UPDATE (July 30, 2024): Pinellas County Commissioners have given the final green light on the new Tampa Bay Rays stadium complex. In a 5-2 vote, the County Commission has designated $312.5 million toward the design and building of the ballpark. According to the Commissioners, the funds will come from tourist development tax dollars.
UPDATE (July 18, 2024): In a 5-to-3 vote, the St. Petersburg City Council has approved the new Tampa Bay Rays stadium. The City Council greenlighted the deal for the new stadium and surrounding area called the Historic Gas Plant District. Funding for the project is still unclear as the council will have to vote on whether or not to issue bonds for construction of the stadium and surrounding complex. Now that the stadium has been approved by the city, there’s still one more approval needed from the county. A vote by the Pinellas County Commission is expected within the next few weeks.
UPDATE (June 1, 2024): Since the recording of this podcast, the St. Petersburg City Council held an informational workshop on May 9th. It was the first in a series of meetings regarding the new Rays stadium and the development of the surrounding Gas Plant District. The initial meeting lasted for several hours as city council members scrutinized portions of the proposed deal negotiated by Mayor Ken Welch and developers. The stadium project is not a done deal. Both the St. Pete City Council and the Pinellas County Commission are slated to vote on the ballpark and development agreements in July. If approved, construction on the new stadium will begin in January 2025. It is expected that the new ballpark would take three years to build and would be ready for the Rays’ Opening Day in April 2028. The team released a video rendering (see above) of the proposed new stadium on May 30th.
In this special podcast, Z-News student journalists take a deeper dive into the proposed $1.3 billion baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays in Downtown St. Petersburg. We spoke to Pinellas County Commissioner Charlie Justice, Community Activist Dylan Dames with the group Faith in Florida and with WWSB/ABC 7 Sports Anchor Xavier McKnight to discuss the pros and cons of the proposed new home for Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay.
Hosts: Jillian Borie & Tyler Green
Producer: Sarah Thompson
Reporter: Christian Santiago
Sound Engineer/Audio Editor: Valeria Maldonado
Faculty Advisor: Steve Malave
For more information on the proposed Rays stadium project: Rays announce new ballpark agreement (mlb.com)
