The last damaged Tropicana Field roof panel has been replaced, meaning we are on track to have the stadium ready for the home opener in April. With the current lease expiring after 2028, the team certainly feels some urgency to, as developers like to say, “tack on dirt” in a new stadium.
We’ll continue our practice of diving into the pros, cons and randomly musing on potential stadium locations, and today we’ll look at a location near Tampa Bay and the Courtney Campbell Causeway, the current home of the Rocky Point Golf Course. This location was mentioned as a possible location here And here. (We covered the other primary rumor site on Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus here).
The Rocky Point Golf Course covers 100 hectares, which fits the desired size of the new ownership group. It has been around since 1911, first as a private course created by the Tampa Automobile Club for its members.
After the U.S. entered World War II, the federal government took control of the property, building barracks to house the Women’s Air Corps and later as a satellite location for German prisoners of war (they were used to provide labor for the expansion of nearby Drew Field, now Tampa International Airport). At some point during the war the golf course was also reopened for military use.
The federal government transferred the site to the city of Tampa in the 1950s.
The city leased the golf course to a private course operator for 25 years and then, in the 1970s, to the newly formed Tampa Sports Authority. Rocky Point Golf Course is one of three municipal golf courses in Tampa (Babe Zaharias and Rogers Park are the others).
What is attractive about the site
Beyond the 250-acre size, no people or businesses (other than golf course operations) need to be displaced, and there are few structures to demolish.
Access to the site is good, with the Veterans Expressway nearby, although I imagine the Courtney Campbell Causeway, which connects Hillsborough to Pinellas Counties, would cause serious traffic jams on game night. The proximity to the airport is a small advantage for teams flying in and out. There are a few HART bus lines near the location; changing some routes and adding bus stops at the stadium wouldn’t be difficult.
Being close to the bay, building on the site has the potential to provide water views. There are hotels nearby and some restaurants, both in Westshore and along the Causeway, although even those close by are not easily accessible on foot (although new investment in pedestrian infrastructure could change that). Naturally, the team owners plan to create a larger district around the stadium, which would provide additional hotel rooms and restaurants in the immediate vicinity of the stadium. Shuttles could connect the stadium to Westshore’s parking garages, most of which are underutilized on evenings and weekends, to avoid having to build all the on-site parking.
Let me just interject here that I think converting a golf course into…something else is also a plus. I am not necessarily anti-golf. But for a number of reasons, golf courses are problematic land uses, and we should probably have fewer of them. There are an estimated 81 golf courses (not all 18 holes) in Hillsborough County at a time when the The Gulf population is declining.
A growing number of golf courses are struggling to remain solvent; in recent years, the Pebble Creek Golf Course has been closed with its owners unsuccessfully trying to change the zoning plan to build housingand the University of South Florida is closing and redeveloping its course. Golf courses are increasingly money losers, occupying hundreds of acres of land that could be used (more profitably and with greater community benefits) for other purposes. From what we can glean from public recordsHowever, Rocky Point appears to be covering its costs.
Moreover, golf courses are bad for the environment. I know we think of golf courses, with their rolling greens, as “natural” areas: they are anything but. They require intensive use of pesticides and fertilizersmany of which are potentially harmful to humans. Indeed, golf courses are considered contaminated “brownfield” sites and remediation is required by law before any redevelopment. Golf courses also require constant watering; they are among the largest drains on local water systems.
Disadvantages of this site
There is a big one. According to tampa city code, the city at any time sells a park or rents it for more than 25 years, the purchase/lease agreement must be submitted to voters for approval. Although Rocky Point has not been used as a park, it is apparently considered park land, and therefore its sale would have to be approved in a referendum. I don’t think I need to point out how undesirable that must be from a team owner perspective. The measure would have to be placed on the ballot, which could mean delays; the team should spend time and goodwill leading a ‘vote yes’ campaign; Uncertainty about the outcome of a vote would put plans on hold for many months, if not years.
I therefore wonder whether leasing the site to the team for 25 years could be a way around the referendum conundrum. Tropicana Field’s original lease was for thirty years. Would it be less feasible to build a stadium and associated commercial development if five years were removed from that deadline? Could there be anything stopping the city from offering a new lease once the 25 years are up? If the team wants to buy the land or lease it for more than 25 years, I imagine the need for a referendum is a huge poison pill.
Another problem is that the location is in the most risky type of flood zone (you can look up flood zones). here (but you can also just look at a map and realize that low-lying land so close to the bay poses a significant flood risk.)
Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t think this is a deal breaker. Architects and engineers building a stadium/commercial area in a flood zone can create designs to protect buildings and infrastructure from flooding. Of course, severe flooding after a tropical storm can disrupt some games, but there are few locations in our region that won’t feel the impact of significant storm activity. As a region, we need to learn how to plan and design weather events; If that golf course site is going to be redeveloped, I would rather have a stadium and retail on that site than turn it into a residential area that puts people and their homes at risk.
Finally, I may not be crazy about an abundance of golf courses in our province, but this particular course is almost 115 years old, which means something in a region with few centuries-old touchstones. If the Rays decide to build here, expect a lot of resistance from golfers.
Despite some important caveats, this could be an interesting stadium location. The views are said to be breathtaking, it’s close to the Westshore business district, and relocating one of the county’s 81 golf courses is less problematic than, say, relocating or building around a community college. If there are legal ways to develop the estate without triggering a referendum, and if there are engineering solutions to make the development resilient in the face of inevitable flooding, then it could be a strong candidate for the Rays’ new home.
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