The Tampa Bay Rays have released the first set of conceptual drawings for their proposed $2.3-billion ballpark and mixed-use project to be located on a 113-acre site leased from Hillsborough College in Tampa.<\/p>\n
Plans call for a 31,000-seat ballpark\u2014smaller than any existing permanent Major League Baseball stadium\u2014to be open in time for the 2029 season and offer diverse seating, celebration areas and year-round event spaces. An adjacent \u201cChampions Quarter\u201d neighborhood could potentially include \u201chotels, retail space, multifamily buildings, sports and health related buildings, commercial buildings, parking structures, restaurants and other related buildings,\u201d according to the team\u2019s January 2026 non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the college.<\/p>\n
No contractor has been named for the project, which the Rays say is being designed by a Populous-led team that also includes Gensler, Kimley-Horn, RCLCO, Beck, Walter P Moore, Terracon and ME Engineers. Mortenson had been tapped for a previous plan<\/a> to build a $1.3-billion ballpark for the Rays as the centerpiece of a proposed redevelopment of St. Petersburg\u2019s historic 86-acre Gas Plant District. The ballpark component was dropped soon after a new ownership group took control of the team last September.<\/p>\n Known as Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus, the proposed development site is located across the street from Raymond James Stadium and adjacent to George M. Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees\u2019 spring training facility that served as the Ray\u2019s temporary home last season after 2024\u2019s Hurricane Milton tore fabric panels off the dome roof of Tropicana Field, and damaged areas inside the building. Repairs are set to be complete<\/a> in time for the team\u2019s first home game of 2026, the first of three seasons remaining on its contract to play at the 36-year-old multiuse stadium owned by the City of St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n The Rays\u2019 MOU with Hillsborough College\u2014which calls for a minimum 99-year lease for the new ballpark and mixed-use property\u2014says that construction of the stadium and the mixed-use development \u201cshall be done in a manner so as to minimize interference\u201d with the school\u2019s operations and activities, including demolition of existing campus structures and construction of temporary facilities. In addition, new academic facilities are to be constructed on a portion of the site that will remain under the college\u2019s ownership.<\/p>\n According to local news reports, the ballpark\u2019s construction cost is to be split among the Rays, Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa, with the team paying at least half and covering overruns, repairs and maintenance and future capital improvements. All mixed-used elements are to be privately financed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays have released the first set of conceptual drawings for their proposed $2.3-billion ballpark and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,182,74650,4,60517,297,14328,295,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":["post-566941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-florida","tag-gensler","tag-mlb","tag-populous","tag-rays","tag-sports-construction","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116054199125969248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566941","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=566941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}