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TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> took their stadium pitch straight to fans on Wednesday night at The Press Box.<\/p>\n The meeting marked the team\u2019s fourth community engagement session<\/a>. It\u2019s part of an ongoing effort to gather feedback on a proposed new ballpark and surrounding development.<\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n The project carries an estimated $2.3 billion price tag. The team is exploring building Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus as their long-term home.<\/p>\n Rays fans packed the sports bar, as baseball returned for MLB<\/a> Opening Night. Dale Hoffman says the atmosphere reminded him why he enjoys going to games.<\/p>\n “The excitement, hearing the bat hit ball, and enjoying being with friends out at the ballpark,” Hoffman said.<\/p>\n Other fans such as Donnie Smith came with questions about how this massive project will move forward.<\/p>\n “Are they going to allow it to come into Hillsborough County,” he said. “How do they go through the approval process and what are the next steps?”<\/p>\n The team is aiming to build what it\u2019s calling a “forever home” in Tampa. The proposal includes a mixed-use development surrounding the ballpark.<\/p>\n Sam Hage, another Rays fan, supports keeping the team in the area.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “We love The Trop<\/a>, but eventually they have to get a new stadium,” he said. “So, hopefully it is here.”<\/p>\n Rays CEO Ken Babby led the discussion and fielded questions from the crowd. The session was informal, with Babby buying beers for fans in attendance.<\/p>\n He even acknowledged the team\u2019s past challenges with getting a new stadium deal done.<\/p>\n “There have been many starts, stops and prior attempts,” Babby said. “We\u2019re going to make this happen, this is Tampa\u2019s deal, and we\u2019re excited to bring it home.”<\/p>\n Why you should care:<\/p>\n The Rays also announced a new promotion aimed at fans. The “First One\u2019s On Us” offer gives $10 in virtual credit per ticket for April home games, which can be used on concessions or merchandise at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n Babby says Opening Day remains a special moment for the team and its fans.<\/p>\n “Tomorrow is like a holiday, as there\u2019s nothing better than Opening Day,” he concluded. “Of course, the only thing better than tomorrow will be on April 6th, back here at Tropicana Field.”<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The Rays open their season on Thursday in St. Louis against the Cardinals.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s next community engagement session is scheduled for April 2nd at Robinson High School.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story came from statements from the Tampa Bay Rays, interviews with baseball fans and previous reporting on FOX 13.<\/p>\n Hillsborough County<\/a>Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>Rays Stadium Plans<\/a>MLB<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rays took their stadium pitch straight to fans on Wednesday night at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,3817,115,6164,29208,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-206438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-rays-baseball","tag-rays-stadium","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206438","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=206438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rays-ceo-meets-with-fans-2-scaled.jpeg\")
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