Rays hitters Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz, and Ryan Vilade. (Photo credit: TBTimes)
A two-decade saga spanning multiple ownerships has finally ended in Major League Baseball as the Tampa Bay Rays secured the vote for public funding from the City of Tampa on a 4-3 measure, and today secured the funding from Hillsborough County on a 5-2 measure.
The Rays, who are playing in a venue that was originally home to the Tampa Bay Lightning, have been planning new stadiums on-and-off since Stuart Sternberg bought the team in 2004. The team finally seemed to be on the precipice of a new deal until a hurricane re-allocated city funding and kiboshed it. Now, almost a year after Sternberg closed the deal to sell to Jacksonville real estate developer Pat Zapulski, the Rays are set to put shovels in the ground on a new stadium.
This stadium, planned to open in 2029 after the lease with Tropicana Field in 2028, represents a major victory for the Rays. Not only was The Trop very old and widely considered the worst ballpark in baseball, but moving from the St. Pete area where it had been impossible for Tampa families to get to the park after work by game time to the current site of Hillsborough Community College, integrated well into Drew Park across the street from Raymond James Stadium. The team will put up $1.4B, while the City of Tampa will put up $80M, and the county will put up $800M.
The park is set to feature a district similar to that of the Battery in Atlanta, promising to liven up the Drew Park area and make it closer to the commercial space of Westshore that sits just south of it. The city, which consisted almost-entirely of swing votes, expects a large sum of jobs to be created through this funding. The County was a lot less of a nailbiting vote primarily because not only will the College be relocated with a more state-of-the-art campus funded by the State of Florida, the money the county is putting forward comes primarily from its Tourist Development Tax, meaning that a majority of the money that taxpayers are footing the bill for was designed to go toward projects like this anyway, making it a significantly easier sell.
This ends a bipartisan saga from Mayor Castor and Governor DeSantis in recent years to bring the Rays into Hillsborough County, but for Major League Baseball it ends a two-decade frustration. Since Rob Manfred took over as commissioner just over ten years ago, he’s been adamant about keeping MLB in the Tampa metropolitan area because of how robust their teleivsion market is compared to other clubs, even despite the lower attendance. Manfred in recent years has clarified the league is ready to expand to 32 teams, and cities such as Nashville, Vancouver, Montreal, Portland, Salt Lake City, Orlando, and New Orleans are already in the process of preparing bids and have ownership groups ready to join. However, Manfred has stated that until the Rays and Athletics figure out their stadium woes, the league would not be expanding. With the A’s set to go to Vegas and the Rays set to move across the Howard Frankland, expect an announcement of expansion following the impending CBA battle this winter. Perhaps, which cities are the best fit is a future article at CBC?
While there should be fewer major announcements going forward, DSR/CBC will keep you as up-to-date as possible on any news regarding the new stadium in Tampa.
Jameus Mooney writer for Comicbook Clique covering sports and entertainment. You can follow him on Twitter here.