Pinellas commissioner: Rays are ‘lying to our residents'

Yahoo

20-02-2025

A Pinellas commissioner once again is blasting Tampa Bay Rays team leaders for asserting the county has killed an agreement to build a new baseball stadium.
Commissioner Chris Latvala said Thursday Rays presidents Matt Silverman and Brian Auld needed to 'get over themselves' for comments they made in a team-sponsored sports radio show that aired last week.
In the segment, Silverman said the county's decision to delay a planned October vote on stadium financing 'effectively broke the deal' they reached for a stadium last summer. The team has said that decision and a subsequent delay pushed back the timeline for opening a new $1.3 billion stadium and drove up its costs beyond what the Rays can afford.
Latvala said the October vote on approving bonds to finance its portion of the stadium was delayed because the county was dealing with back-to-back hurricanes.
And the county was seeking information on where the team planned to play in the near term after Hurricane Milton ripped the roof from Tropicana Field earlier that month.
Despite that, he noted that the Rays failed to send any representatives to the meeting, which they are now holding up as a pivotal moment. He said the team presidents and owner Stu Sternberg still refuse to back up claims that a delay has driven up costs.
'Matt, Stu and Brian are making things up,' Latvala said. 'I'm going to use their first names because they don't deserve anything more.'
Pinellas staff, including County Administrator Barry Burton, were living at an emergency operations center in October, he said.
'Barry was more worried about our ... residents that had lost their homes during the hurricanes,' Latvala said. 'Had that October meeting been so important to the Rays, I would imagine they would've been here.'
Burton said he supported 'correcting the record' about what has happened with the deal. In response to accusations that the timeline cost them money, Burton said it was the Rays' fault for having to reengage stakeholders after halting work on the project. 'It's an excuse, and it's a shame,' he said.
The Rays have said they are facing a budget shortfall of $150 million because of the delay, but a consultant for Pinellas County said that was impossible. The Rays have yet to publicly say how much money they need to proceed.
'They are literally lying to our residents,' Latvala said. 'I welcome them to come to a meeting and show us that they have a $150 million shortfall that was the cause of a 21-day delay.'
A spokesperson for the Tampa Bay Rays declined to comment.
Other commissioners spoke up in support of Latvala and in shared opposition to the Rays' statements.
'They keep wanting to say the same thing over and over, thinking the story will change,' Commissioner Dave Eggers said.
Latvala said the Rays are trying to profit off of the hurricanes and 'should be ashamed' for it.
'Brian Matt and Stu need to be reminded that the hurricane did not just hit the Trop,' Latvala said. 'It hit a bunch of other folks, and folks that are not millionaires and billionaires.'