Overview
- The Rays showed five interior renderings on Wednesday that depict a roughly 30,000-seat bowl under a fixed, translucent roof, two large video boards, an expanded touch tank and a retractable batter’s eye.
- The project’s estimated cost is $2.3 billion and currently rests on a non-binding May memorandum of understanding that would have the Rays pay $1.3 billion and cap taxpayer support at $976 million.
- The club is racing a deadline tied to its Tropicana Field deal, which ends after the 2028 season, and is targeting an Opening Day in early 2029 if funding and approvals allow construction to begin later this year.
- Political and financial hurdles remain: Tampa’s City Council approved the MOU narrowly (4-3), some yes-voting members have expressed reservations about a final package, and independent studies dispute the project’s long-term economic-impact projections.
- If built, the stadium would move the team’s home from St. Petersburg to about 130 acres on the Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus and anchor a mixed-use district that could change local traffic, jobs and public spending priorities.