The Tampa Bay of Baseball of the Major League are removed from a plan to build a park of $ 1.3 million, citing hurricane impacts in the existing tropicana field and other factors, leaving the new stadium and a mega related development to Limbo.
Stuart Sternberg, the main owner of Rays, said in a statement on March 13 that the team cannot move forward with the new Ballpark because of “a series of events that begin in October that no one could have predicted.”
The construction of the 30,000 -seat park was originally scheduled for a start of the end of 2024, but ordered repairs after damage to the team’s current house, Tropicana Field, of the Hurricane Milton in October 2024, led the Council of Commissioners of the County of Pinellas to postpone a vote on its part of funding for the stadium project until last November.
As I said earlier, this delay meant the new members of the County Council and led the team to believe that he did not have the necessary votes to advance in the Ball Park, and in November, the Council promoted the more a month.
According to the rays, the first postponement promoted the project to the point of losing its original purpose to end before the 2028 baseball season, leading to “significantly higher costs that we cannot absorb alone”, according to a team letter to County officials at that time.
St. Petersburg advances with his plans to repair Tropicana Field in time for the 2026 baseball season, according to the announcement of the Rays, a plan that was expected to cost $ 55.7 million, and so the city signed to Atlanta Associated Space Design Inc. and St. Petersburg, Hennessy Construction Services Corp. In the meantime, the rays will play Steinbrenner Field de Tampa.
The $ 1.3 billion Ballpark project was funded by $ 770 million, $ 312.5 million from Pinellas County and $ 287.5 million from Saint Petersburg.
At the December meeting, the regional commissioners approved two resolutions in votes divided to authorize $ 335 million in good and rearrange funds for the stadium, designed by Populous and built by Mortenson. The project was first announced in 2023, with the Rays and St. Petersburg planning a public-private collaboration to build the ball park, which settled in a development of more than $ 6.5 billion for 20 years to revitalize the city’s Historical District of Gas Plants.
Pinellas County did not comment on the movement from March 14, while a statement on March 13 by St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch says the decision is “a significant but not unexpected disappointment.”
Welch also says that the cancellation of the ball park does not mean the end of the Historical Project of the Gas Plants District (HGPD), saying that St. Petersburg “will continue to pursue all the ways that will help us to deliver it”, including without a “baseball partner” if necessary.
“We will advance the equitable economic development of the HGPD, honoring the promise of 40 years of inclusive economic development in this historical land,” Welch states in the statement. “We will consider a phase approach, counting the city’s obligations under the current use agreement.”
With the aim of revitalizing a African American neighborhood that suffered from the construction of Tropicana Field in the 1980’s, the Gas Plant District project is led by Hines Hines Hines Hines Gas Partnership, led by Houston Hines developer. Plans ask for a residential, office, meetings, hoteliers and retail sale, as well as museum and civic space and open areas.
It is unclear how the team’s decision to get from the stadium will affect the development of the Gas District. Hines refused to comment on how the project’s decision can affect the project.
“Our commitment to the vitality and success of the organization of the rays is unmatched,” says Sternberg in the March 13 statement. “We continue to focus on finding a Ballpark solution that serves the best interests of our region, basketball in the League Major and our organization.”
This is not the first time that the plans have been releasing for a new ball park for the rays. In 2009, plans were presented for a stadium on the seafront, and in 2018, the plans to move to Ybor City came and went, according to the local news station Bay News 9. In 2022, the MLB denied a plan for the team to divide its time between Florida and Montreal.
