance, we found some lawsuit settlements never added into the costs," Sharockman said. "We found some trips to try to woo a major league baseball team in the 80s and the early 90s."
The city pays about $400,000 a year for stadium traffic management and about $2 million a year for property insurance.
"The question is, going forward with a new stadium proposal, is how much should local taxpayers be asked to contribute to a new plan", Sharockman said. "Considering how much they've already contributed?"
Sharockman said the city and county have gotten back three tangibles for their investment; Tropicana Field, the surrounding parking lots and a major league baseball franchise.
He said the Rays are now asking voters to sell the first two assets to keep the third viable.
"What they're arguing is it's not really a new investment," Sharockman said. "It's just a reinvestment."
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