{"id":161373,"date":"2026-02-19T16:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161373\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:44:10","slug":"florida-cabinet-to-discuss-gift-for-rays-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161373\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Cabinet to discuss gift for Rays stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet are considering giving\u00a0Hillsborough College 22 acres of land.<\/p>\n

The move would give the college the land needed for a proposed Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Florida Cabinet may consider giving 22 acres of land to Hillsborough College to go towards a Rays stadium\u00a0
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The possible land gift is listed as an agenda item for a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 24
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The team is envisioning a mixed-used entertainment district that would include a domed stadium that can seat about 31,000 people\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe Tampa Bay Rays released initial renderings<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday morning of the proposed ballpark at Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus\u00a0
\nPREVIOUS STORIES on\u00a0Rays stadium pursuit<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Spectrum Bay News 9 partner newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, the possible land gift is listed as an agenda item for a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 24.<\/p>\n

DeSantis, along with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, has come out in support of the project.<\/p>\n

The team is envisioning a mixed-used entertainment district that would include a domed stadium that can seat about 31,000 people. According to a team release, the entire development would stretch about 130 acres across the campus.<\/p>\n

The college campus is located on North Dale Mabry Highway across from Raymond James Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rendering provided by the Rays of a revamped HC Dale Mabry campus. (Courtesy of Tampa Bay Rays)<\/p>\n

Rays officials have said they want to be in the new ballpark for the 2029 season. The team\u2019s lease with St. Petersburg at the newly-renovated Tropicana Field expires after the 2028 season.<\/p>\n

According to a potential deal, the college would own the land and could negotiate its use with the Rays. Construction of the stadium could cost an estimated $2.3 billion.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s new owners, led by developer Patrick Zalupski, have said they would fund 50 percent of the stadium costs.<\/p>\n

City, county and state officials have yet to officially discuss any other funding sources though property taxes on the nearby area, a half-cent county sales tax and a tourist tax have all been mentioned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet are considering giving\u00a0Hillsborough College 22 acres of land.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3140,274,558,28,2287,115,139,29208,275,135,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-161373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-orlando","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\/161373","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=161373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}