Amid scrutiny, Hillsborough school board approves agreement for women's soccer stadium at Blake High School

Tampa Bay’s forthcoming professional women's soccer team has officially found a home. A week after announcing a desire to play at Blake High School, the Hillsborough County School Board gave the green light to an agreement that allows the team to upgrade the stadium, which runs east to west along the Hillsborough River near N Boulevard.

Adoption of the agreement passed 6-1 after an hour-long discussion on Oct. 17, with District 6’s board member Karen Perez voting no.

The agreement clears the way for Florida Community Events, LLC—which is owned by the soccer team with ties to Tampa developer Darryl Shaw—to move forward with renovations that will increase capacity from 1,800 to about 5,000.

Other renovations include locker room upgrades, restroom improvements, new FIFA-approved turf, a stage for performances and other beautification projects. During the meeting Henry “Shake” Washington, Board Vice Chair and representative for District 5, which includes Blake, said that the group also promised improvements to the school’s performing arts theater.

In a press release after the vote, the team said, “Discussions are also underway for the team to create new opportunities for Blake High School students in the areas of Music and Performing Arts, TV Production, as well as Math and Engineering.”
While the final design is still not set, the still-unnamed team expects to invest more than $4 million in stadium enhancements. The upgrades, the team promised, will be permanent and cost taxpayers nothing. The team hopes to play at the revamped stadium as soon as August and expects to stay for three to five years. Christina Unkel, Super League Tampa Bay President, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay the team expects to play 12-14 home games a season.

Stadium upgrades will stay with Blake High School and fall on the school district to maintain after the team finds a permanent home elsewhere.

The team—owned by Shaw, together with Bern’s Steak House owner David Laxer, and their childhood friend Jeff Fox—is part of the new USL Super League. The side is one of 10-12 teams in the new league and will be coached by Denise Schilte-Brown, gaffer for University of South Florida women’s soccer. Brown, who coaches her last regular season game at USF on Thursday, Oct. 26, has taken USF to the NCAA tournament eight times under her leadership.

Tampa Bay’s USL Super League team has already secured approval to practice in Ybor City. The club says that its name, colors, and logo will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The passage of the agreement was not without scrutiny.

The board as a whole was supportive of improvements for Blake High School and the arrival of pro women’s soccer in Tampa Bay, but many criticized the lack of details in the six-page agreement.

“We need to make this much more comprehensive,” District 7 Board Member Lynn Gray said during the meeting.

Nadia Combs, Board Chair and representative for District 1, said the terms of the agreement were horrible and short sighted. She said that the team—which will now have access to a soon-to-be-developed riverwalk expansion—looked elsewhere and approached multiple parties, including the Tampa Sports Authority, in its search for a temporary stadium.

“This was their really final option,” Combs said, before wondering out loud about why the agreement doesn’t detail any potential profit sharing when it comes to revenues related to parking, ticketing and more.

“Why are we not getting some of that money and putting it back into Blake High School, offering students scholarships, helping families at Blake that might be financially impacted, making sure those students who don't have uniforms or don't have things are benefiting,” Combs asked. “This is access to an organization that's going to benefit and make millions and millions of dollars.”

In an email to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Christina Unkel, Super League Tampa Bay President, said that the team is budgeting a material loss for the first year and subsequent years of operation.

It’s no secret that professional women’s soccer in America is not a moneymaker. Before a recent collective bargaining agreement, minimum salaries in the National Women’s Soccer League were $22,000, with some players working second and third jobs to get by. Salary details for Tampa Bay’s women’s pro team have not yet been released.

Unkel—a lawyer who played soccer in college, refereed for FIFA and spent time in sports broadcasting—told CL that the team did indeed look at other sites for a temporary facility but could not logistically find a way to be ready for an August 2024 start.

“So we shifted our focus to seek an existing field that could be augmented—which was the stadium at Blake,” she added.

Addressing other concerns from the school board meeting, Unkel told CL that the team has not yet decided if it will seek a permit to sell alcohol at its home games. Florida Community Events, LLC, the company created specifically for the team to enter the agreement with Hillsborough County Schools, also has no plans to host concerts at the stadium, although Unkel said, “...the school has the discretion to do so if they choose.”

“There is an opportunity, however, for HCPS to monetize the proposed upgrades and improvements to the property by hosting other events (unrelated to soccer) there,” Unkel added.

Other board members were concerned with the rules regarding termination of the agreement, which can happen if there is 30-day notice.

Unkel, however, told CL that the team has “entered into this MOU based on the trust and goodwill that the MOU will not be terminated by HCPS after we invest in significantly upgrading the stadium.”

“The generic nature of the MOU is more advantageous to HCPS than to us,” she claimed.

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