Major League Baseball side the Tampa Bay Rays has officially announced it will relocate to a new stadium within Tampa, moving away from its current Tropicana Field ballpark in St Petersburg.
Plans to move the team from the stadium it has called home since it first joined the league in 1998 have been touted for some time, and now the Rays owner, Stuart Sternberg, finally revealed at a press conference that he wishes the team to play in a central Tampa location and has identified a 14-acre site in Ybor City as a potential landing spot for the new stadium’s location.
“Ybor City is authentically Tampa Bay,” Sternberg was quoted by The Tampa Bay Times. “This is where we want to be playing.”
With the Tampa Bay Rays moving out of Tropicana Field it will open up the opportunity for the city of St Petersburg to demolish and redevelop the 86 acres of land the baseball stadium and surrounding land occupies.
As of yet there have been no official details on the proposal, including estimated costs, funding or stadium specifications.
The Rays currently rank last in terms of attendance (15,670 fans per game average), so a move across the Tampa Bay might be the fan boost the team needs.
February 14, 2018
