{"id":810339,"date":"2026-09-21T05:21:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/810339\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T05:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:21:32","slug":"losing-3000-parking-spots-bucs-fans-react-to-new-rays-stadium-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/810339\/","title":{"rendered":"Losing 3,000 parking spots? Bucs fans react to new Rays stadium plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Looking \"Looking <\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla – Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans navigating Raymond James Stadium traffic on Sunday could face even worse gridlock once the Tampa Bay Rays build a $2.3 billion ballpark directly across the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dale Mabry Traffic Concerns <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Late last month, the Tampa City Council and the Hillsborough County Commission approved the Rays’ $2.3 billion ballpark at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry Campus. The team hopes to open the state-of-the-art facility in time for Opening Day 2029.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Economic development expert John Boyd says the current plan could eliminate between 2,600 and 3,000 parking spaces used for events at Raymond James Stadium.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, hundreds of football fans walked along Dale Mabry Highway to avoid parking prices ranging from $50 to $150.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Future Infrastructure Plans <\/p>\n

What we don’t know:<\/p>\n

Local leaders have not yet detailed how they plan to reconfigure traffic patterns or replace the vanishing parking lots before 2029. It remains unclear if major sports leagues will successfully align game schedules to prevent simultaneous home games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cross-League Game Scheduling <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Major sports cities such as Arlington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle and Kansas City routinely coordinate NFL and MLB schedules to prevent overlapping home games. Similar schedule adjustments in Tampa could prevent simultaneous events from completely paralyzing traffic along Dale Mabry Highway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" Fan Reactions On Parking <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Buccaneers season ticket holder Jay Vincent says high parking prices pushed him to walk instead.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019re paying $100 to $150 to park there, and I can\u2019t justify that,” he said. “I\u2019d rather get a suntan and a little bit of walk.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Bucs fan Fletcher Cardenas says getting through the area is already difficult.<\/p>\n

“That intersection might be the underground of Hades,” he said. “It is the worst place to get through,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bucs fan Angelica Sauber believes losing more parking would only make things tougher.<\/p>\n

“Get rid of parking? That’s awful, it’s going to be hard,” he said. “Yeah, it’s going to be rough.”<\/p>\n

Bucs fan JP Woodward says the potential growing pains could still bring a long-term benefit for Tampa.<\/p>\n

“Honestly, it\u2019s probably going to be worse,” he said. “That means it\u2019s going to be bringing in a lot more media and attention to Tampa, so it\u2019s a win-win.”<\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story came from statements from the Tampa Sports Authority, statements from the Tampa Bay Rays, interview with an economic development consultant, interviews with Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans and previous reporting on FOX 13.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County<\/a>Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla – Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans navigating Raymond James Stadium traffic on Sunday could face even worse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,16235,610,25579,4,169,1082,297,2550,68,2551,2549,609],"class_list":["post-810339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-buccaneers","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-rays","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117307355344578124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810339","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=810339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}