{"id":144893,"date":"2026-02-05T16:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144893\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:38:09","slug":"rays-release-first-renderings-of-proposed-dale-mabry-ballpark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144893\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays release first renderings of proposed Dale Mabry ballpark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Tampa Bay Rays released initial renderings Thursday of a proposed new ballpark and mixed-use district at <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/2026\/01\/20\/hillsborough-college-unanimous-rays-stadium-talks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The images land one day after Hillsborough County commissioners voted 7-0 to continue talks with the team and authorize staff to begin the next phase of technical review.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful for what our organization and the Tampa community have accomplished in just over 100 days since acquiring the team, and of the progress we are making together toward a Forever Home for the Rays and our loyal fans,\u201d said Patrick Zalupski, managing partner of the Tampa Bay Rays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHillsborough County\u2019s unanimous vote is a significant milestone and a clear signal that Tampa is serious about keeping Major League Baseball in this region and transforming Tampa Bay for generations to come,\u201d Zalupski said.<\/p>\n<p>The plan centers on Hillsborough College\u2019s campus<\/p>\n<p>The Rays\u2019 preferred site is the 113-acre Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus, a <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/2026\/02\/03\/desantis-dale-mabry-rays-stadium\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">state-owned property <\/a>west of Dale Mabry Highway in the City of Tampa.<\/p>\n<p>The Hillsborough College Board of Trustees has approved a memorandum of understanding with the Rays to redevelop the campus as part of a new ballpark district.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays said the partnership is designed to improve campus facilities and expand workforce development, curriculum and internship opportunities for more than 45,000 students.<\/p>\n<p>Funding and cost questions remain open<\/p>\n<p>The Rays have indicated they intend to <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/2026\/02\/02\/rays-plan-fund-50-percent-ballpark-costs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fund at least 50% of ballpark construction costs<\/a>, according to Hillsborough County briefing materials released earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>County officials have said no general revenue funding is being considered.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays have discussed a preliminary ballpark cost in the $2.3 billion range, according to county officials.<\/p>\n<p>Community sessions planned next<\/p>\n<p>Rays CEO Ken Babby said the team will hold community engagement sessions across Hillsborough County in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur community can be assured, however, that we want the ballpark and district design to reflect the voices of the people who live, work, study, and operate businesses here,\u201d Babby said.<\/p>\n<p>Dates, times and locations have not been announced.<\/p>\n<p>What fans can do now?<\/p>\n<p>The Rays said fans can make a $19.98 deposit at NewBallpark.RaysBaseball.com for early access to seating in the proposed new ballpark.<\/p>\n<p>Stay Informed<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPost navigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays released initial renderings Thursday of a proposed new ballpark and mixed-use district at Hillsborough&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1127,2152,276,5756,412,110,135,3815,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-144893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-construction","9":"tag-development","10":"tag-hillsborough-county","11":"tag-jane-castor","12":"tag-ron-desantis","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tampa","15":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","16":"tag-tampa-headlines","17":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144893","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=144893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}