The new stadium would open for the 2028 season, but the overall development may not be complete until a decade later.

Just in time for desperately needed renovations to the new stadium.

The stadium plan remains what was reported earlier: a fixed roof stadium seating 30,000 and anchoring a larger overall development in the Historic Gas Plant District, which is where the current stadium is located today.

Perhaps the opportunity to be a real estate developer (who owns a baseball team) will lessen the direct subsidies. Or maybe that’s in addition? In any event, with the A’s & Rays stadiums apparently addressed, we’ll see how serious MLB is about expansion.

Sternberg's biggest virtue has been hiring knowledgeable baseball people to run the franchise to the point where the Rays are strong and competitive almost every season despite their relative financial limitations.

It would be ironic if this new ownership arrangement expanded the Rays' revenues and degraded their on-field performance.

In any event, with the A’s & Rays stadiums apparently addressed, we’ll see how serious MLB is about expansion.

There's another wave of stadium negotiations coming up now - Kansas City and Arizona want new stadiums, Baltimore wants to build around theirs, Milwaukee is trying to get renos, and the Angels will probably be asking for a new stadium again soon. Nashville is the new patsy.

Expansion is overdue. There's still money to be made in linear TV, take it while it lasts.

Renaming the neighborhood from the "Gas Plant District" to literally anything else might help bump those attendance numbers.

Pour one out for the half season in Montreal, a plan that was definitely, totally, seriously real, for sure.

The rays kicking in $600 million ? I'll believe it when I see it. If they are, it's part of a trade for land worth much more than that for development. This is the new subsidy regime - land for ballpark village development. Pretty soon they'll be granted their own tax in authority ala Disney.

The one value to cities is that it's harder for teams to move because they jane to extricate themselves from their real estate deal AND then find a similar deal elsewhere.

Renaming the neighborhood from the "Gas Plant District" to literally anything else might help bump those attendance numbers.

Gastown!

There's another wave of stadium negotiations coming up now - Kansas City and Arizona want new stadiums, Baltimore wants to build around theirs, Milwaukee is trying to get renos, and the Angels will probably be asking for a new stadium again soon. Nashville is the new patsy.

Milwaukee couldn't wait

Historic Gas Plant District

GPD
HisGasPlant
GaPlan

The Braves were gifted land and developments as part of the deal and I believe within 5 years they sold them off. So no these new deals won't make it harder for teams to move.

Can anyone who knows the area give an explanation: It's long been said that the current stadium is not in a good location in terms of accessibility, largely due to nearby bridge traffic. So why build a new stadium in the same location?

Because that way the owner gets a bunch of free land and development rights, the things he really wants. Paying part of the cost (maybe) of some baseball stadium is just the cost of that.

There are few challenges of owning a baseball team that can't be solved by a billion dollars of free real estate.

as usual, Field of Schemes has an early look

I'm a bit of a contrarian at heart, so 100 or so consecutive taxpayer ripoffs re stadiums and arenas kind of bores me.

but it is what it is.

"affordable housing" once again will do its typical heavy lifting (supposedly).

the catch tends to be, as with the Brooklyn Nets arena, that:

a) a lot of the housing won't be built for at least 20 years
b) "affordable" in Brooklyn re the arena project has tended to mean that, for example, instead of paying $4,000 a month for an apartment, if you are related to a local power broker, you get it "on sale" for $3,400 a month or whatever.

I'd estimate that roughly 0 percent of the hundreds of activists who attended rowdy hearings there BITD forecasted that as the expected result.

Well thank goodness. Finally Tampa will have the resources to become as successful as their well-heeled neighbors the Marlins.

Rays announce deal for St. Petersburg ballpark

The Rays reached an agreement with the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to build a new, $1.3 billion ballpark as part of the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site, an 86-acre area also known as the Historic Gas Plant District. The club, city and county made the announcement at Tropicana Field’s “162 Landing” on Tuesday morning....

The Rays’ proposal features an approximately 30,000-seat ballpark (with the capacity expanded to 35,000 for special events) with three seating levels, a fixed roof, an artificial turf field, operable walls and a pavilion design. The Rays would pay for more than half of the stadium’s estimated cost, with the city and county covering approximately $600 million and the Rays responsible for the rest.

The number of seats just keeps falling with every new ballpark. 30,000 seats is 14% smaller than the current smallest ballpark - Progressive Field - and 10% smaller than the Vegas ballpark. It's only a little bit larger than where they host the College World Series in Omaha.

I wonder if expansion cities will even need to build a bigger stadium. Just raise the ticket prices and call it a day.

I doubt any other existing team will or would build a stadium that small anytime soon.

This is the Rays. This is a pure cash grab.

I wonder if expansion cities will even need to build a bigger stadium. Just raise the ticket prices and call it a day.

Oh they'll need a ballpark district around it. That's where the real money is - real estate!

I doubt any other existing team will or would build a stadium that small anytime soon.

The new proposed Royals stadium would serve around 35k fans.

So the Rays are replacing their old, ugly, fixed-roof, artificial turfed stadium with...a new ugly, fixed-roof, artificial turfed stadium!