ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays are home and are not going anywhere. That was the message team owner Stu Sternberg delivered Tuesday in a news conference announcing a new stadium deal with the city of St. Petersburg.
"Major League Baseball is here to stay, right here," Sternberg said to applause Tuesday.
News of a stadium deal first broke Monday, but the team remained tight-lipped until the Rays confirmed everything at the news conference. Sternberg mentioned the long-sought-after stadium deal hasn't been easy.
"Our commitment to remain in Tampa Bay has been steadfast, but it's been a bumpy one," Sternberg said. "I said when I took over the Rays wouldn't be playing in Tropicana Field in 2027."
The Rays have played in St. Petersburg since their inaugural 1998 season. The Trop, as the Rays current home is called, is criticized for being outdated and having roof support beams that are sometimes hit by fly balls. It cost $138 million when it was built in 1990 to draw a major league team to the region.
Over the years since Sternberg bought the franchise, there have been several stadium plans and much discussion of even moving the team out of the area if a stadium deal wasn't constructed by 2027 when the lease on Tropicana Park expires.
One of the most controversial plans even involved having the Rays split time between Montreal and Tampa, but Major League Baseball refused to let that plan get out of the dugout.
The new stadium will be constructed on an 86-acre area known as the Historic Gas Plant District. In January, Hines was selected as the developer for the Gas Plant District. According to the city of St. Petersburg, the new project will include:
- 4,800 residential units
- 1,200 affordable/workforce residential units (on and off-site)
- 600 senior living units
- 1.4 million square feet of office, medical, and commercial space
- 750,000 square feet of retail
- 750 hotel rooms
- 100,000 square feet of entertainment space, including a concert venue to seat up to 4,000
- 50,000 square feet of civic space, including a new home for the Carter G. Woodson African-American Museum
- 90-100,000 square feet of conference, ballroom, and meeting space
- 14 acres of public open space
- 14,000 parking spaces
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said Tuesday was a day of celebration and a fulfillment of a promise to the community.
"We take a significant step toward honoring the promises we made to the Gas Plant community some 40 years ago," Mayor Welch said.
Sternberg said the deal will leave a positive impact on the community for decades to come.
"The legacy of this project will last long after many of us are gone," Sternberg said. "We are celebrating our 25th anniversary as a ball club. A generational fan base is taking root."
The new deal, if approved, is expected to keep the Rays in the city of St. Petersburg for the next several decades.
The hope from the Rays is the new stadium will help spark an influx of fans. The Rays qualified for the playoffs for a fifth straight year on Sunday but have continually had among the lowest attendance in baseball, with an average of about 17,778 fans per home game, according to MLB.
Approval from the St. Petersburg City Council and the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners is expected to start this fall, the city of St. Pete said in a statement.
Hines said the goal is to break ground in the second half of 2024 and will come in two phases. Phase 1 of the development and the new stadium are projected to be completed by 2028.
The total cost of the project is expected to be $1.3 billion, and the Rays will pay more than half of that cost and be responsible for any cost overruns. The remaining approximately $600 million will come from Pinellas County and the City of St. Petersburg.
With the stadium deal in place and the Rays ready for another playoff run, Rays fans couldn't ask for a better September.
