Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $35 million in government spending for a new practice facility for the Tampa Bay Rays after the baseball team posted a tweet in support of gun control, according to a report.
The move comes just weeks after the GOP governor — and rumored 2024 presidential hopeful — stripped Disney of its self-governing status after the Mouse House came out in opposition to a new law banning explicit sex and gender education for young children.
ln the most recent skirmish, DeSantis penalized the Tampa franchise after a tweet from the team’s official Twitter account took a swing at the nation’s gun laws following the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, according to the news site OutKick.
“This cannot become normal. We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes,” the team tweeted.
The Rays, who have edged out the Yankees to win the AL East the past two years, were hoping that DeSantis would sign off on funding for the new spring training complex in Odessa, Florida.
DeSantis this week signed a $109.9 billion budget for the fiscal year starting on July 1 — but killed the funding for the Rays’ facility.
The governor defended his veto of the sports complex at a press briefing Friday.
“I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums,” he said. “Companies are free to engage or not engage with whatever discourse they want, but clearly … it’s inappropriate to subsidize political activism of a private corporation.”
The horrific May 24 mass shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed by an 18-year-old gunman, has reignited a national debate about gun control.
The deadly attack came 10 days after another 18-year-old gunned down 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket.
In the aftermath of the Texas shooting, the Rays and the Yankees both agreed to suspend usual game coverage on their Twitter feeds and instead posted information about gun violence.
The Rays’ statement that was posted to the team’s Twitter feed began: “We all deserve to be safe — in schools, grocery stores, places of worship, our neighborhoods, houses and America.”
“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,” OutKick reported.
OutKick is a sports media entity that was recently acquired by the Fox Corporation, whose sister company, News Corp., owns The Post.
