Team president Matt Silverman said a funding gap created by the county's delay will have to be filled.
The Tampa Bay Rays president said the team's front office believes the votes are now there with the Pinellas County Commission to approve financing for a new baseball stadium at its upcoming meeting Dec. 17.
However, that won't mean there is a done deal. The Rays maintain that the team cannot afford increased construction costs due to delays in negotiations and bond votes from the county and St. Petersburg the team says have pushed the price tag beyond the $1.3 billion estimated.
"We anticipate that the Pinellas County Commission will authorize the bonds at their next meeting," Matt Silverman said in a statement Tuesday. "As we stated in our letter three weeks ago, we remain ready to work with all key stakeholders to fill the funding gap their delay has created."
The statement marked a change in tune from team brass, which had said in that letter that the project as crafted was all but dead.
Silverman made the comment through a spokesperson after Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made the rounds in recent days with elected officials expressing his support for the deal. On Monday, he met with County Commission chairperson Kathleen Peters and County Administrator Barry Burton in Lealman and with St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch at City Hall.
Manfred also met with Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday, though it's unclear what was discussed at that meeting.
County commissioners Dave Eggers and Chris Latvala were the two no votes against the deal when agreements were approved back in July. It was Latvala who pushed for a delay in votes following Hurricane Milton, which tore the roof of Tropicana Field and created uncertainty for where the Rays would play in coming years. The team will spend its next season at Tampa's Steinbrenner field.
New county commissioners unfriendly to the deal were elected to the board, potentially forming a new majority against taking out bonds to pay for $312.5 million from tourist tax dollars. While Vince Nowicki has said he is a hard no, it's possible Eggers, Latvala or new commissioner Chris Scherer could change their mind.