Tampa Bay Rays unveil stadium designs, plan to woo public

With public support critical to selling its ballpark plan, the team will begin hosting community engagement sessions to discuss its plans.

By Louis Llovio
| 4:25 p.m. February 5, 2026
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

The Tampa Bay Rays hope to build a new ballpark and mixed-use development across from Raymond James Stadium on the site of today's Hillsborough College in Tampa.

Tampa Bay-Lakeland

The Tampa Bay Rays have released the first images of the ballpark the team is hoping to build on the site of Hillsborough College.

The renderings show a domed stadium amid a massive mixed-use development on the 113-acre property across from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Along with unveiling its vision, the team also announced it would soon begin a series of community engagement sessions across Hillsborough County. Those ostensibly will be held to help convince residents that at least some public money will be needed to build the stadium.

The team, in a statement says, it sees the stadium as a public–private partnership with costs shared between the team, the county and the city of Tampa.

The new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark will, if approved, sit on the site of today's Hillsborough College.

A street level view of what an imagined new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark and adjoining mixed-use development would look like on the site of Hillsborough College.

The imagined pregame festivities at the new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark on the site of Hillsborough College.

No definitive numbers have been released yet with county, city and team officials beginning early conversations this week.

Another way for the community to participate is through a $19.98 deposit to secure early access to seating when the stadium is finished.

The Rays are in active talks with Hillsborough College officials about a proposal that will transform the campus. That plan keeps the college on the property, though on a smaller footprint, allowing Rays to build a stadium and a mixed-use development on the property that would include multifamily, retail and hotel space.

The mixed-use development will be 100% privately financed.

author

Louis Llovio

Louis Llovio is the deputy managing editor at the Business Observer. Before going to work at the Observer, the longtime business writer worked at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Maryland Daily Record and for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. He lives in Tampa.