Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> continued their community outreach this week, meeting with the Tampa Police Benevolent Association (PBA) to discuss public safety considerations tied to the team\u2019s proposed new ballpark and mixed\u2011use district at Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe roundtable allowed Rays’ leadership and PBA members to exchange ideas and address safety priorities as plans develop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tampa PBA President Brandon Barclay said the union appreciated being included early in the process, noting that public safety and operational readiness are central to its mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate the Tampa Bay Rays taking the time to meet with us and provide an update on the evolving vision for the proposed ballpark and surrounding district,\u201d Barclay said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs law enforcement professionals, our focus is always on public safety and operational readiness. We value being included early in conversations of this scale and appreciate the Rays\u2019 willingness to listen to our feedback and keep safety considerations at the forefront as planning moves forward. We look forward to continued dialogue as more details become available,\u201d Barclay added.<\/p>\n
Rays Chief Executive Officer, Ken Babby, emphasized that engaging law enforcement is essential to designing a venue and district that prioritize safety and effective crowd management.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeeting with the Tampa PBA was the latest important step for the Rays in our continued outreach across the community,\u201d Babby said. “Their expert perspective on public safety, crowd management, and operational coordination is crucial to our planning, and having this relationship for the future is invaluable. We are extremely grateful for their ideas and feedback as we continue shaping a vision that prioritizes safety and community partnership at every stage toward making our Forever Home a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting is part of a broader series of engagement sessions with first responders, business groups, civic leaders, and other stakeholders. More details on upcoming public sessions will be announced soon.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Interested fans can learn more at NewBallpark.RaysBaseball.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s part of their ongoing community engagement efforts surrounding the vision for a new ballpark and mixed-use district…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-174669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174669","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=174669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}