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<\/a><\/p>\nAttendees will have the opportunity to ask questions at both events.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversations we\u2019ve had across Hillsborough County have been incredibly productive and insightful, and they continue to reinforce the strength of this community,\u201d Babby said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach session gives us a better understanding of how we can create a Forever Home that is rooted in collaboration and partnership with our community. As we move forward, our focus remains on building something that reflects those priorities and creates a lasting impact for Tampa Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rays kicked off a series of engagement and listening sessions, including a meeting in late February<\/a> with a local firefighters\u2019 union. The public sessions are intended to engage baseball fans, Hillsborough College students and faculty, nearby residents, and community and business leaders, giving them opportunities to review evolving development concepts, ask questions and share feedback, which the team says will be considered as leaders shape the final design.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been encouraged by the level of engagement and thoughtful input from the community so far, and we\u2019re excited to keep those conversations going,\u201d said Hillsborough College President Ken Atwater, whose institution has tentatively signed off<\/a> on the team using its Dale Mabry campus as a new home.<\/p>\n \u201cAs this vision continues to take shape, we see tremendous opportunity to expand workforce training, create meaningful internship pathways, and better connect our students to careers right here in Tampa Bay. That kind of real-world access and experience is invaluable, and this partnership has the potential to open new doors for our students in ways that extend well beyond the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to support from Hillsborough College, the state in late February approved the conveyance of land<\/a> in Hillsborough County to Hillsborough College, an approval that makes land available for a\u00a0reimagined Dale Mabry campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n The concept, first\u00a0unveiled publicly<\/a>\u00a0on Feb. 5, envisions a 31,000-seat ballpark surrounded by retail, entertainment, residential and academic space.<\/p>\n A Tampa Bay Business Journal<\/a> report earlier this month found the Rays were expected to potentially make a $1 billion public ask<\/a> for the project. Initially, the topic was expected to come up at the Hillsborough County Commission\u2019s April 1 meeting. But that plan fell through and now expectations are that a conversation at the Hillsborough County Commission could happen as soon as mid-April<\/a>, though sources with knowledge of the proceedings have suggested even that might be a lofty timeline.<\/p>\n The proposal to relocate the Rays from St. Pete to Tampa has drawn significant support from elected officials at the local and state levels, but negotiations for public funding could be more heated. If approved, the funds would be used to build out a new ballpark for the team equipped with a state-of-the-art rooftop, as well as a surrounding mixed-use district in the mold of the Atlanta Braves ballpark and the surrounding Battery District.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Jesse Mendoza of Florida Politics contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays have added two new community engagement and listening sessions as the team continues to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,35960,70478,72933,24876,4,297,20044,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-639532","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-hillsborough-college","10":"tag-hillsborough-county-commission","11":"tag-ken-atwater","12":"tag-ken-babby","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-rays","15":"tag-stadium-deal","16":"tag-tampa-bay","17":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116280445093424031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639532","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=639532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/jay-trumbull-florida-politics-banner-ads-728x90-b-scaled-e1740688220698.jpg\")
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