After both their current home in Tropicana Field and their quest for a new stadium in St. Peterburg fell apart amidst the destruction from hurricane Milton in October of 2024, the Rays finally appear on track
for a more stable future. Not only do they expect Tropicana Field to be ready to reopen by Opening Day, but now plans for a new stadium stadium in Tampa itself are starting to emerge.
The plan, and that’s all it is at this point, is to use land from Hillsborough College to carve out the room needed for not just a new stadium, but also a ballpark village of sorts modeled after what Atlanta has done with their stadium setup. The college would get money, and the Rays would get a site across the street from the Buccaneers’ Raymond James, just to the south of the Yankees’ spring training facility, and just to the east of Tampa’s airport.
There’s a decent chance this never happens, but if it does, this looks to be a better location for the Rays than their current home in St. Petersburg, where we now know they’ll play at least the next three seasons and complete their deal there.
Talk about this, the Yankees signing Cody Bellinger, the Mets trading for Freddy Peralta (we’ll have more reaction to those items later), and whatever else you’d like. As always, be good to one another!
