The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tampa Bay Rays are hoping to strike stadium deals. And there are only so many taxpayer dollars to go around.
Via Emma Behrmann of the Tampa Business Journal, the Tampa Sports Authority plans to inform both Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa that the renovation to Raymond James Stadium “should be prioritized” over a new stadium for the Rays.
The Bucs want a renovation that will cost roughly $1 billion. The Rays want $976 million from the county and the city to help build a new stadium.
The TSA has concerns, as it should, regarding the available funds for the two major-league teams.
That puts the local NFL and MLB teams in direct competition for a finite number of dollars. Every public dollar that goes to one project becomes one less dollar that can go to the other project.
Obviously, the NFL is king. Although there are far fewer home games (10 vs. 81), having an NFL team generally means more than having an MLB team.
Not that either team has suggested the possibility of relocating. But we’ve seen this movie before. If teams can’t get what they want in their current market, they start looking around for a market that will foot the bill.
Bucs Clips
Chris Godwin has spent nine seasons in the NFL, all of them with Mike Evans as his teammate. When Evans decided to leave in free agency for the 49ers, Godwin didn’t accept it.
“Honestly, I didn’t believe it,” Godwin told reporters on Tuesday, via Jenna Laine of ESPN. “I mean, there’s a bunch of stuff on the Internet that you can’t really believe, a lot of AI stuff. So I didn’t really believe it. And then I texted [quarterback Baker Mayfield]. I was like, ‘Yo, is this for real?’ And he was like, ‘Sad face [emoji].’”
Evans and Godwin are first and second in franchise history for catches, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. Now, Evans is gone.
“I think it’s part of the game, unfortunately,” Godwin said. “Mike is -- I mean, we all know what Mike has been to this community and this organization. That’s my brother and I wish him the best and his time in San Fran. I’m sure that they know what kind of player that they’re getting.
“I mean, obviously it’s going to be difficult that he’s not here. And I think anytime you’re missing Mike, that’s a tough situation. But fortunately we have a room full of guys that are ready to go.”
Evans, a first-round pick in 2014, left Tampa Bay with credentials that may already be good enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. In San Francisco, Evans gets an opportunity to win his second career Super Bowl.
Assuming the 49ers can compete with the Seahawks, who won Super Bowl LX, and the Rams, who are loading the cannon for a Super Bowl run of their own.
Buccaneers receiver Jalen McMillan played only four games last season after a scary neck injury that not only nearly ended his season but also jeopardized his career. McMillan fractured three vertebrae and had herniated discs after landing on his head in a preseason game.
He caught 12 passes for 178 yards to close out last season.
“I am happy,” McMillan said last week, via Matt Matera of Pewter Report. “Just to be out there and to catch balls from Baker [Mayfield] and just to run on my feet, I feel good. . . . I am definitely taking appreciation for the small things and celebrating small wins and call my mom and dad every day. I am not taking any relationship for granted, so life has been good.
“I had to sit in my bed and wonder, ‘Is my neck going to heal correctly?’ So, as soon as I was given the opportunity to play again, I knew that I could not look back and there was no time to be nervous and no time to be thinking about anything.”
The Bucs made McMillan a third-round pick in 2024, and he made 37 receptions for 461 yards and eight touchdowns in 13 games.
The team needs that McMillan this season with Mike Evans now in San Francisco.
“Jalen’s tough. His mental toughness is unbelievable,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said. “His competitiveness, the way he attacks the ball, the way he fights for every route and tries to get open and wants to be ‘that guy,’ you know, that gives you a lot of confidence that he’ll be doing that in the games.”
With the World Cup starting next month, many of the teams will be playing tuneup games before the competition commences.
In Tampa, England could be playing before an intimate collection of fans.
Per the Telegraph (via Sports Business Journal), the England-New Zealand match to be played on June 6 could have more than 50,000 empty seats at Raymond James Stadium.
So far, only 13,000 tickets have been sold. The cheapest tickets prices are $72.
Here’s an idea: Slash the prices. Make it cheap it get in. If nothing else, it could attract folks who aren’t as interested in soccer as they could be, after attending a match.
England will have another so-called “friendly” on June 10 in Orlando. In the 25,000-seat venue, only 12,000 tickets have been sold.
As more new stadiums are built and existing stadiums are renovated, there will always be a next wave of aging stadiums to be replaced or revamped.
In Tampa, the local NFL team is hoping for a massive overhaul of a stadium that opened in 1998.
Via Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Sports Authority President and CEO Eric Hart said he expects the Buccaneers to seek a renovation that will cost between $700 million and $1.3 billion.
The Buccaneers reportedly have floated the notion of footing the bill for one third of the expenses, with the public picking up the rest of the tab.
Complicating the situation is the fact that a new stadium for the MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays will impact the capacity to devote taxpayer money to a renovation of the football stadium. Via Emma Behrmann of the Tampa Bay Business Journal, the baseball venue is expected to include $976 million in public funding.
