{"id":384365,"date":"2026-08-29T08:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T08:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/384365\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T08:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T08:32:33","slug":"fireworks-display-celebrates-rays-stadium-deal-reached-with-tampa-hillsborough-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/384365\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireworks display celebrates Rays stadium deal reached with Tampa, Hillsborough County"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"City \"City City of Tampa celebrates stadium approval<\/a> <\/p>\n

The City of Tampa is wasting no time celebrating the Rays’ move to Tampa, throwing a big bash to commemorate the approval of the new stadium. FOX 13’s Danielle Zulkosky reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – The City of Tampa and the Tampa Bay Rays celebrated the approval of the team’s future home with a 10-minute fireworks display on Friday evening at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Rays stadium celebration <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

The fireworks show happened Friday evening on the lawn of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park on Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa. The city said Old City Hall and select city landmarks were also lit up in blue and yellow to honor the team.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Local Rays fan Ryan Turner said he’s excited about the team’s move to Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m stoked; I think it’s great for the city. Hopefully there’s a little boost in attendance, but I think it’s great for this city,” said Turner. “I watch a lot of baseball; I love going to the baseball games. I think it’s just more enjoyable for everyone if, you know, there’s more people there.”<\/p>\n

\"\" Rays stadium votes <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

The festivities celebrate formal votes by the Hillsborough County Commission<\/a> and Tampa City Council to move forward with constructing a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark and mixed-use development at Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Today’s vote makes it official. The Rays are staying in Tampa, and we are ready to build their future home,” Mayor Jane Castor said. “I want to thank the County Commission for their partnership and for seeing what this agreement means for our region, jobs, investment, and a destination our entire community can be proud of. Tampa fought for this opportunity, and Tampa is going to deliver.”<\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the City of Tampa, which issued a press release detailing the fireworks celebration, as well as statements from Mayor Jane Castor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>Rays Stadium Plans<\/a>Tampa<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City of Tampa celebrates stadium approval The City of Tampa is wasting no time celebrating the Rays’ move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384366,"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-384365","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\/384365","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=384365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}