In purported revenge for the Tampa Bay Rays’ support for gun control, Florida Governor Rick Scott blocked plans for a $35 million sports center to be used at times by the team.
Ron DeSantis, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, vetoed $3.1 billion from the state budget on Thursday.
He didn’t go into each item line by line, but conservative commentator Clay Travis’ sports website Outkick said that DeSantis was out to penalize the baseball team.
The office of DeSantis has yet to respond.
The team had hoped to hold spring training at a proposed new sports center in Odessa, Florida.
They urged their followers to donate to Everytown for Gun Safety on May 26, two days after the Uvalde school shooting.
‘We all deserve to be safe – in schools, grocery stores, places of worship, our neighborhoods, houses and America,’ they said in a statement.
‘The most recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde have shaken us to the core. The Tampa Bay Rays are mourning these heartbreaking tragedies that took the lives of innocent children and adults.
‘This cannot become normal. We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes.’
The team announced that they had donated $50,000 to Everytown for Gun Safety’s Support Fund, which supports the nation’s leading gun violence prevention organization.