The Tampa Bay Rays are officially getting a brand-new stadium! This isn’t just talk, folks, it’s a done deal, a massive $2.3 billion agreement that locks them into the Tampa-St. Petersburg area for decades. And get this, the goal is to have the first pitch thrown in that new park by the 2029 season. Talk about a future secured!
The Votes Are In, The Money’s Flowing
This wasn’t some backroom handshake, this took real work. On Friday, the Hillsborough County commissioners threw down with a 5-2 vote to approve their nearly $800 million in public funding. That’s huge! And it followed the Tampa City Council’s own 4-3 vote the day before, green-lighting roughly $80 million from the city. You gotta hand it to them, they got this done. The rest of the bill, a whopping $1.4 billion and any cost overruns, that’s on the private investors. It’s all going up near Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus, replacing Tropicana Field, which has been their home since their 1998 debut. This is a complete overhaul, a fresh start.
A New Era, A New Ballpark Vision
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred dropped a statement after the county vote, and you can tell he’s pumped. He called it a “great day” for Rays fans and the whole region, even for Major League Baseball itself. Manfred gave a shout-out to the county, the city, and Patrick Zalupski for making this happen, looking forward to the organization building on success and deepening fan connection. And Ken Babby, the Rays CEO, he was just as fired up. He thanked the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners for “making history.” Babby talked about a “privately financed and mixed-use neighborhood,” a “reinvented Hillsborough College campus,” and a “new ballpark” that secures their MLB future. He shouted out County Chair Ken Hagan and Dr. Ken Atwater. Yeah, there’s more work to do, but he knows this partnership is gonna make it cohesive and successful. You can practically hear the celebration starting!
So, what’s next? Well, they’re looking forward to celebrating before breaking ground. For Rays fans, this means an end to all that stadium drama and the start of something totally new, with a state-of-the-art ballpark on the horizon for 2029. Get ready, Tampa Bay, your team isn’t going anywhere!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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