St. Pete Considers (Partially) KEEPING Rays

St. Pete Considers (Partially) KEEPING Rays

Here’s Brody Brazil. I know you’ve already seen the title and the thumbnail of this video, but I really feel the need to clarify what I’m actually talking about here. Are the Tampa Bay Rays staying in St. Pete for the potential purpose of spring training in future years? Yeah, the Rays might go ahead and build a brand new stadium over in Tampa with their brand new ownership. That’s probably the ambition. That’s probably where they’re starting. That’s likely to be how this all plays out here. When they eventually leave Tropicana Field in St. Pete, they’re just going across the bridge over to Tampa. But what about doing something for St. Pete? What about the Rays establishing and keeping some roots in St. Pete? What you’re looking at here is a rendering of old Alang Stadium. This already exists. They’re not going to build this. They’re just going to redo it. And maybe I know that’s a soccer field on there. I know you can already see that. But what if they make that also a baseball configuration? Because when this proposal was presented, it was also discussed that they might bring this back to being a baseball field. And it could be a future and potential home, a spring training home of the Tampa Bay Rays. They used to call this home during the springtime back in the day when they were an expansion franchise. They got away from that. More on that in just a second. Al Lang Stadium is a 7,500 seat outdoor venue right on St. Pete’s waterfront. I’ll show you the satellite view and kind of the lay of the land in just a second. It was originally built in 1947, most recently remodeled in 2015, but remodeled for soccer purposes because since 2011, the USL’s Tampa Bay Rowdies have called it home. But it was exclusively a baseball stadium for about 60 years. The St. Louis Cardinals for a very long time had their spring training in St. Petersburg from 1948 to 1997. All of a sudden, the Rays come along. They’re like, “Wait a second. This is our town. We’re doing spring training here and why not, right? To be around town for a couple extra months at the beginning of a season to spark interest and then play all your games here. The Rays called St. Pete home for their own spring training. They only had one place, St. Pete for spring, St. Pete for the rest of the year. They were outdoors to begin the season and they went indoors obviously when the weather got a little bit more hot and humid. But 98 to 2008, the Rays called St. Pete home. And again, since 2011, this stadium has been converted. You can still clearly see how it’s got that U-shape like a baseball stadium, but a soccer team plays there. It’s the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who by the way are owned by the current ownership of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rowdies and Rays have been co-owned. They were by Stuart Sternberg, the former owner of the Rays. When he sold the Rays, he also sold the Rowdies as part of that. Here’s Al Lang Stadium from overhead. So, this is downtown St. Pete over here. There’s the airport right there. Obviously, the marina right there. And on this entire site, there’s also here tucked in a a museum, u a theater, and a big parking lot right here. So, you’ve got all those things. And then you’ve got Alang Stadium right there. It’s such a beautiful setting. You’ve got everything you want. Proximity to the water. I mean, the airport is convenient. Downtown is right there. It’s a fun little area. But that’s why recently St. Pete was actually considering doing something totally different with this. In fact, this was back in May of this year, 2025. St. Pete’s mayor, Ken Welch. Now, you have to remember this is in the midst of the raise being very much in uncertainty. They weren’t sold yet. They weren’t sure if Orlando was in the mix and this was the home of the Rowdies. And the Rowdies contract was up until 2025. Now, it expires one year later in 2026. There was a lot of adversity and tension going on here. And Ken Welch, the mayor, was like, “You know what? How about we turn this all into an art district? We’ve already got the uh we’ve already got the museum. We’ve already got the theater. Why don’t we turn this into an entire arts district? We will get rid of Al Lang Stadium. We will demolish Alang Stadium because the land is so valuable and it’s got such an opportunity. Let’s start from scratch.” The city owns the stadium. The Rowdies lease it. It expired at the end of this year. It’s since been extended now by one year to 2026. But this got plenty of negative feedback either from rowdy’s fans or traditionalists or anybody who’s like, “Wait, why are we tearing this down to to do something else?” It’s, by the way, going to cost about at least $250 million to make it an art district. Why don’t we just leave it there? So, this idea in the 6 months or so since then was not wellreceived. And so that’s why they’re pivoting on this idea, which by the way came with renderings. I mean, you just kind of saw there how this how this all fits. Alang Stadium is kind of in in tucked in there right now. This is the rest of the site. We’re looking at it from a different view. Airport’s over here, downtown’s over here. But yeah, this is what this is what they wanted to do with the site. Give it a boost, give it an upgrade, make it an arts and entertainment district. Instead, it seems like now with the Rays maybe staying in the region in Tampa and St. Pete’s looking at this saying, “Wait a second. What if we could somehow still attach to the Rays? What if we could be their spring training home?” And I I do believe without having seen the full presentation here. It’s that building which would become a three-story like clubhouse complex. Like because and and the other thing about spring training is that in 2026, it’s a lot different than it used to be in the ’90s. Major League Baseball teams have access to like multiple fields and batting cages and infield only fields. So, I don’t know what the Rays would do because that alone, that one field is not enough. Maybe that’s where they play their just their games. Maybe there’s a separate training