Final hurdle cleared as Rays' new ballpark approved with commission vote

ST. PETERSBURG -- Tampa Bay’s long-running quest for a new ballpark is over.

The Rays are, indeed, here to stay.

With a 5-2 vote by the Pinellas County Commission on Tuesday, the Rays’ plan for a new $1.3 billion ballpark in the planned Historic Gas Plant District was officially approved.

• Historic Gas Plant District Development

After 17 years of searching on both sides of the bay, several ballpark proposals and what principal owner Stuart Sternberg jokingly referred to as “some cockamamie schemes,” the Rays now know where they will be playing their home games for the foreseeable future.

“This is quite a momentous day for our franchise, our fans and the entire Tampa Bay region -- the Rays are here to stay in St. Petersburg,’’ Sternberg said in a statement. ‘’We look forward to building the best neighborhood ballpark in Major League Baseball, which will blend in beautifully with a world-class, mixed-use real estate project that honors the past and looks toward the future. We thank St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, the St. Petersburg City Council and the Pinellas County Commission for their hard work. We look forward to working together with our partners for years to come on our shared vision for this transformative project.’’

They are staying almost exactly where they’ve been since the franchise’s inaugural season in 1998, and they’ll be here for at least another 30 years. The Rays hope to have shovels in the ground in January so that the pavilion-style stadium is ready for Opening Day 2028.

Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. said: “This is a great day for the Tampa Bay Rays and their entire community. I thank Mayor Ken Welch and the St. Petersburg City Council for their support of the revitalization of the Historic Gas Plant District, which will include the new ballpark the Rays have long needed. I also want to thank the Pinellas County Commission and everyone who worked together to secure the Rays’ future in the region in which they were founded.

"I commend Stu Sternberg for his relentless efforts that drove the process to today’s momentous outcome. Across a long period of time, Stu overcame numerous challenges and demonstrated a fierce commitment to Tampa Bay. Through patience and teamwork, he found solutions that will serve the communities to which the Rays belong. The team will now be at the center of a huge step forward for St. Pete and Pinellas County, and we are proud that our game will be a part of this progress.”

The Rays announced their agreement with the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County last September, about eight months after St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch selected the club and its development partner Hines as his preferred choice to redevelop the 86-acre Tropicana Field site. That brought into focus their vision for a new ballpark as part of the $6.5 billion project.

But there were still hurdles to clear before that vision became a reality. First and most challenging was approval from the St. Petersburg City Council, which came narrowly with a 5-3 vote at City Hall on July 18. The city is slated to spend $417.5 million on the approximately 8-million-square-foot mixed-use district, including $287.5 million for the stadium.

Then came Tuesday’s vote from Pinellas County Commissioners. Their task was simpler: They had to decide whether to commit $312.5 million in tourist tax revenue, coming from a “bed tax” that can only be spent on tourism-related and economic development expenses, to build the ballpark.

The Rays/Hines group is expected to pay for more than half the stadium as well as any additional costs or overrun.

The Rays’ current 30-year use agreement at Tropicana Field expires after the 2027 season, and they will remain at the Trop until then. The new agreement also covers 30 years, beginning in ‘28, with a pair of five-year renewals at the club’s discretion after that.

This marks the end of nearly two decades of uncertainty regarding the future of the franchise, as the Rays have been in pursuit of a new stadium since 2007.

In November ‘07, the Rays announced their plan to build a waterfront ballpark, featuring a sail-like covering rather than a domed roof, at the Al Lang Stadium site. That was their first attempt to secure a long-term home, and it faded in less than a year. They made several more unsuccessful attempts, most notably the proposed park in Ybor City that failed in 2018 and the split-season proposal with Montreal that was rejected in January 2022.

Designed by the Rays and Populous, the new ballpark will include roughly 30,000 fixed seats in a three-deck design, with the capacity for Rays games reaching around 33,000-34,000. The field will be artificial turf, like Tropicana Field, but the fixed roof will be tiered, with a high roof over the field and a lower ceiling over the seats.

The Rays hope to make their new home “the most intimate ballpark in baseball,” team president Matt Silverman has said, with the smallest foul territory in baseball and the shortest distance between home plate and the backstop. Approximately 15,000 seats in the lower bowl and about 70% of them are below the top level, and the ballpark will have fewer suites but more seating types, including flexible viewing areas, decks and gathering spaces.

The field will be visible from all concourses, according to the Rays, and Populous design principal Byron Chambers previously said it will feel like “the inside’s outside and the outside’s inside” thanks to the large windows wrapping around the building and doorways, terraces and porches connecting the park to the street. In a nod to the former Gas Plant neighborhood, where porches were a social gathering place, the ballpark’s covered “front porch” area will lead into a main plaza within the Historic Gas Plant District.

The Rays also plan to make their new ballpark a “365-day venue,” with parts of the stadium open year-round and the facility available to host events like concerts, festivals, conferences, graduations and other sporting events.

The Historic Gas Plant District will eventually include market-rate and affordable/workforce housing, office and medical space, retail space, hotel rooms, a childcare facility, a grocery store, senior living, entertainment space (including a concert venue), an African American history museum, community space, conference and meeting space, parking and, anchoring it all, the Rays’ new ballpark.