Tampa Bay Rays NEW Stadium could cost $2.3B?

24 comments

1. I would bet the Rays will end up in Florida but where in Florida is going to come down to which city has the deepest pockets and is willing to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money. The Rays have never been able to strike a deal with Tampa. Orlando has a lot of tourist money but the current mayor of Orange County doesn't seem particularly motivated to move on the project. I wouldn't count St. Petersburg out because they have land on the site of Tropicana Field and were willing to make a deal. And finally, Ken Babby owned the Jacksonville minor league team and I believe the leader of the ownership group builds houses in the Northeast Florida region. I get the feeling it's not going to come down to size of media market but rather available land and a local government willing to put up the money.

2. The Lighting just got a lot of money for arena upgrades, and the Buccaneers stadium lease is coming up in 2028. I can't imagine the Rays are in a good place to get a large amount of money as I am sure the Buccaneers are going to have a large ask for either major stadium upgrades or new stadium especially now that Miami had major upgrades a few years ago and Jacksonville is going through major upgrades now. How could the Buccaneers not want major upgrades with their lease coming up.

3. They just need to stop asking for tax payers to fund stadiums. They want to own the team, they need to own their home too. With sports being so over priced already and if this goes through expect the ticket prices to be so high you can't even take a family to see the game. Honestly, just let them move to another area, we obviously don't want them, no one ever goes to the games anyways.

4. Forever home what does that mean, for 30 years? lol

5. When the Dallas Cowboys built their stadium and it cost just over $1 billion, it was shocking, and now they are all like $2-$5 billion.

6. $2.3 billion? We better get a few fighter jets with the new stadium for flyovers during the national anthem 🇺🇸

7. Time to find out what Floridian city has a special passion for baseball. “No one cares about baseball- it doesn’t matter” – a professional dancer recently told me. I responded: “What matters is baseball.” Time for a Floridian city to step up and not embarrass me !

8. I just put out a video at the proposed location. It’s a thriving area and the fanbase will really support the team being right there in Tampa next to Raymond James Stadium. The new project will be a success without a doubt!

9. They need to brake ground and get it built. Please put an end to this decades long problem.

10. Ask Mets fans about airport noise during games

11. Buffalos new NFL stadium in NY cost that much….seems like a lot for a baseball stadium

12. As a resident of St. Pete who lives about 10 blocks from the Trop, I will say this: good luck. No chance in hell the city of Tampa or Hillsborough County coughs up the kind of money St. Pete and Pinellas commited to the old ownership group just a few years ago. Let the billionaires who paid for the team pay for their real estate deal and ballpark. We've seen this story countless times.

13. This is more rehashed info that JP Peterson reported on earlier in the week. What Peterson was told was that the 2.3 billion number from Eric Hart, from the Tampa Sports Authority was NOT an exact number and it might have been a misunderstanding with that reporter (Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times). The point is that the Rays, Mayor (Jane Castor) and the Tampa Sports Authority want to keep the real numbers under wraps until the deal is finalized. At that point, it will then be released to the public for comment, then public meetings and votes by the City (Tampa) and County (Hillsborough). See, these nuggets (i.e., the $2.3 billion number) can be taken out of context, it likely was and could lead to negative public perceptions like we saw this week. Bottom line, let's be patient and wait until we see what the deal actually looks like and then we can accurately make some judgments on whether this is a good deal or not.

    Ron DeSantis, Florida Governor, is going to be in Tampa on Monday or Tuesday this week with a big presser with the Rays, and we will see the renderings for the new ballpark, no financial info will be released at that presser.

14. No one knows where the 2.3B number came from…

15. Land is probably a lot of cheaper in Polk County. Why not put it somewhere out there. Orlando and TB would both attend the games. Hit both markets. Could really make something special right off I-4 somewhere in between those two cities.

16. Orlando or Jacksonville anyone?

17. As a Cardinals fan this will be good for the Rays Ownership

18. Hillsborough is not gonna pay for half of that. Pinellas has all the money.

19. There was no relocation clause in the sale? Usually it's like 5 years or something before you can sell or relocate.

20. All of he above

21. Malcom Glazer announces an $8.4 Billion dollar renovation of Raymond James Stadium on Thursday.

22. The Yankees had to know something like this was possible once the region got an MLB team. I'm sure on some level they feel the Rays are ingrates for wanting their new stadium next door after allowing the team to play their home games there last year, but the Rays are the ML team with territorial rights. I'm sure something will be worked out behind the scenes to calm them down. I'm FAR more concerned about the proximity to the airport, however. Sticking the stadium in that corner seems to be inviting disaster.

23. Let's put this into perspective here. We are in an inflationary cycle. All of you have shopped for groceries recently I'm sure. What clocks in at $2.3B in the planning stage, will come to $3.5B in the design stage, and probably $5B at the build stage. But all of the revenue numbers get ratcheted upward as well. I did the parking numbers on a previous video. $25 per game, per space parking revenue (Rays + Bucs) and college would inflate to $50 per. Tickets will cost $200, hot dogs will cost $15, and a beer will cost $25. These things will adjust, but where Baseball is screwed is that most of their diehard fans are either going to die off, or get priced out, not able to afford any of this on fixed incomes…The ancillary revenue from retail, hospitality, maybe some office rentals, will, due to proximity to the airport, command premium rents. So I have no doubt that they can get it to math out, especially with comingled funds going into the village from the community college district…My bigger question is whether or not Baseball as a product will even be able to stay viable. These MLB guys are world-class failures at adapting to, or even understanding their markets. Real estate developers took over the Rays. They can make this work. But that's the easy part. The hard part will be keeping the stadia full once they are built and/or remodeled at the inflated prices. More to the point, how many seniors on $1,700 a month incomes will be willing to donate a large chunk of that to the Shohei Ohtanis and Mike Judges?…It's an existential question, gang…

24. any room in the lakeland area aka halfway between tampa and orlando