New Tampa Bay Rays Ballpark Closer Than Ever After Decades Of Check Swings

Tampa Bay Rays' CEO, Ken Babby, and the rest of the team's ownership group have received thumbs up from the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County for a new ballpark.

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Tampa Bay Rays

While seated in the Rays’ dugout at Tropicana Field last Friday afternoon, and with Happy Hour on the immediate horizon, Ken Babby noted he and his fellow members of the team’s ownership group would “toast a glass to Tampa, the county and the city for this incredible moment.”

One can only suspect the glasses were not merely half full, but spilling over in joy as a result of a memorable couple of days that now serves as landmarks on the timeline of a franchise that was born in 1995.

With Tampa City Council and the Hillsborough County Commission having approved the agreement for the Rays’ $2.36 billion ballpark – votes of 4-3 for the former and 5-2 for the latter -- as the centerpiece of a 130-acre proposed mixed-use development on the site of Hillsborough College, there was nothing but good feeling passed around along with a sense of “finally” given the long-running drama that has been the Rays’ pursuance of a new home.

“Incredibly humbling,” is how Babby, the team’s CEO, described the process of getting to this point less than a year after he, managing partner a co-chair Patrick Zalupski, the founder of Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes, and co-chair Bill Cosgrove, founder and owner of Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage, were introduced to the media at Steinbrenner Field early last October. (Union Home Mortgage has visibility in Tampa as the presenting sponsor for the Gasparilla Bowl played at Raymond James Stadium.)

Steinbrenner Field was home to the Rays in 2025 following the devastation the region incurred at the expense of Hurricane Milton in October 2024, including the Tropicana Field roof being torn apart. It only added to the continuous cycle of stadium talk that has surrounded the team for years, including a split-city plan that was proposed during an embarrassment of a dog and pony show at, appropriately, the Dali Museum in 2019 on the St. Pete waterfront where surrealism was indeed front and center.

“It’s two decades in the making and we appreciate the uncertainty and certainly of all of the starts and stops with the ballpark,” said Babby, adding that when Rays fans go to sleep “they know the Tampa Bay Rays are here forever in Tampa.”

The ownership group has expressed interest in a ballpark community similar to the Battery Atlanta complex in Cobb County, Ga., where the Braves play at Truist Park. Hillsborough County’s contribution to the roughly 30,000-seat, and seating expandable, ballpark is slated to be $796 million, approximately 80 percent of which comes from community investment and tourist development taxes, the latter often referenced as a “bed tax.” The city is providing roughly $80 million in public funding. The Rays will take care of the rest, approximately $1.4 billion, and will be responsible for addition costs the project may incur.

Now at bat: A lengthy “to-do list"

In dealing with a project of this magnitude, bumps in the road can certainly occur between now and the targeted curtain rising of Opening Day 2029. As Babby pointed out, the constituents are many and include neighboring communities, elected officials, business leaders and other sports teams – the Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field is on property connected to Hillsborough College and the NFL’s Buccaneers are across the street – and of course, the city and county. Celebrating? Sure. Resting easily? Not a chance.

“We will never stop listening,” said Babby. “We’re not going to stop just because some votes took place (last week).”

The ownership group is listening to inquiries from companies that have expressed interest in filling the office space that will be part of the mixed-use campus.

“These are businesses that are not even based in Florida,” said Babby, a former chief revenue officer of the Washington Post, with which he was also general manager of the media entity’s digital arm. “Now, we get a chance to go back and have authentic conversations with them about the dream and the vision becoming a reality.”

As for the two-year college, which opened its doors in 1968 and has its share of outdated facilities, a $150 million commitment has come from the state. Fifty million of the commitment has been secured. Governor Ron DeSantis has been a supporter of the project and in February approved the granting of a 22-acre plot of land to the college for the purpose of redevelopment.

“We were obviously very supportive with Hillsborough College of that site,” the governor said at a news conference in Tampa on August 24. “And we think it’s going to be great for the college. And there’s going to be a lot of opportunities there for that.”

The reality is much work needs to be completed before glasses are raised at a formal groundbreaking. Bond validation, which according to Babby will be 30 to 90 days, work on the college’s temporary campus, and a community benefits plan top the list. With respect to the latter, affordable housing, neighborhood investment, youth sports initiatives and the like are among critical ingredients.

“I am a big list guy, and the to-do list is deep,” said Babby.

Alas, securing commitments from the county and city were vital. Otherwise, cities outside the region would be lining up in earnest to take on a relocating franchise. Instead, this is the closest the Rays and the Tampa Bay region have come to getting a new ballpark.

“We are off and running,” said Babby. “We have long said it has been our dream to build this ‘Forever Home.’”

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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