ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A bartender who has worked at Tropicana Field for a decade has been worried the standoff between the Tampa Bay Rays and Pinellas County commissioners will cause the team to leave the area.

What You Need To Know

  • Tropicana Field bartender Michele Dyson spoke out at a Pinellas commission meeting in support of the Rays on Tuesday

  • Pinellas commissioners voted to delay their $312.5 million bond vote for a second time until Dec. 17

  • The St. Petersburg city council will vote on their portion of bonds and whether to fix Tropicana Field on Thursday

“I’m worried and all of my friends are worried,” said bartender Michele Dyson, 54. “It’s not looking good.”

Dyson has been so concerned she showed up at a Pinellas County meeting on Tuesday to urge the commissioners to vote ‘yes’ on $312.5 million in bonds to help pay for the Rays new $1.3 billion stadium.

“I’m actually an employee at Tropicana Field. So if I get a little emotional, we all lost our jobs,” she said at the meeting. “I hope you and the Rays’ ownership can work together to keep the Rays right here in St. Pete… It’s not just a stadium. It’s home to all of us.”

Pinellas commissioners ended up voting 6-1 to delay the bond vote for a second time until Dec. 17. The Rays sent a letter a couple of hours before the meeting stating the delays were costing the team more money and have put the project in jeopardy.

Commissioner Brian Scott said he made a motion to delay the bond vote again because it appeared two new commissioners were going to join the previous two commissioners who voted ‘no’ for the new stadium this past summer and kill the deal.

Dyson said she’s not hopeful those two new commissioners, Vince Nowicki and Chris Scherer, will change their minds.

“I don’t know that a 30 day delay is going to do much to sway their minds,” she said. “Unless the people start talking and emailing and doing things like that. So I just don’t know.”

On Thursday, the St. Petersburg city council is scheduled to take a vote on $287.5 million in bonds to pay for their portion of the new stadium. The council will also vote on spending more than $23 million to fix the Trop after its domed roof was blown off by Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9.

Council member John Muhammad said he will vote against repairing the damage to the Trop, which is expected to exceed $56 million, knowing it’s going to be demolished in a few years.

The city has a $25 million insurance policy.

“I was never really on board with fixing it completely, knowing it’s going to be torn down. My vote a few weeks ago was in support of the mitigation work that was needed to prevent further damage,” he said. “I can’t in good conscious vote to spend that amount of money in that way at this time. Unless they give us something we haven’t heard before at tomorrow’s meeting.”

Dyson said she will attend and speak out publicly at the city council meeting too.

“I believe that this is a once in a lifetime. I believe if we do not get the ballpark, we will never get another baseball team. We won’t have the opportunity,” she said. “It is emotional. It’s all of our livelihoods. We all love working there. We’re like a huge family.”

The St. Petersburg city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.