With planning stalled as Pinellas County officials focused more on a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark, discussions on BayCare Ballpark renovations and site redevelopment are back.
The Philadelphia Phillies, which run both BayCare Ballpark and the Carpenter Complex as a year-round training facility that also hosts the Clearwater Threshers (Low-A; Florida State League) and a Florida Complex League team, has been working on a renovation of the ballpark and a redevelopment of the complex site for years now. While those efforts were initially encouraged by Pinellas County officials, talk between the two sides were put aside during the effort to bring a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark as part of a larger development. A funding plan for the BayCare Ballpark renovations would’ve included county hotel/motel bed taxes.
With the Rays all but certain to end up in Tampa and the city ending redevelopment plans related to the ballpark, Pinellas County has hotel/motel taxes back in its arsenal. And with spring training and the box-office performance of the Threshers having a definite financial impact on the Hwy. 19 corridor, the county and the Phillies are once again talking BayCare Ballpark renovations.
Pinellas County Commissioners and the Tourist Development Council (TDC) had a first meeting on Sept. 11 to update the plans, which have reportedly changed significantly since the first 2019 discussions. No specifics were discussed at that meeting, but the Phillies are expected to present something specific to county officials fairly soon. How extensive the proposal runs is interesting, and there are really two different factors at play: actual renovations to BayCare Ballpark and the Carpenter Complex, and redevelopment of the ballpark site that transforms a 13-acre mall location immediately south of the ballpark to a new entryway for the ballpark, complete with residential and retail. The Phillies have held that they were seeking public funds only for BayCare Ballpark renovations and would fund the redevelopment on their own dime. That appears to be holding true, though we’ll be eager to see what the team has in mind.
The BayCare Ballpark renovations, in the past, included 2,000 more seats, a redesign of the concourses, a new event space and potentially a two-story pool in right field.
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