As the Tampa Bay Rays seek to build a baseball stadium and mixed-use development at the Dale Mabry Campus of Hillsborough College, the fate of the college’s popular tennis center is uncertain.
But at a community forum with the Rays Tuesday evening, college president Ken Atwater presented a solution.
“It will be moved to Al Lopez,” Atwater said.
That’s 132-acre Al Lopez Park — less than a 10-minute drive from the tennis center — where joggers and bikers loop a 1.2-mile path, kids climb around playgrounds and neighbors fish in a freshwater pond.
“We are committed to building a world-class tennis center as a part of this project,” said Ken Babby, chief executive for the Rays.
“We’re really excited about potentially doing that in Al Lopez Park through our community benefits agreement,” he said, referencing a legally binding agreement between developers and community groups.
According to a map presented by the Rays earlier this year, the existing Tejas Pradip Patel Tennis Center sits on land that the team wants to use for a 31,000-seat ballpark. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet last month voted to remove deed restrictions from the tennis center’s property — which said it could only be used for college purposes — meaning it’s fair game for a stadium.
The details of the planfor the tennis center — including where in the park it would go and how much it would cost — are not yet clear.
“We are not familiar with the discussion about the possible relocation” of the tennis courts, Lawrence Hollyfield, a spokesperson for Tampa’s Parks and Recreation department, said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times. “The stadium plan is still developing and, naturally, many ideas are being considered.”
Hillsborough College spokesperson Angela Eveillard said that “no final decisions have been made.”
Tampa City Council chairperson Alan Clendenin, who also serves on the Tampa Sports Authority, said moving the tennis center to the park would likely not be a challenge.
“Government-wise, I think it would be a relatively easy lift to be able to move tennis facilities to land that’s already designated as a public-use piece of land,” Clendenin said.
Dana Andrews, former president of the Florida chapter of the United States Tennis Association, said she thinks Al Lopez is an excellent place to relocate the center, especially from an economic perspective.
Hillsborough County is the fourth-largest tennis community in the state, and tens of thousands of kids and over 100 leagues play at the Hillsborough College center every year, Andrews said.
An average of 1,100 to 1,200 people visit the tennis center weekly, Eveillard confirmed.
The Rays and the city will need to decide the number of courts, lights and seats, as well as if there will be any cover from the sun, Andrews said. She said she hopes they collaborate withthe Florida chapter of the United States Tennis Association, which can offer free resources and experts on tennis facility planning.
“In order to do it right,” she said, “they really need the experts there.”