{"id":383339,"date":"2026-08-28T07:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383339\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T07:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:34:22","slug":"tampa-approves-2-3b-deal-for-a-new-rays-ballpark-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383339\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa approves $2.3B deal for a new Rays ballpark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 City officials on Thursday approved a $2.3 billion deal for a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/tampa-bay-rays-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> ballpark funded by public and private money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">The 4-3 vote by the Tampa City Council came three months after a tentative agreement was reached for a stadium, which would include $967 million in tax money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">Rays Chief Executive Officer Ken Babby said in a statement that the stadium project will \u201cdeliver lasting benefits\u201d for the region. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">\u201cThe Tampa Bay Rays are grateful for the leadership and support of the City Council members to approve an investment that, when accompanied by the private funding guaranteed by the Rays, will secure the future of Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay while creating a landmark destination neighborhood that will serve our region for generations,\u201d Babby said Thursday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">Hillsborough County Commissioners will vote on the project Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">The Rays ownership reached an agreement earlier this year with Hillsborough College to build the stadium and mixed-use entertainment district on the campus and to renovate some of the school&#8217;s buildings. The property is located next to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/new-york-yankees-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Yankees<\/a>\u2019 spring training facility and across a highway from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">The Rays have said they hope to have the new stadium built within three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">Since the team took the field in 1998, the Rays have played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, except for moving home games to the Yankees&#8217; George M. Steinbrenner Field in 2025 following hurricane damage at the Trop. The Rays&#8217; lease runs through at least the 2028 season. The team returned to the Trop last month for the start of this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">A proposed $1.3 billion redevelopment deal for a new ballpark adjacent to the Trop fell through last year, raising new questions about the future of the team, which was bought last September by Patrick Zalupski\u2019s ownership group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-0a453225=\"\">AP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB<\/a>: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 City officials on Thursday approved a $2.3 billion deal for a new Tampa Bay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9004,3821,135,3815,137,136],"class_list":["post-383339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383339","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=383339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}