The Rays’ proposed $1.3 billion ballpark received a big dose of resurgent energy Thursday when the St. Petersburg (Fla.) City Council voted to approve public bonding toward the ballpark. 

The 4–3 vote will authorize the issuance of $287.5 million worth of bonds, a crucial piece of the $600 million in public funding for the stadium. 

The approval arrived two weeks after these same public officials delayed a vote on the stadium bonds. After that postponement and a similar and prior one by the Pinellas County commission, the Rays were asked by local leaders to make a clear statement on their intentions to build a stadium and instead responded by saying the public sector has failed to meet their obligations. Subsequent negotiations between city officials and the Rays executives yielded a more positive tenor. 

“We wanted to find out if the Rays were on the verge of sending a termination letter,” said councilmember Gina Driscoll, referencing the prior delay. “It turns out that they weren’t. The Rays are still in, and so am I.”

Rays executives were not present at the council meeting Thursday, though city administrator Rob Gerdes said he told the team appearing was not necessary. 

“When our partners are not here, it’s not an indication of a good relationship,” said councilmember Lisset Hanewicz, an opponent of the stadium bonding. 

Looking Ahead

The stadium was originally intended to open in 2028. Hurricane Milton and the resulting delays with the bond votes, however, have pushed that timetable back by at least a year, the Rays have said, and introduced additional costs that the team is responsible for and says it cannot afford.

Even with the approved city bonding, how the additional costs will be absorbed and what the final stadium construction timetable will be is yet to be determined, though Gerdes said there have been recent discussions about looking at other private sources to help make up a funding gap. 

Pinellas County also has yet to formally revisit their portion of the bonding, and will meet next on Dec. 17. The city will return next week to the issue of rehabilitating Tropicana Field while the team plays next season at the Yankees’ George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. 

The city council’s renewed debate on the stadium bonds also came with some additional controversy as the matter was not even placed on the agenda for Thursday’s hearing until the day before. Several councilmembers and numerous residents complained about the relative lack of notice for such a large-scale public outlay, one in a community still reeling from the hurricane and rebuilding its infrastructure. 

Neither No. 2 Texas nor No. 5 Georgia appears at risk of missing out on the College Football Playoff, no matter the outcome of Saturday’s SEC championship game in Atlanta. The situation is similar for the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis, which features No. 1 Oregon and No. 3 Penn State.

While that’s a good thing for those schools and their respective conferences, it’s raised questions about the meaning and value of conference championship games in this new era of college football. 

For the SEC, though, keeping a conference title matchup on the books long-term appears to be a priority. 

“I certainly think so,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Thursday when asked whether Saturday’s game has the same value as previous years. “Because I’m an SEC enthusiast that believes an SEC title is a significant marker to your season and the kind of season you have. It also gets you a bye and it gets you an opportunity to rest and recover.”

The four highest-ranked conference champions will earn first-round byes, while seeds 5–8 will host first-round games on campus against Nos. 9–12. 

“We take this very seriously,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “This is a big deal to us. I think so many times, in the world that we live in, is focusing on what’s next, what’s next, what’s next?”

The only concern Sarkisian has is making sure the championship game doesn’t knock an SEC team out of the Playoff. “I surely hope, this year and in the years to come, that nobody ever gets punished because they don’t come out on top in this game,” he said. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin previously said some coaches didn’t want to play in the SEC championship game for fear of getting knocked out of the CFP with a loss.

However, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey admitted he and the other leaders of the CFP will continue to explore their options for the Playoff’s specific format for 2026 and beyond when there could be further expansion.  

“We do have an opportunity to go through these two years of experience under existing contracts, and during that process, look anew at some of the format issues, and I look forward to that,” Sankey said.

SEC Wants Even More

It’s likely the SEC and Big Ten will each end up with four teams in this year’s CFP bracket—with no other conferences getting multiple bids—and Sankey’s not apologizing for occupying a third of the spots.

“I’d love to have eight teams,” Sankey said. “So, the conference champion, and then their seven at-larges. People would opine about whether that’s good or not. I think that’s the reality of college football.”

While the Formula One drivers’ championship has been locked up, the constructors’ championship is still up for grabs between McLaren and Ferrari heading into the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. However, with a 21-point gap between the two teams, perhaps the most dramatic finale Sunday will be Lewis Hamilton’s wildly successful run with Mercedes coming to an end.

Hamilton will wrap up a 12-year career with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, which started in 2013 after he replaced legendary driver Michael Schumacher. He led Mercedes to eight consecutive constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021, the longest streak in history. 

He also won six of his seven drivers’ championships with the German automobile manufacturer, cementing Mercedes’s place at the top of F1 despite the team’s takeover of Brawn GP (formerly Tyrrell Racing and later Honda Racing) occurring in 2010. (Brawn did win both championships in 2009.) 

Mercedes’s success also helped them become one of F1’s premier engine suppliers. Mercedes supplied McLaren from the 1990s, before adding Brawn in 2009. The team currently supplies engines to three F1 teams besides itself: Aston Martin, McLaren, and Williams.

Hamilton will race for Ferrari in 2025 after he signed a multiyear deal in February—a move that triggered Ferrari’s shares to increase by about 12% in the U.S. stock market on the day of the announcement. Ferrari stock is up around 32% year-to-date.

The exact financial details of Hamilton’s new deal are unclear, though Italian site AutoRacer pegged his annual earnings at $100 million, including base salary, sponsorships, and other bonuses. According to Spotrac, Hamilton, who began his career with McLaren, has amassed $577.2 million in career earnings throughout his 18 years in F1—including close to $500 million during his time with Mercedes.

More Drama in Abu Dhabi

Hamilton’s teammate is suddenly involved in some drama with four-time champion Max Verstappen entering the final race.

Verstappen received a one-place grid penalty following qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday for driving “unnecessarily slow,” which impeded George Russell’s lap. The penalty resulted in the two drivers swapping places, though Verstappen would ultimately win the race while Russell would finish fourth.

Verstappen said after the ruling that he “lost all respect” for Russell, comments the British driver addressed to the media ahead of the Abu Dhabi race.

“I find it all quite ironic, seeing as Saturday night he said he was going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and ‘put me on my fucking head in the wall,’” Russell said. “So to question somebody’s integrity as a person while saying comments like that the day before, I find, is very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.

Russell even cited past incidents to showcase Verstappen’s behavior—including his battle against Hamilton for the championship in 2021.

“Whenever anything is not going his way, he lashes out with unnecessary anger and borderline violence,” Russell said.