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<\/p>\nTAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays are preparing to make a pitch to secure a site for a new stadium, and they are focusing on Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus. Trustees are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to hear the team\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
On a quiet Friday at the Dale Mabry campus, some new nursing students were adjusting to just their third day of classes.<\/p>\n
WATCH: Students react to potential new Rays stadium at Hillsborough College campus<\/p>\n
Rays explore possible Tampa stadium<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like it\u2019s ran very well. It\u2019s pretty impressive. It was very competitive to get in,\u201d said student Madison McGrath.<\/p>\n
More than 27,000 students attend classes at the campus, but many are now wondering what could happen if the Rays select the site for a new stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the Brandon campus doesn\u2019t have labs and everything they need for nursing. This is also closer to the bigger hospitals. It\u2019s kind of in the middle of everything,\u201d student Hope Lathem said.<\/p>\n
Angelica Castro, who is working toward an associate degree while playing on the softball team, said students are worried about the future of the campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the school is really good and its given us so many opportunities like softball scholarships for athletes here so I feel like it would be a waste to have a stadium here,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n
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WFTS<\/p>\n
More details could emerge Tuesday when the Hillsborough College District Board of Trustees holds a special meeting. According to the agenda, the Rays have approached the college about using a portion of the Dale Mabry campus for a proposed stadium and mixed-use development. The agenda states that \u201cthe project as proposed would result in a major transformation of many aspects of the Dale Mabry campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes a lot of sense to me,\u201d said Bill Sutton, a professor emeritus with the University of South Florida\u2019s Sports and Entertainment Management Program.<\/p>\n
Sutton said the Hillsborough College site is appealing, especially with the possibility of an entertainment district similar to The Battery in Atlanta, which surrounds the Braves\u2019 stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as Tampa has grown and as young as it is, and the interest of people and the big events that we do here, it just makes a lot of sense,\u201d Sutton said.<\/p>\n
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WFTS<\/p>\n
Questions remain about funding, the development timeline, and what would ultimately happen to the campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would favor moving the campus or taking the resources and expanding the other campuses and doing whatever you need to do,\u201d Sutton said.<\/p>\n
With Raymond James Stadium and Steinbrenner Field nearby, Sutton said a baseball stadium could help turn the area into a” sports city,” though he said mass transportation would be helpful to making it work.<\/p>\n
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Abandoned ‘zombie house’ where owner died undiscovered for years gets stunning renovation<\/p>\n
A dilapidated St. Petersburg home where the owner’s skeletal remains were found years after his death has been transformed from a neighborhood eyesore to a dream home.<\/p>\n
Abandoned ‘zombie house’ where owner died undiscovered for years gets stunning renovation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays are preparing to make a pitch to secure a site for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[10117,5,69789,69790,19859,4,297,2550,20413,68,2551,2549,10120],"class_list":{"0":"post-525699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-abc-action-news","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-college-campus","11":"tag-hillsborough-college-campus","12":"tag-hillsborough-county","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-rays","15":"tag-tampa-bay","16":"tag-tampa-bay-local-news","17":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabayrays","20":"tag-wfts"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115912968767393799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}