facility and then this is where the games are played. That that does happen too for a lot of different teams that their main stadium is detached from their actual training facility. So, they’re going to need more than this for an entire complex. But, let’s just say that this is where they play their their spring training games. And now they’ve got this building right here as a facility, as a clubhouse that’s perfect for use. I mean, look at the location here, right on the waterfront. This is absolutely ridiculous. And for St. Pete, I know they’ve played here before, but me me understanding this now. And for them to go back to this, I think makes a lot of sense. Now, city council members were presented with this plan to renovate the stadium in the site. They’re going to add a three-story locker room facility like I just showed you there. year-round concessions and a rooftop bar. They’re trying to make this more of a thing, more of a vibe. They said in the presentation, this site, like at the worst, it’s going to be upgrading this site for the rowdies if they stay longterm. But this site, they say, quote, presents potential as a future spring training location should the Rays depart. Now, do they mean for the Rays to come back there and play spring training games, or do they mean for some other team? More on that in just a second. The rays are currently under contract and they have a lease with Port Charlotte until 2031. So you have to understand that the timing of this may not work out perfect if this project moves forward to upgrade Alang Stadium. This could be done in probably 2 years at the most. So this would be ready by 28, but the Rays can’t really come back until 2031. But who knows if the Rays will be departing St. Pete to go to Tampa by 2029. like all of this is still very much up in the air. This is just an idea of something adjacent to do with it. So, here’s a possible scenario. By the way, this is a $49.2 million buildout for the addition of that building, for the improvements, for the upgrades to the stadium. The the arts district that was also proposed that came at a cost of more like $243 million. So, not only might this be more appealing and that you don’t have to demolish Alang Stadium, a historic venue, but this costs far less than what the art arts district would, the Rowdies might eventually, and this is hypothetical. Again, this is my this is my possible scenario, the Rowdies, if they’re co-owned by the Rays, what if a new Rays stadium on the waterfront in Tampa, what if that’s also the home of the Rowdies? What if they build a twofor one stadium situation, which could happen, right? I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t. And so, if that happens, now you’re talking about this stadium being empty and vacant. So, at the least, it’s it can be a baseballonly stadium. Alang Stadium might be able to still be dual purpose for the rowdies during the summer for the Rays during uh you know, spring training and when they need it. But Al Lang could become a baseballon facility for the purpose of spring training. It’s not that now, but the dugouts are still intact. The press box is still intact. And all of this, if it happens, right, whether the rowdies are involved or not, Tampa and St. Pete ultimately get to keep the Rays in a most ideal scenario like that. That’s pretty cool that St. Pete could have that connection of, well, they were the first home of the Rays and the longtime home of the Rays and now they get to keep them for spring training, right? An extra couple months of having the team in town and then they’re only going to Tampa in the long term. But what if it’s not the race? What if the Rays say, “Hey, Port Charlotte’s where we’re all set up. We really don’t want to move away from that.” Could St. Pete, could St. Pete pitch itself to host another Major League Baseball team for spring training? Or how would that feel? I haven’t really thought about that. If St. Pete like hosted the Rays forever, and I get it, the stadium is not exactly in the same spot. It’s it’s out east by the water a little bit more. Would would there be any awkward feelings about that? Like now St. Pete is the spring training home of I don’t know the Minnesota Twins. I’m just making anything up here. And then and then Tampa’s home of the Rays in the season. I don’t know. It’s got a weird feel to it. So I don’t know if this like does this have to be the home the spring training home of the Rays or could this be the spring training home of somebody else? Either way, it’s a consideration. I think if this all works out again, it’d be really cool, right, to for the Rays to go back to their history, to make use of this stadium, to upgrade this facility, and to have the connection with St. Pete and Tampa at the very same time. So, that’s a quick update. Let me know what you think about this concept, this idea. Is it worth it? Should they do it? How did this how does this ultimately play out for you? Let me know in the comments section below. Also, thumbs up while you’re down there. Helps me, the video, and the channel. And don’t forget to subscribe. I would love to see you back here next time.

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St. Petersburg officials have changed course after getting strong pushback earlier this year against a proposal to demolish Al Lang Stadium as part of a plan to develop a portion of the city’s waterfront.

Now, they’re considering making the stadium even bigger.

Representatives from design firm ASD | SKY’s Tampa office gave some City Council members a presentation Thursday that included a concept to build a three-story addition at Al Lang for lockers, year-round concessions and a rooftop restaurant and bar.

The stadium is the home of the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team. The team’s lease expires next year, and the city hopes making the upgrades could keep the Rowdies in St. Petersburg long term, said Beth Herendeen, city development administration managing director.

Read More: https://www.tampabay.com/news/st-petersburg/2025/12/04/tampa-bay-rowdies-al-lang-expansion-rays-spring-training/

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