TAMPA, Fla. — The stadium plans of the new ownership group of the Tampa Bay Rays may become clearer soon.<\/p>\n
The Hillsborough College board of trustees is scheduled to host a meeting Tuesday afternoon to hear the Rays idea of a stadium at the campus site.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the \u201cHunks Talking Junk\u201d podcast earlier this week, Rays Chief Executive Officer Ken Babby said not only does the team feel the site is ideal for a stadium, the team remains adamant about being in a new ballpark by 2029.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe intend to open a new ballpark by April of 2029,\u201d Babby said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a date we picked casually. We\u2019ve studied comparable projects across the league, and we believe Tampa Bay deserves certainty and momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babby emphasized a broader vision: a large-scale, mixed-use development that serves as an economic engine for the region including housing, retail, businesses, as well as a stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not just building a ballpark,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to build a mixed-use development \u2014 work, live, play \u2014 that creates jobs, attracts major companies, and delivers lasting economic impact for Tampa Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a model for that vision, Babby pointed to The Battery Atlanta, the mixed-use development surrounding Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spend a lot of time \u2014 and we talk about this publicly \u2014 on The Battery in Atlanta, which everybody should check out,\u201d Babby said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the singular best comparison we can find right now in North America to what building a true community looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to multiple reports, the college\u2019s board will discuss a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Rays. From there, the parties would discuss an agreement that could be approved at a later date.<\/p>\n
The college campus, located on North Dale Mabry Highway across from Raymond James Stadium, is about 108 acres. Officials have not said what would happen with college operations if a deal is completed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The board of trustees controls the college while the land is owned by Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Rays\u2019 lease at Tropicana Field runs through the 2028 season. The team\u2019s new ownership group, led by Jacksonville homebuilder Patrick Zalupski, has targeted 2029 to be in a new stadium since taking over last year.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe believe the city deserves this,\u201d Babby said. \u201cWe believe the community deserves this,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we believe baseball deserves a forever home right here in Tampa Bay. We\u2019re committed to making that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. — The stadium plans of the new ownership group of the Tampa Bay Rays may become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,558,276,2287,115,29208,275,135,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-120650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-rays-stadium","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}