{"id":563406,"date":"2026-02-10T02:18:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/563406\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T02:18:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:18:35","slug":"could-orlando-take-the-rays-from-tampa-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/563406\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Orlando take the Rays from Tampa Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstalkflorida.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/000-orlando-dreamers-stadium-rendering-3.jpg\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"387\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/000-orlando-dreamers-stadium-rendering-3-696x387.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"000- orlando-dreamers-stadium-rendering-3\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Half\u2011Century Pursuit Is Now at a Breaking Point<\/p>\n<p>Tampa has chased Major League Baseball since the 1970s. The region courted franchises, built proposals, and fought to prove it could support a big\u2011league team. When MLB finally arrived, the franchise landed in St. Petersburg\u2014inside a dome disconnected from the region\u2019s population center.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays have thrived on the field, but the location has never worked. Every transportation study, business\u2011journal analysis, and Tampa Bay Times editorial has pointed to the same conclusion: St. Petersburg is too far from too many fans.<\/p>\n<p>Now, with new ownership and a transformative Hillsborough Community College stadium\u2011village proposal on the table, Tampa faces a stark reality: if it doesn\u2019t commit, Orlando will.<\/p>\n<p>Orlando Has Waited Decades for This Moment<\/p>\n<p>Orlando\u2019s baseball ambitions stretch back to the 1990s, when the late Pat Williams pushed aggressively for an MLB franchise. His bid competed directly with the Tampa Bay effort that ultimately landed the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the Orlando Dreamers group\u2014backed by tourism\u2011driven revenue models, Orange County hospitality tax support, and a city hungry for a major\u2011league identity\u2014has renewed the push.<\/p>\n<p>The Orlando Sentinel reports the Dreamers have:<\/p>\n<p>A stadium site tied to the tourism corridor<\/p>\n<p>A branding and marketing plan already built<\/p>\n<p>A political environment open to sports investment<\/p>\n<p>A belief that MLB would thrive alongside Disney and Universal<\/p>\n<p>If Tampa and St. Petersburg fail to deliver, Orlando is positioned to move instantly.<\/p>\n<p>Tampa\u2019s HCC Stadium Village Is the Only Path Forward<\/p>\n<p>The proposed $2.3 billion ballpark and $5\u20136 billion surrounding village at HCC is Tampa\u2019s best\u2014and last\u2014chance to secure the Rays permanently. The district would include:<\/p>\n<p>A major league stadium<\/p>\n<p>A minor league\/academy stadium<\/p>\n<p>A college campus<\/p>\n<p>A walkable entertainment village<\/p>\n<p>Proximity to Raymond James Stadium<\/p>\n<p>This is the type of sports\u2011anchored development that cities like Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have used to transform entire neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p>The Stakes Could Not Be Higher<\/p>\n<p>If Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa cannot commit, and if St. Petersburg and Pinellas County cannot finalize their own plan, MLB will not wait. The Rays will remain in Florida\u2014but in Orlando, not Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n<p>This is Tampa\u2019s final chance. Build the stadium, or watch Central Florida take the franchise the region has chased for half a century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Half\u2011Century Pursuit Is Now at a Breaking Point Tampa has chased Major League Baseball since the 1970s. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,74227,4,74228,297,74229,2550,68,74230,74231,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-563406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-hcc-stadium-village","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-orlando-dreamers-mlb","12":"tag-rays","13":"tag-rays-future-2026","14":"tag-tampa-bay","15":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","16":"tag-tampa-orlando-mlb-race","17":"tag-tampa-rays-stadium-debate","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116043941751979770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563406","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=563406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}