Tampa Bay Rays leaders begin making sales pitch for new stadium project

The Tampa Bay Rays and the team’s new CEO are taking their sales pitch on the road.

The team, which has been widely reported, looks to build a new stadium in Tampa and has identified the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough College as the right spot. 

The team’s plans call for a major mixed-use development to be built around the stadium and for a new campus for the college to be built on a piece of the property.

The Rays will pay for the mixed-use portion of the project and will cover half the cost of the ballpark, which is said to priced at about $2.3 billion. It will also cover overruns.

The rest of the money, says CEO Ken Babby, is to come from the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County coffers.

Hence, the sales pitch.

The team embarked on a series of community engagement sessions March 3 through March 11 to share the plan with the public and answer questions. (Additional sessions are planned though dates have yet to be announced).

The first was held at Hillsborough College March 3, where a crowd of about 100 (and probably an equal number of TV cameras) gathered to hear what Babby, the Rays and college President Ken Atwater had to say.

Babby spoke for about 25 minutes and then answered questions along with Atwater long past the scheduled end of the session.

Most of the conversation focused on the localities’ portion of the cost, though questions of what it would mean for the college, parking and the fan experience at games came up as well.

Unscientifically, the feeling was most were in support.

“This should hopefully be a place where you want to be and spend your weekend, spend your evenings, and we hope that you fall in love with it just as we have,” Babby says of the stadium and development.

As part of the engagement session the team also released some new details about the project.

30-year economic impact of new stadium 

Source: Tampa Bay Rays