While the renovation will be pricey, it’s always more expensive to build a new stadium. The real question is the extent to which a major renovation will extend the overall life of the facility. At some point, it will make more sense to just build something new.
That’s the way it will continue to go. As better stadiums are built in other cities, pressure will build on other teams to do the same. It’s a cycle that will continue for as long as the NFL remains the powerhouse product it has become.
Or until enough cities and states refuse to do it, even if (for some) that entails a risk that the franchise will relocate.
The Buccaneers lost the best wide receiver in franchise history when Mike Evans left in free agency, and now head coach Todd Bowles wants to see who steps up to replace him.
“They’re talented,” Bowles said. “We know they’ve got a lot of talent right there. Any time you lose a player like that, or any player that was legendary on their team, different guys got to come in and step up. That’s the nature of sports, and I’m sure we have some guys in that room that will.”
Bowles said wide receiver Jalen McMillan has looked good in the offseason program.
“Jalen’s tough. His mental toughness is unbelievable,” Bowles said. “His competitiveness, the way he attacks the ball, the way he fights for every route and wants to get open and be that guy, that gives you a lot of confidence.”
Bowles also said wide receiver Chris Godwin, who has missed more games than he’s played the last two seasons, is healthy and looks ready to have a big year.
“Chris has been great. He’s in great shape, he’s healthy, he’s working out, he’s tough, he’s very smart,” Bowles said. “He looks good.”
No one will make Buccaneers fans forget Evans, but if the Buccaneers get good seasons from McMillan and Godwin, and last year’s impressive rookie Emeka Egbuka continues to improve, they could have as good a corps of wide receivers without Evans as they had with him.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles will get to catch up with one of his former teams this summer.
Bowles said at a Tuesday press conference that the Bucs have set up a pair of joint practices with the Jets before the two teams play in the first week of the preseason. Bowles was the head coach of the Jets from 2015-2018.
There will likely be workouts with the Jaguars before the final game of the preseason as well.
“We lined it up with the Jets and we’re in the process of trying to line it up with the Jaguars, as well,” Bowles said, via the team’s website. “We’ll probably just play Kansas City.”
The Bucs practiced with both of the AFC teams ahead of the 2023 season as well.
Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving was limited to 10 games last season due to injury.
He’s on the mend after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery, but is not yet participating as Tampa Bay gets its OTA practices started this week.
According to multiple reporters on the scene, Irving got on the field midway through the day’s session and worked on the side with trainers and running backs coach Skip Peete.
“[H]e’s coming along fine,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said after the session, via PewterReport.com. “We expect him sometime back in the summer or fall, and we’ll look forward to him when he gets back.”
That Bowles would mention the fall when discussing Irving’s return is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. But it is still late May, giving Irving months to recover before Tampa Bay’s Week 1 matchup against the Bengals.
Irving rushed for 588 yards with one touchdown and caught 30 passes for 277 yards with three TDs last season. As a rookie in 2024, he rushed for 1,122 yards with eight touchdowns and caught 47 passes for 392 yards.
The Buccaneers have taken care of some important business with their rookies.
Tampa Bay announced on Thursday that second-round pick Josiah Trotter has signed his rookie four-year deal.
That means the Bucs have now signed all seven of their 2026 draftees.
Trotter, a linebacker, played his college ball at at West Virginia in 2023 and 2024 before transferring to Mizzou for 2025. He was the Big 12 defensive freshman of the year in 2024 before becoming a first-team All-SEC selection in 2205.
The NFL’s current political issues include an effort by Florida attorney general James Uthmeier to challenge the league’s diversity initiatives. Most recently, Uthmeier issued an investigative subpoena to the NFL, along with a letter suggesting that the league’s response to his initial communication may have violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by revising “many references” on its public website to its allegedly “unlawful ‘inclusive hiring’ policies.”
Commissioner Roger Goodell was in Florida on Tuesday, for the most recent ownership meeting. During a press conference conducted at the conclusion of the sessions, Goodell was asked about Uthmeier’s ongoing assault on the league.
“I think we have been very clear about our programs, and we obviously evaluate them all the time, not just for how they get better, but also to make sure that they’re consistent with the law,” Goodell said, via the Associated Press. “We’re engaging with the Florida attorney general and will continue to. We’ll share everything we’re doing with them. We think it’s certainly within the law, but also something very positive.”
The best evidence, frankly, would be to point to the teams’ hiring practices regarding coaches and General Managers. Despite efforts to expand the interview pool to include diverse candidates, the ultimate decisions — made exclusively by the teams and not the league — do not represent the demographics of the player population.
Uthmeier, who is running for election in 2026 to the job for which he received a gubernatorial appointment, may be engaging in performative antics. Time will tell whether his letter-writing campaign and request for information becomes something more than that.
