In a change of plans from St. Petersburg officials, Al Lang Stadium will not be torn down to make way for a waterfront amphitheater and instead be expanded as home of the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

Al Lang Stadium is the former spring-training home of the Tampa Bay Rays, but the general site hosted spring training decades prior at Waterfront Park to the north and the first version of Al Lang Field. When the Rays departed for Port Charlotte and Charlotte Sports Park for spring operations, the venue was slightly made over for pro soccer in the form of USL Championship’s Tampa Bay Rowdies.

If you’ve been to Al Lang Stadium, you know it occupies a very prime spot of land in St. Pete, with a commanding view of the marina waterfront and easy access to other downtown delights. Development in downtown St. Pete is a hot topic: for instance, a nearby $500-million, 50-story tower will feature condos, a Waldorf-Astoria hotel and office space, with condo sales already selling sales records. So a proposal to tear down Al Lang Stadium and replace it with a more upscale amphitheater, floated in April, generated plenty of support in City Hall.

Instead, the city is now looking at a proposal from the Rowdies, developed by ASD | SKY, to keep the old baseball grandstand but maintain the site as a soccer pitch, with expanded seating options,a new parking lot and a 360,000-square-foot three-story addition complete with locker rooms, a rooftop bar and year-round concessions. The cost: $49.2 million.

It’s a mix of the old and new for the Rowdies in the negotiations. The Rays were sold by Stuart Sternberg to a Jacksonville investment group, and that sale included the Rowdies. Relations between the old Sternberg regime and the city were strained when the Rays walked away from a development plan next to Tropicana Field that would include a new ballpark. (There were rumors that the Rays were also looking at a new 12,000-seat Rowdies soccer pitch as part of entertainment complex anchored by a Rays ballpark.) With the Rays eying Tampa locations for a new ballpark, an Al Lang Stadium renovation would ensure a long-term commitment from the Rowdies; presumably the Rowdies would program plenty of other events, like concerts, as a renovated Al Lang Stadium.

Nothing is imminent, but look for some sort of decision to be made in the first half of 2026. The Rowdies’ lease at Al Lang Stadium runs through the 2026 USL Championship season.

Rendering courtesy City of St. Petersburg.

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About Kevin Reichard
Kevin Reichard is founder and publisher of Ballpark Digest.