{"id":150751,"date":"2026-02-10T22:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150751\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T22:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:10:15","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-kick-off-community-engagement-sessions-with-local-firefighter-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150751\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays kick off community engagement sessions with local firefighter meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays met with a local firefighters\u2019 union as part of its community engagement sessions focused on the vision for a new ballpark and mixed-use district at Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus.<\/p>\n

The roundtable discussion, the first in the series, marked an early opportunity for Rays leadership and first responders to exchange ideas, ask questions and share feedback, with a particular focus on public safety, collaboration and community impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Officers and Executive Board of Tampa Firefighters Local 754 appreciated the opportunity to meet today with Tampa Bay Rays leadership and hear more about their early vision for a potential ballpark and surrounding district,\u201d said Nick Stocco, President of IAFF Tampa Firefighters Local 754.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe value being engaged early in conversations that may impact public safety and appreciate the Rays\u2019 willingness to listen and treat Firefighters as partners in that process. Our focus at this stage is on understanding the concept and ensuring public safety considerations are a priority in the discussion from the beginning. We look forward to continued conversations and thoughtful engagement as this process moves forward in Tampa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rays CEO Ken Babby said the engagement is a critical component of its planning for the future of Major League Baseball in the Tampa Bay region.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMeeting today with Tampa Firefighters was everything I anticipated and much more,\u201d Babby said. \u201cTheir observations and feedback were extremely valuable, and deeply appreciated. This is exactly the kind of engagement the Tampa Bay Rays are looking for as we plan to meet with additional stakeholders throughout the community in the weeks ahead toward making our Forever Home a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, the Rays, Hillsborough College and local officials will continue to host community engagement sessions across the county. The sessions will engage baseball fans, Hillsborough College students and faculty, nearby residents, and community and business leaders, giving them opportunities to review evolving development concepts, ask questions and share feedback, which the team says will be considered as leaders shape the final design.<\/p>\n

As of the team\u2019s first community engagement session, the Hillsborough College Board of Trustees has already approved<\/a> a memorandum of understanding with the Rays to develop its Dale Mabry campus into a new ballpark district, and the Hillsborough County Commission voted to begin negotiations<\/a> with the Rays on ballpark funding.<\/p>\n

While details are still being developed, the Rays\u2019 goal for the proposed Hillsborough College development is to improve campus facilities, expand workforce development and create curriculum and internship opportunities for more than 45,000 students, reinforcing the site as a key driver of regional growth.<\/p>\n

The Rays envision a public-private partnership, with ballpark costs shared between the team, Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa. The Rays have said they will cover at least half of the new stadium cost<\/a>, but that could still leave local partners, including taxpayers, on the hook for more than $1 billion, after the team said they expect a new stadium to cost $2.3 billion. St. Pete and Pinellas County, under a now canceled stadium deal, had agreed to about $600 million in public funding.<\/p>\n

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The broader, multibillion-dollar mixed-use development will be 100% privately financed.<\/p>\n

An independent economic analysis projected the Hillsborough College plan could generate $34 billion in total economic impact while supporting 11,900 new permanent jobs. The analysis also estimates it could attract 10 million visitors per year once fully built out, about the same attendance that is enjoyed at major U.S. theme parks.<\/p>\n

Details on upcoming community engagement sessions, including dates, times and locations, will be announced soon, team leadership said.<\/p>\n

The Rays are already offering fans an opportunity to secure seating in a future ballpark, by making a $19.98 deposit at\u00a0NewBallpark.RaysBaseball.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays met with a local firefighters\u2019 union as part of its community engagement sessions focused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[22641,72765,30124,72766,135,3815,65220,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-150751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-hillsborough-college","9":"tag-iaff-tampa-firefighters-local-754","10":"tag-ken-babby","11":"tag-nick-stocco","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","14":"tag-tampa-firefighters","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150751","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=150751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}