Next week is primed to bring more discussion, and perhaps details, on the Tampa Bay Rays’ plan to build a stadium at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred are slated to be in Tampa on Tuesday morning for a news conference at the college.
DeSantis is expected to provide further insight on what role the state may play, though his office did not give a reason for the news conference in an email announcement obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.
Manfred most likely will tout the benefits of and need for a new stadium, one the Rays have been pursuing for nearly 20 years.
Members of the new Rays ownership group, which took over the team in early October and have made a stadium deal its top priority, are also expected to attend.
“I can confirm that there’s a press conference next Tuesday, but I don’t have any details about it,” Hillsborough College board of trustees chairperson Greg Celestan told the Times.
There is no indication the team will release details of the financing plan for or renderings of the new stadium at the event, though those could be coming soon. Sports Authority CEO Eric Hart told the Tampa Bay Times Tuesday that the Rays new stadium could cost $2.3 billion, not including surrounding development.
The governor has said the state will not help finance the stadium, but he has offered to potentially pay for sewers, roads or other public components. He also has said the state could assist with the relocation of a Department of Juvenile Justice center at the northwest corner of the Hillsborough College site.
The Hillsborough College board of trustees earlier this month approved anon-binding memorandum of understanding with the Rays.
DeSantis, who grew up in Dunedin and played baseball at Yale, has said he is in favor of a new Rays ballpark in Tampa Bay and that the Hillsborough College site could work well for both the team and college.
“I think they’ve got a shared vision that could potentially be very, very good,” he said at a news conference earlier this month. “I just want to see this be a successful enterprise in one way or another.”
But some, including Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, who has advocated for a ballpark in Tampa for more than a decade, have said they’d like to see DeSantis and the state do more.
“That’s where we’re at a disadvantage,” Hagan said on WDAE-AM earlier this month. “Most of your recent stadiums that have been built have had significant state funding.”
Last week, state Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, filed a $50 million local funding request to the state for Hillsborough College.
According to the request, which does not mention the Rays, the money would be used for training and instruction space at the Dale Mabry campus.
Jacksonville-area developer Patrick Zalupski, who leads the group that bought the Rays in September, has a strong relationship with the governor. DeSantis appointed Zalupski to the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees in February 2023, and Zalupski’s company, Dream Finders Homes, gave $250,000 to a DeSantis political action committee during his presidential bid.
At Wednesday’s Hillsborough County Commission meeting, Hagan will provide an “update on Tampa Bay Rays Ballpark discussions,” according to a meeting agenda.
The discussion, scheduled for 10 a.m., will likely bring into clearer focus the public-private partnership the team is pursuing.
It will also be the first opportunity for county commissioners to discuss the Rays’ stadium plans with each other, as state law prohibits them from having such talks privately.
The County Commission is pivotal to the Rays’ ballpark aspirations because it controls much of the public money the team could request.
When the Rays brokered a financing plan for a stadium in 2024to replace Tropicana Field, Pinellas County and St. Petersburg agreed to split an approximately $600 million public contribution, with the team covering another $700 million. The Rays backed out of that plan after Hurricane Milton destroyed the Trop roof in 2024.
This time around, an even split between the city of Tampa and county is less likely, raising the stakes for negotiations with the county.
No vote or formal decision is expected to come from the discussion, and the meeting will offer its typical public comment period shortly after it starts at 9 a.m..
A Tampa Sports Authority board meeting on Tuesday afternoon and Hillsborough County Aviation Authority board meeting on Thursday could prove to be informative, too. The Sports Authority will be voting on whether to recommend that Tampa and Hillsborough conduct economic studieson the stadium plan.