What the future of Tampa Bay Rays' stadium could look like

The cost of a new ballpark on the allotted 17 acres of land in St. Petersburg's Gas Plant District redevelopment has a price tag in the billions, and it is uncertain how it is going to be paid for, according to a spokesperson with the city.

FOX 35 Orlando delivers breaking news, live events and press conferences, investigations, politics, entertainment, business news and local news stories and updates from Orlando, Orlando metro, and across Florida.

Watch more from FOX 35 on YouTube

[Element]

They were proposing a new ballpark as far back as 2007. Which at the time was reportedly going to cost 450 million dollars to build. Times have dramatically changed. Ballparks now cost over 1 billion. Completely insane.

[moisesrivera]

We rays fans want this more than any other place. Ybor!

[dinneryeti]

The owner should foot the entire bill. No tax payers money for multi billion dollar stadiums.

[watchutub]

Is there a city that doesn't have a black mayor?

[chicocastillo]

Definitely hoping Tampa is the decision!

[Kevin-ocjb]

Building in St. Pete is idiotic. The Lightning thrives in Tampa.

[HectorHustles]

Rays attendance problem is base on where Tropicana field is as i175 and 275 leads no where near the ballpark then no public transportation in the area and most people would support the team if it was in a better area unlike the marlins who have a new ballpark but ownership don’t invest the money to put a great product and a real reason to not show up to games

[RickSanchez-jljd]

What Tampa Bay the rays are in St Pete and in Pinellas county, they need to come to Tampa to stay relevant !!!

[jarvisfrederick]

Wherever they go, I hope they don’t use the design i saw when I clicked on this video

[marcusdj]

They need to move to my side of the Bay here in Tampa. There's a bigger corporate base on this side of the Bay and there are also a lot more people, especially those who could get there within a 30-minute drive. The Trop has only about 700K people who can drive there in 30 minutes or less, the fewest of any MLB venue by a country mile. To give you an idea of how paltry that population is, Pittsburgh's PNC Park is the next-lowest stadium on the list and it has TWICE as many people within a 30-min. drive as the Trop has. Also, there's no public transportation that you can take from Hillsborough County to Pinellas County, so that's not even an option.

[TimFrith]

On October 28th, 2025, the Rays will build their new $1 billion 38, 000-seat retractable roof ballpark on the former Tampa Stadium site adjacent to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa for the 2028 season if their new proposed St. Petersburg ballpark to replace Tropicana Field falls apart.

[benvasilinda]

Well they are the best team in MLB so they deserve a better home situation and they better figure this out soon because they deserve better.

[janellemaynait]

No dome, at least a retractable roof stadium

[vansmack]

MLB made a huge mistake by putting 2 teams in Florida.