UPDATE: St. Petersburg City Council approves, rescinds funds to repair Tropicana Field’s roof

Yes, it’s been that kind of day

The St. Petersburg City Council met this afternoon to discuss two important matters regarding the Rays future:

1. Whether to fund $55 million to initiate repairs to Tropicana Field’s roof
2. Whether to initiate $287.5 million in bonds toward the new Rays stadium in St. Petersburg

Unlike the funds being discussed by the Pinellas County Commission, these funds are unrestricted in nature, which means every dollar the Council allocated toward the Tampa Bay Rays was one less dollar for other matters of public concern, including the ongoing recovery from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Rays President Brian Auld was called upon to address the letter issued earlier this week to the Pinellas County Commission, and Auld apologized both for the perceived tone in the letter and the umbrage taken with their speaking through the press.

What the Council decided on repairing Tropicana Field’s roof

According to the report received by the Council, repairing Tropicana Field — as the City is legally obligated to do in the Use Agreement (lease) for the stadium — repair of Tropicana Field would take 13 months (from February 2025 to March 2026) at a cost of $55,724,982.

Of note, the City’s share of that cost, after insurance, is not to exceed $23,726,567.

Rays President Auld implied during his time speaking that the timeline and repairs to Tropicana Field would exceed the $55 million outlay or the ability to be playing baseball on Opening Day 2026.

The Council determined during the meeting these costs did not include any work required to align acoustics within the stadium, which must be determined by a different consultant and may pose a “significant cost,” and posited that more costs will be requested of the City by the Rays once the field itself is playable again.

Nevertheless, the motion to repair the roof on Tropicana Field passed 4-3.

Here is the language of exactly what was approved:

a. A resolution approving four (4) interfund loans to the General Capital Improvement Fund (3001); the first interfund loan in the amount of $10,000,000 from the Workers Compensation Fund (5129), the second interfund loan in the amount of $7,500,000 from the Parking Revenue Fund (1021), the third interfund loan in the amount of $5,000,000 from the Equipment Replacement Fund (5002), and the fourth interfund loan in the amount of $1,230,000 from the Technology and Infrastructure Fund (5019) to finance the Tropicana Field Emergency Roof Replacement Project; approving a supplemental appropriation in the amount of $23,730,000 from the increase in the unappropriated balance of the General Capital Improvement Fund (3001), resulting from these loans, to the Tropicana Field Emergency Roof Replacement Milton Project (20927); providing for other matters in connection therewith; and providing an effective date.

b. Authorizing the Mayor or his designee to execute a design-build agreement between the City of St. Petersburg, Florida and Hennessy Construction Services Corp (“Hennessy”) for Hennessy to provide preconstruction phase and construction phase services for the Tropicana Field Emergency Roof Replacement Project in an amount not to exceed $23,726,567

UPDATE - 6:09 PM

After the vote, Auld spoke with some journalists, and indicated the Rays might have preferred Tropicana Field was not repaired...

Auld was confronted on this statement, which occurred during a recess in the proceedings, and confirmed this was the Rays position.

After the City Council decided to delay their vote on funding the $287.5 million in new stadium bonds, the Council then recalled their vote, and unanimously struck down the funding to repair Tropicana Field’s roof 7-0.