{"id":383495,"date":"2026-08-28T12:23:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383495\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T12:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:23:31","slug":"tampa-city-council-votes-in-favor-of-rays-stadium-deal-county-vote-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383495\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa city council votes in favor of Rays’ stadium deal; county vote on Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa City Council voted in favor of the Rays<\/a>\u2019 proposed stadium deal on Thursday afternoon, according to multiple reports (links via Nicolas Villamil of The Tampa Bay Times<\/a> and Adam Berry of MLB.com<\/a>). The city approved the measure by a 4-3 margin.<\/p>\n

Attention now turns to Hillsborough County, whose commissioners will cast their own votes tomorrow. The deal isn\u2019t official, but it\u2019s a major hurdle cleared in the Rays\u2019 efforts to secure public funding toward a $2.3 billion project at Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry Campus. That\u2019s in the City of Tampa and within walking distance of Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL\u2019s Buccaneers. Tropicana Field is a little over 20 miles outside the city in neighboring St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s affirmative vote by the Tampa City Council is incredible news for the entire Tampa Bay community,\u201d Rays CEO Ken Babby said in a press release. \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.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to tomorrow\u2019s Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners meeting and the opportunity to continue advancing a project that will deliver lasting benefits for the Tampa Bay region.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rays\u2019 previous stadium project \u2014 which fell apart in the wake of Hurricane Milton \u2014 would\u2019ve been in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. Talks soured enough that the Rays pivoted to working with Tampa\/Hillsborough County officials. Last year\u2019s ownership change from Stu Sternberg to Patrick Zalupski created something of a fresh start on the team side.<\/p>\n

Their current plan calls for $80M in city funding and $796M from Hillsborough County \u2014 a total of $876M in public money. The Rays would commit to nearly $1.4 billion in private funding and would be responsible for any cost overruns. That\u2019d go not only to the stadium but to a surrounding mixed-use development area.<\/p>\n

If the County approves its end of the funding, the Rays would be expected to enter into a 35-year term with a non-relocation agreement. Berry wrote last week<\/a> that construction could begin as soon as next month if the stadium package is approved. The Rays\u2019 lease at Tropicana Field runs through 2028, so the clock is ticking for them to have a stadium in place for Opening Day \u201929.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa City Council voted in favor of the Rays\u2019 proposed stadium deal on Thursday afternoon, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-383495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383495","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=383495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}