Tampa Sports Teams Offer To Provide Funds For Removal Of Confederate Statue

The Tampa Bay Lighting, Rays, and Buccaneers have just released a joint statement in which they offer to provide financial resources necessary to remove a Confederate monument from downtown Tampa.

This followed a pledge from former NFL coach Tony Dungy to donate $5,000 of his own money to help remove the statue:

The funds will be needed. Last month, county commissioners voted to approve the removal of the statue, and this week they put a one-month deadline on the removal. The vote to remove the statue included a stipulation that no public money would be used to pay for the process, and Fox 13 news reports that fundraising efforts to collect the $280,000 necessary to remove the statue have stalled. It appears that Dungy, the Lightning, Bucs, and Rays will be taking care of the shortfall.

The statue, which is a memorial to all Confederate soldiers, will be relocated to the Brandon Family Cemetery by the Florida Daughters of the Confederacy.

[ Fox 13]