{"id":145007,"date":"2026-02-05T18:15:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145007\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:15:29","slug":"rays-release-renderings-of-proposed-tampa-ballpark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145007\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays release renderings of proposed Tampa ballpark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-facilities \">The Rays Thursday released renderings of their proposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/15\/rays-target-hillsborough-college-for-new-ballpark\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/15\/rays-target-hillsborough-college-for-new-ballpark\/\">$2.3B ballpark and adjacent mixed-use development<\/a> on the campus of Hillsborough College in Tampa. The planned ballpark is set to fit 31,000 fans. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred both recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/02\/03\/florida-gov-ron-desantis-lends-support-to-rays-ballpark-proposal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/02\/03\/florida-gov-ron-desantis-lends-support-to-rays-ballpark-proposal\/\">lent their public support<\/a> behind the project, though it is unclear how it will be funded. The Rays have said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/02\/02\/rays-plan-to-fund-half-of-new-ballpark-at-hillsborough-college\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/02\/02\/rays-plan-to-fund-half-of-new-ballpark-at-hillsborough-college\/\">they will pay for half of the ballpark in a public-private partnership<\/a>, with the costs being shared between the team, county and city. The mixed-use portion will be 100% privately financed. The Rays, Hillsborough College and local officials will host a series of community engagement sessions in the coming weeks. The team\u2019s new ownership group, led by Patrick Zalupski, ambitiously wants a new ballpark to open for Opening Day 2029, meaning it hopes to have the proposal finalized in the next six months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-facilities \">WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING: The Tampa Bay Times\u2019 Marc Topkin notes the first look of the potential ballpark \u201cis impressive, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/sports\/rays\/2026\/02\/05\/first-look-rays-proposed-stadium-hillsborough-college-site\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/sports\/rays\/2026\/02\/05\/first-look-rays-proposed-stadium-hillsborough-college-site\/\">triangular shape and fixed roof<\/a> that looks to be made, at least in part, of transparent materials.\u201d The Rays as part of releasing the renderings are starting to collecting $19.98 deposits &#8212; the amount matching the team\u2019s inaugural season &#8212; from fans \u201cto secure early access to seating in the new ballpark.\u201d The Tampa Bay Business Journal\u2019s Emma Behrmann notes the renderings are the team\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/tampabay\/news\/2026\/02\/05\/tampa-bay-rays-tampa-ballpark-renderings.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/tampabay\/news\/2026\/02\/05\/tampa-bay-rays-tampa-ballpark-renderings.html\">latest play to drum up support<\/a> for their ballpark plans.\u201c The venue is shown \u201csurrounded by a mixed-use district dotted with high-rises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Rays Tampa ballpark renderings\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/J52Q2V7NJJGAPENWID6OYZYGUQ.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>(Rays) <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Rays Tampa ballpark renderings\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/RBT3ANTICVFZZJYDZHOJELB5JE.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>(Rays) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays Thursday released renderings of their proposed $2.3B ballpark and adjacent mixed-use development on the campus of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3816,3817,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-145007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-tampa","11":"tag-tampa-headlines","12":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145007","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=145007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}