The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners voted 5-2 in favor of funding $312.5 million worth of bonds Tuesday night. What sounds like a simple procedural move was far from it. Over the past six weeks, the $1.3 billion stadium deal for the Tampa Bay Rays -- celebrated in July by all parties as a watershed moment for a franchise that had spent nearly two decades trying to build a new ballpark -- has found itself in jeopardy. And it all started Oct. 29.
Less than three weeks after Hurricane Milton tore through the roof of Tropicana Field and caused tens of billions of dollars more in damage on Oct.