TAMPA, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday that Hillsborough College will be the new home for the Tampa Bay Rays.
During a news conference in Tampa, DeSantis said he would be supporting a proposal to build a multi-use facility on a 113-acre site along Dale Mabry Boulevard. The site is across the street from Raymond James Stadium, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play, and in the shadows of George M. Steinbrenner Field, which is the spring training home to the New York Yankees.
“I’m a baseball purist. I think people should just want to come watch that. But the reality is you do need other things to draw people. You see what they did in Atlanta to have the shops and the restaurants and the hotels to really make it a place where people want to be, even if they’re not diehard baseball fans,” DeSantis said. ” That vision is very compelling. And it’s been a vision that has been created in part by studying some of the things that have happened around the country, what has worked, what’s not worked.
Watch DeSantis’ full announcement on the Tampa Bay Rays in the video above
DeSantis said the state will be conveying the land to the college to make the new stadium a reality.
“All this could be used in a way that’s going to lead to a rejuvenated Hillsborough College campus and then an area that’s going to really be an attraction, not just for baseball fans, but for people throughout the region who just want to have a good time,” DeSantis said.
Last September, a group led by Florida-based real estate developer Patrick Zalupski finalized a deal to purchase the team from former owner Stuart Sternberg. Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.4 billion.
Zalupski, the CEO of Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes Inc., is the team’s control person and a co-chair along with Bill Cosgrove, who is CEO of Union Home Mortgage in Ohio.
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