Rays' $2.36 Billion Tampa Ballpark Wins Final Approval; County Votes 5-2 for Public Funding Plan
Tampa is a city in Hillsborough County, Florida. The Tampa Bay Rays are formally headed to a new, $2.36 billion ballpark after the Hillsborough County Commission approved a public funding plan for the project. The commission's 5-2 vote on Friday followed a narrow approval on Thursday by the City of Tampa council. The two jurisdictions will combine to supply up to $876 million toward the stadium, seemingly ending an oft-twisting saga that involved two decades of fruitless searching for a new stadium.
Under the final deal, the Rays will pay 63% of the ballpark construction costs — a higher percentage than the Rangers and Braves paid respectively for Globe Life Field and Truist Park, MLB's two newest stadiums. Groundbreaking is targeted for later this year at a site at Hillsborough College's Dale Mabry Campus, ahead of a planned ballpark opening in 2029. The site is much more centrally located in the Tampa region, very close to Tampa International Airport and the Buccaneers' Raymond James Stadium. The mixed-use development surrounding the stadium will be inspired in part by The Battery in Atlanta, blending retail, residential, entertainment, and public space.
The approval ends an abandoned deal to stay in St. Petersburg and an ownership shift to a Patrick Zalupski-led group. "I've wondered what I would say if we ever got to the position of being able to discuss and hopefully approve a ballpark agreement," said county commissioner Ken Hagan, a key figure in the legislative approval process. "Do we want Tampa to be a world-class community? What side of history do you want to be on?" Rays CEO Ken Babby said: "Today our entire region can celebrate the coming of a private finance and mixed-use neighborhood, a reinvested Hillsborough College campus, and a new ballpark that secures the long-term future of Major League Baseball here in Tampa."
As with nearly any debate over taxpayer support of stadium projects, the deliberation was fraught with tension, including the optics of supporting a private business owned by a billionaire. Changes in the final deal shifted more financial responsibility to the club, which will also cover cost overruns.
The approvals will likely accelerate MLB's path toward expansion. For years, expansion talk was held up by facility issues with the Athletics and Rays; the A's are now well along in construction for a new Las Vegas ballpark targeted for a 2028 opening. Interest is set to rise around expansion candidates such as Nashville, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Raleigh, Vancouver, Montreal, and Mexico City. Commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this year he would like to have two new markets selected before his tenure ends in early 2029, though a formal process will almost certainly wait until after the league resolves a difficult labor negotiation with the MLB Players Association. MLB last expanded with the arrival of the Diamondbacks and Rays in 1998.
(Source: Front Office Sports, October 10, 2026)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：光芒队主场Tropicana Field入口（资料图）。摄影：Tampabay721，CC BY-SA 3.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
