{"id":452496,"date":"2026-02-09T20:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452496\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T20:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:20:13","slug":"jane-castor-backs-tampa-bay-rays-stadium-plan-casts-it-as-next-step-for-champa-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452496\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane Castor backs Tampa Bay Rays stadium plan, casts it as next step for \u2018Champa Bay\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor<\/a> says the opportunity to bring the Tampa Bay Rays to Tampa is a chance to bring more success to a region already nicknamed \u201cChampa Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Seattle Seahawks\u2019<\/a>\u00a0Super Bowl victory reminded Castor about the night the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> won Super Bowl LV<\/a> at Raymond James Stadium. In a newsletter published the next day, Castor endorsed a new ballpark and mixed-use development<\/a> proposed by the Rays at Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She said it represents the next step in Tampa\u2019s growth as a major league city, arguing the project builds on momentum created by recent championship winning runs by the Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched Tampa light up in a way that stuck with me,\u201d Castor said. \u201cEven with pandemic precautions, our streets were full of fans cheering, businesses busy, and a real sense of joy in the air. It was a moment of incredible pride and Tampa showing we belong on the biggest stage. Now, there\u2019s another major league opportunity knocking on our door.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Castor\u2019s comments come after Hillsborough County<\/a> and Hillsborough College<\/a> officials voted in recent weeks to authorize formal negotiations with the Rays and their development partners over the Dale Mabry site. The votes opened a negotiation window, but in the case of the county stopped short of committing either entity to public funding \u2014 setting the stage for debate over whether taxpayer-backed resources \u2014 including Community Investment Tax revenue<\/a> \u2014 could play a role.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> also publicly supported the proposal<\/a> during a Feb. 3 press conference at the campus, lending momentum to the effort and prompting the Rays to release their first set of concept renderings last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Castor acknowledged that city and county officials have difficult discussions about public funding for the project ahead, but said the Rays proposal \u201cis exactly the kind of project that shapes a city\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Tampa officials have not yet publicly debated the proposal following those developments, Castor\u2019s remarks signal she is prepared to spend much of her final year in office advocating for a project that could define Tampa\u2019s development priorities well beyond the end of her administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cA city with major league sports is a city that thinks big. It\u2019s a city that believes in itself. Tampa has already proven we can host championship moments. Now we have the chance to build for the next generation of them. We are Champa Bay, always,\u201d Castor said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Mayor Jane Castor says the opportunity to bring the Tampa Bay Rays to Tampa is a chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[19007,52309,15479,5,27732,189,4,16486,17256,187,540,10654,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-452496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-hillsborough","9":"tag-hillsborough-college","10":"tag-hillsborough-county","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jane-castor","13":"tag-lightning","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-ron-desantis","16":"tag-seattle-seahawks","17":"tag-tampa","18":"tag-tampa-bay","19":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","20":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","21":"tag-tampabay","22":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116042533459592288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}