The Tampa City Council could take up a revised framework for the Tampa Bay Rays stadium proposal as soon as Aug. 27, with city, county and team negotiators nearing agreement on documents that would reshape Tampa’s role in the proposed deal.
Council Chair Alan Clendenin told Florida Politics that negotiations have been moving nearly nonstop and that only a handful of issues remain unresolved.
“If I was a betting man, I would bet that it is going to appear on the 27th,” Clendenin said.
Clendenin said city staff, Hillsborough County, the Rays and lawyers involved in the negotiations are still working through the final details, with definitive documents potentially arriving “any hour or any day.”
The emerging framework appears likely to incorporate significant portions of Council Member Bill Carlson’s proposed restructuring of Tampa’s financial participation in the stadium development.
Clendenin said Carlson’s push to create a tax increment financing district around the proposed Hillsborough College redevelopment and carve that property out of the existing Drew Park Community Redevelopment Area reflects the direction negotiations are heading.