The Tampa Rays returned to Tropicana Subject for the 2026 season after Hurricane Milton partially destroyed its stadium’s retractable roof in 2024, and the 2025 season was performed at George Steinbrenner Subject, the New York Yankees spring coaching venue.
The roof substitute offered a chance the group had been contemplating for some time: transferring house base some other place.
In February of this yr the Rays shared exterior renderings of a brand new stadium and wider district designed by Populous, Gensler, Walter P Moore, and others. Inside renderings of the brand new ballpark have been shared this July. The brand new stadium will substitute the HOK-designed Tropicana Subject, accomplished in 1990.
The sports-driven neighborhood would take maintain in Hillsborough School’s Dale Mabry campus, the place Steinbrenner Subject is situated, simply northwest of downtown Tampa.
Earlier this yr, the Hillsborough School Board of Trustees permitted “a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rays” to redevelop the campus as a mixed-use neighborhood across the ballpark.
This week, the group shared renderings, from Gensler, that reveal glass workplace towers with expansive terraces that afford views immediately onto the taking part in area. Workplace and retail house, a conference lodge, and housing can be situated in a stretch of mid- and high-rise buildings subsequent to the brand new stadium.
Rays Chief Government Officer Ken Babby lately mentioned the event has caught the curiosity of Fortune 500 corporations.
Even earlier than Hurricane Milton ripped the roof, Populous shared renderings of a brand new stadium in Ybor Metropolis for the Rays in 2018, as reported by AN. These plans have been formally deserted in December that yr as a result of the franchise did not make a viable monetary plan. Extra lately, a proposal circulated to construct a Rays’ stadium in St. Petersburg’s Historic Fuel Plant District. Plans for this have been deserted in early 2025, after Gensler produced visuals for the mixed-use undertaking.
Attendance on the Trop in St. Petersburg, Florida, has been low for a very long time. Constructing a brand new stadium nearer to downtown Tampa will make it simpler for followers to achieve the ballpark. There are additionally plans for the stadium to host live shows and different occasions year-round.
Renderings of the brand new stadium present an area that may accommodate 30,000 spectators. Populous mentioned the “seating bowl” is designed to supply “distinctive proximity to the sector from each location within the ballpark.”
There can be sky views, a bar overlooking heart area, and two video scoreboards that Populous affirms would be the “largest and most technologically superior in Main League Baseball.” The Ray Tank, an aquarium for precise real-life group mascots, can be included within the new ballpark, very similar to the one at Tropicana Subject within the Cownose Clubhouse in center-right area. Skybridges will join the buildings past the stadium. A community of pedestrian corridors and streets will make for a vibrant “walkable neighborhood,” Babby mentioned.
For the Rays, sturdy hitters, good pitchers, and time are of the essence, their use settlement with the Metropolis of St. Petersburg to play at Tropicana Subject is up after the 2028 season.
The ballpark estimate for the price of the brand new stadium is $2.3 billion. The Rays supplied up $1.235 billion and all design and development price overruns, placing the group simply over $1 billion quick and in want of funding from the town, or county.
The funding has been a frequent matter of debate amongst metropolis politics; simply this week the town appeared reluctant to extend taxes and discover funding, the Rays are actually trying to the county for the money.
If all of it pans out, the brand new stadium is anticipated for completion in April 2029, the Rays mentioned, in time for that season’s begin.
