Should a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium be a publicly-traded company? Could we all be its “shareholders”? One Tampa mayoral candidate thinks so.
Taryn Sabia—an urban designer, educator, and community advocate—has proposed creating a Tampa Bay Regional Stadium Entity as an alternative to a traditional stadium subsidy model. Her proposal is conceptual, not a finalized financing package, but it attempts to answer a question that has dogged stadium deals for decades: if the public is expected to participate financially, should the public also share in the upside?
The question comes as the Tampa Bay Rays announced that city and county officials have arrived at a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the $2.3 billion decision to build a new baseball stadium in Tampa’s Drew Park area on the land currently occupied by Hillsborough College. The deal also hinges on $150 million from the State of Florida to rebuild the campus on a smaller footprint…