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It seems that the hurricanes that devastated the state of Florida in 2024 also affected many sports stadiums. The Tampa Bay Rays lost their stadium as Tropicana Field was destroyed. Now the plan is to have the stadium back in operation by the time the MLB season starts in 2026. Another team that was also hit hard when it came to stadium expansion. The Clearwater Threshers are the Single-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. They play in BayCare Ballpark, where the Phillies do their spring training. The franchise has resumed talks with Pinellas County to get a stadium expansion on the current site. These talks have changed because of the hurricanes delaying everything. The Threshers have been in talks for years with the count, but by this point, no agreement has been reached.
The city manager of Clearwater, Jennifer Poirrier, has expressed cautious optimism about reaching an agreement. The Threshers have not yet brought forward an official proposal for a new round of talks. The Phillies are possibly seeking tax money for Pinellas County on short-term lodging. Many of the people who call the county home do not want tax money to be used on the stadium proposal. In 2019, the Phillies requested 40 million dollars for Pinellas’s bed tax for a 79.7 million renovation of BayCare Ballpark. The reason that the county is hesitant is that they already gave 41.7 million bed tax to help renovate the stadium in Dunedin, home of the Toronto Blue Jays and the Dunedin Blue Jays. BayCare Ballpark was built in 2004 and is far newer than the stadium in Dunedin.
The Phillies presented plans to turn their facilities into a year-round project that had an estimated 300 million price tag that would include a 250 million residential, dining, and shopping complex. That would be on a 13-acre plot that is south of the stadium that was bought for 22.5 million in November 2023. Just last year, in 2024, former Clearwater mayor Brian Aungst Sr. said the larger project was on hold due to the changes in the Phillies’ ownership. At this time, they do not know how much the team will ask for in public money. It looks like the Phillies and Threshers have an initial scaled-down version that could help the project move forward.
The Phillies have held spring training games in Clearwater since 1947 and have a longstanding tradition for team executives are invited to watch games at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies. In the past, taxpayers’ money covered the trip, while the Phillies treated officials to dinners and game tickets. During those games, they could also sit in the owner’s suite. Philadelphia has also donated one million dollars to the city of Clearwater one million dollars to aid in the storm recovery efforts. So, the stadium project is up in the air, and there is no timeframe for a deal could get done. Both the Phillies and Threshers are hoping a deal can be done soon so that both franchises can continue to call the city of Clearwater home.
Do you think a stadium deal could be done to keep the Phillies and Threshers in Clearwater? Leave a comment below.
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Author Profile
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Director of Operations for NGSC Sports
Covers USF Athletics in Football, Baseball, Lacrosse, and Softball.
Also covered both major and minor league baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays and Clearwater Threshers.
He also covers college football bowl and conference championship games.
It might seem like just covers team sports he also covers both the PGA & LIV Tours and writes and announces for the Pinellas Park High School Patriots in football and basketball.
He also has two sports podcasts in the P&W Sports Report and The Walker Report.
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[…] when they needed to and kept the game tied as they came up to bat in the bottom of the tenth. The Threshers’ ghost runner advanced to third, and with Nolan Beltran up to bat, he hit a sac fly to center field […]