U.S. Sen. Rick Scott on Thursday urged the Tampa Sports Authority to reconsider allowing Kanye West, who performs as Ye, to play Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Florida, saying the concerts should not go forward after West’s antisemitic remarks.
Scott made the appeal in a public post on X and attached a letter to the Tampa Sports Authority Board of Directors. He said West’s comments were “vile” and “a slap in the face” to Florida’s Jewish community, and called it “extremely troubling” that taxpayer dollars were being used to help fund the upcoming show.
The move lands now because West is scheduled to perform at Raymond James Stadium on June 26 and June 28, and Scott is pressing the board before those dates arrive. In his letter, he said the venue is publicly owned and argued that performers there are accountable to the taxpayers who help fund it. He also said Florida is home to one of the nation’s largest Jewish populations, making the decision about the concerts especially sensitive in a state where the issue carries political and personal weight.
Scott tied his request to a pattern of public statements and actions he described as beyond the pale. He wrote that West has openly praised Nazis, called himself one, and slandered Jews around the world. Scott also pointed to a 2025 Super Bowl ad that West funded and said it directed viewers to buy merchandise featuring swastikas. In the same message, he said a taxpayer-supported stadium should not be used to promote hateful rhetoric and that West’s attacks are an affront to the values of the Hillsborough community.
The push also comes after West tried to recast his image. In January 2026, he issued a paid 750-word advertisement in The apologizing and saying his antisemitic remarks stemmed from a bipolar disorder episode and a “four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.” But Scott said that apology does not erase what West posted in February 2025, when he wrote, “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi,” and later said he was never apologizing for his Jewish comments.
Scott closed by asking the Tampa Sports Authority to “carefully review” the decision because taxpayer dollars are helping the show go on. The board has not said whether it will change course, and CBS12 News said it reached out to the Tampa Sports Authority for comment. For now, the concerts remain on the calendar — but the senator’s letter puts the stadium board in the center of a fight over public funding, community standards and whether Tampa should host West at all.
