The Rays finally have a path to a permanent home in Tampa Bay.
After the Tampa City Council approved the ballpark deal 4-3 on Thursday, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners followed with a 5-2 vote on Friday, clearing the way for the team’s “Forever Home” project on the site of Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus. With both local approvals secured, the Rays can move into the community benefits agreement process and begin bond and funding validation before the groundbreaking the region has been waiting for.
If the project stays on track, Opening Day 2029 is the target.
Managing partner Patrick Zalupski, who told the group last October that finding a long-term ballpark in the Tampa Bay area would be their “first and highest priority,” marked the moment with a statement on Friday.
"We are incredibly grateful to everyone who invested their time, energy, ideas and trust in getting us to this moment," Zalupski said in a statement. "We recognize there is still important work ahead, and we look forward to continued collaboration to deliver on the promise of this transformational project.
"Today is an incredible day for Tampa Bay. Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible. Forever starts now."
The Rays’ use agreement at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg expires after the 2028 season, so the club now knows where it will be playing beyond that point. The new ballpark and surrounding development will sit along Dale Mabry Highway, across from Raymond James Stadium and next to Steinbrenner Field, placing it closer to a larger share of the local population, near Tampa International Airport and a few miles from downtown Tampa.
The project is being built around the “work, live, learn, play” idea, and the Rays are pitching it as more than a stadium. Chief executive officer Ken Babby said the county’s approval lets the region celebrate “the coming of a privately financed and mixed-use neighborhood, a reinvented Hillsborough College campus, and a new ballpark that secures the long-term future of Major League Baseball here in Tampa Bay.”
"The Tampa Bay Rays enthusiastically thank and applaud the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners for making history," Babby said in a statement.
The county’s vote carries major financial weight. Hillsborough County will cover $796 million of the ballpark’s projected $2.36 billion cost, with most of that coming from the county’s Community Investment Tax, about $360 million, and Tourist Development Tax money, about $303 million.
The city of Tampa is contributing $80 million, while the Rays are expected to put in roughly $1.37 billion plus all cost overruns. The club will also privately finance the surrounding mixed-use district.
Under the deal, the fixed-roof stadium will have at least 28,000 seats and be owned by Hillsborough County. The Rays will pay $4 million in annual rent, and the use agreement runs for 35 years and includes a non-relocation agreement.
The broader development will also include a modernized Hillsborough College campus, along with space the Rays say can handle non-baseball events and help turn the area into a destination for business, hospitality and entertainment - Tampa’s version of The Battery Atlanta.
The county commissioners who voted in favor were Ken Hagan, Harry Cohen, Gwen Myers, Christine Miller and Chris Boles. Donna Cameron Cepeda and Joshua Wostal voted no.
For a franchise that has spent years trying and failing to lock down a permanent ballpark solution, the timeline now looks a lot different. Zalupski’s group officially took control of the team last September after buying it from former principal owner Stuart Sternberg, who had overseen multiple unsuccessful efforts to secure a long-term stadium plan. Sternberg said he sold the club to the group that “gave it the best opportunity to keep this team in Tampa Bay.”
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Rays Just Cleared Another Huge Hurdle In Stadium Fight
The Rays picked up another major piece of momentum in their long stadium pursuit Wednesday, when Hillsborough County commissioners approved plans for a new ballpark at Hillsborough Colleges Dale Mabry campus. The vote follows earlier approval from Tampas city council and keeps the team on a path toward a new home in the city, with the proposed project carrying a price tag just under $2.4 billion and support lined up from the city, county, the Rays and a loan from Major League Baseball.
For a franchise that has spent years trying to solve its ballpark future, the latest step matters because it helps turn a long-discussed idea into something closer to a real building plan. The stadium is projected to be ready for Opening Day 2029 and would anchor a mixed-use development, but there is still more to sort through before the first pitch can be thrown there. [Read more 🡒]