Tropicana Field repairs: St. Pete approves $950K in funds for next preconstruction phase
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg's City Council unanimously approved a little more than $950,000 for the next phase of repairs to Tropicana Field at Thursday’s meeting.
By the numbers:
Around $55,000 of the money approved is for the additional work done by the company that removed the torn pieces of the roof and the metal panels. The chunk of the funds – about $896,962 – is for the preconstruction phase of services for non-roof repairs with the Hennessy/AECOM team.
READ: St. Pete mayor addresses Rays’ future, affordable housing, hurricane recovery in ‘State of the City’
What's next:
The construction group will determine repairs the Trop needs to make it playable, including evaluating building systems like the LED displays and the PA system. It will also figure out just how much that will all cost, and put together bid packages.
Raul Quintana, the city’s architect, told the council on Thursday there’s going to be a "tremendous amount of effort now going on to try to identify what those are," when talking about the process to identify repairs. He said it would be an "intense next couple of months."
Quintana said, though, that they’re confident they’ll stay on track to have the repairs done by Opening Day 2026.
What they're saying:
City Council members said on Thursday they’re comfortable approving the money that will pay for crews to evaluate what needs to be fixed, but demanded a specific list of what those repairs are before they vote on whether to make them.
"I don't want to spend a dime beyond what we absolutely have to to meet those requirements," Council Member Gina Driscoll said about the requirements to make the Trop suitable for the Rays to play games at. "So, please tell me that someone has legally defined suitable," she said.
"I will say that I'm really surprised that at this point in the game, we do not have a definitive list from Major League Baseball on what is required [to make the Trop playable]. That is the only thing that keeps us from overspending unnecessarily. And when you have something that's this broad, it worries me. Now, I understand that the request that you have before us today to approve is for the planning and the services from Hennessy, who I respect and have great faith in," Driscoll told Quintana.
"I have no problem with that. I know that we need them to help us with this. I just want to clarify for everyone that this amount that we're approving today is not for repairs. It's for Hennessy to help with the planning of the repair," she said.
RELATED: St. Pete officials tell Rays there's no deadline to finish Tropicana Field repairs
Other council members echoed Driscoll’s concerns.
"I was one of the first to say we're not putting any more money into this," Council Member Deborah Figgs-Sanders said. "We've met our obligations. We've done what we said we're going to do. But again, being in this situation, I get it … I do agree that having additional information, as much as can be provided, would be a great selling point moving forward. But, we do have to get this done."
The other side:
Quintana told the council an MLB representative is at their weekly meetings about repairs to the Trop, and the MLB has brought in experts as well to evaluate the damage. The Rays have also been very involved in the weekly discussions, Quintana said.
Quintana also laid out a timeline regarding the repairs. It includes crews installing the roof fabric from August-November of 2025. They’ll install the turf from December 2024-January 2026. Repairs will cost about $56 million. The city hopes to get reimbursed for some of that by insurance.
Dig deeper:
City Council’s vote comes as the Rays’ owner, Stuart Sternberg, told the Tampa Bay Times at the MLB owners meeting this week that he isn’t looking to sell the team. St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch said Thursday this echoes private conversations he has had with Sternberg.
MORE: Could the Tampa Bay Rays move to Orlando? 'Dreamers' aim to make it happen
Sternberg also told the paper they can get the money for the new stadium, but questioned if it still makes sense to do it. He added that talks to add investors stopped when delays in approving the bonds to pay for the city and county portions of the stadium were delayed.
Sternberg said they could start again if they get "a significant thumbs up" to go ahead with the deal. Mayor Welch responded to that on Thursday:
"We've given a $600 million thumbs up. We've got agreements that we've all agreed to that speak to economic development that has a fair allocation of development rights. I mean, the deal makes sense now. It was put together over more than a year. And so, we think everything has been done in terms of the city and county's obligations. We just ask the Rays to do that final check and let's move forward."
City and county officials gave the Rays a March 31 deadline to come up with their portion of funding for the new stadium. If they don’t, the public financing from the city and the county will become void.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered during a St. Pete City Council meeting.
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