The $100 million in Community Redevelopment Area money (a slush TIF-style fund that earmarks downtown property taxes for development projects) that Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn wants to dedicate to a Rays stadium is actually worth $100 million over 30 years, not up front.If the Rays want to play in Tampa before 2027, that $50 million might cover the check to St. Pete for breaking their contract early. Which means you may be looking at a $400 million funding deficit - way bigger than any rental car or hotel tax increase could cover.
That’s a huge difference. Paid out over 30 years, $100 million is enough to finance maybe $50 million or so in upfront costs, depending on what interest rate you get on stadium bonds. Which means that if you assume a $600 million stadium and that Rays owner Stuart Sternberg will put in $200 million — a number he seems to have managed to get reified in the sports media, though so far as I can tell he came up with it out of thin air — there’d still be $350 million unaccounted for, even if Buckhorn manages to wrest the CRA money away from other projects eager to tap it.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Tampa's $100 Million for a Stadium is Only Worth $50 Million
Leave it to the nation's top stadium subsidy watchdog, Neil deMaus, to pick out this nugget:
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