The Major League Baseball team Tampa Bay Rays head honcho Ken Babby said recently that the team is progressing in evaluating “a handful” of sites for a new ballpark across “the Tampa Bay region (US)” and remains confident – with the right public/private partnership – of having it ready for the 2029 season.
‘Tampa Bay Times’ quoted Babby as stating, “We are exploring sites. We are meeting with architects. We are meeting with public officials. We are conducting a lot of analysis on how you go about building a development in a ballpark that meet the criteria that we talked about (including a plot of at least 100 acres). We’re visiting a lot of other parks, a lot of other stadiums, understanding what’s possible with different structures. … “There’s a lot of learning going on and I think that we’re learning quick. We’re trying to understand what’s possible.”
The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area (US). The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division.
The 25,000-capacity Tropicana Field is a domed multipurpose stadium located in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. ‘The Trop’ is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball.
Babby would not discuss specific sites but said the Rays have met with the City and County officials on both sides of Tampa Bay. Nor would he share a deadline for site selection or groundbreaking to meet the 2029 goal.
‘Tampa Bay Times’ stated that the Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred said he was optimistic about the project – “One, they are focused on the Tampa Bay region, which is where we would like to be. I think that they have had conversations about specific sites and the process continues. There was not a lot of concrete detail about what exactly was happening.”
Manfred said the Rays’ 2029 timeline is feasible but a slight delay, such as pushing the opening to April 2030, wouldn’t seem to be a major problem as the Rays presumably could work out an extension to stay an extra year at Tropicana Field. The stadium is being repaired following damage from Hurricane Milton and is on schedule to reopen in April.
Remarked Babby, “A lot of those initial meetings were meet-and-greet meetings. Certainly, we discussed the ballpark, we discussed different sites that we were looking at. We discussed what we thought a construct of a public-private partnership could look like. And have really enjoyed our conversations with folks both in the City and the county, both sides of the bay. We’ve been really focused on building those relationships.”
Babby also confirmed that at their request the Tampa Mayor Jane Castor toured the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Atlanta Braves ballpark development known as The Battery which they consider a model for what they hope to build.
The Atlanta Brave’ “battery development” refers to The Battery Atlanta, a highly successful 75-acre mixed-use district built around the 41,108-capacity Truist Park that serves as a year-round entertainment hub with shops, restaurants, hotels, and residences generating significant revenue for the team beyond just gamedays and transforming the ballpark experience.
Added Babby, “We think The Battery is an exceptional example of what’s possible. When we think about land, and we think about layout, and we think about process, we spend a lot of time understanding what’s doable. The Braves have been wonderful at sharing economic impact, jobs data, philanthropic impact that’s been created from The Battery.”
The relationship with the elected officials is important as the team is relying on public contributions to build the domed stadium which is expected to cost more than $1 billion as part of the overall complex.
Continued Babby, “We believe that to build a state-of-the-art development it’s going to require at least that kind of acreage and it’s also going to require a great public-private partnership. We’re going to do our part. We’re not out there looking for anything that’s unfair or unjust. We want to build something that is truly a win for the community. And that’s building a district, building a community, driving jobs, creating billions of dollars of economic impact.”
Babby said the Rays are aware of the needed urgency in their decision-making to have the stadium ready for the start of the 2029 season – “We are fully focused on opening a new ballpark in April of 2029, that has not changed. We know it was an ambitious timeline. It remains an ambitious timeline. We continue to hear that from experts. I don’t think I’m shocking anybody saying that. It’s an audacious, big goal. But we also have a construction schedule that proves that it will be done and can be done and we’re committed to seeing that through.”
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