When the Tampa Bay Rays won approval from Tampa and Hillsborough for a $2.3 billion stadium, the team promised a swift construction timeline.
April 2029, its owners said, would mark the opening of a Tampa ballpark. To meet that goal, local leaders said the Rays would need to break ground on the site at the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough College in September 2026.
“There need to be shovels in the ground in September,” Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan said on local radio station WDAE in July.
It’s mid-October now, and construction has yet to begin. With the weeks ticking by — and the Rays’ lease at Tropicana Field up after the 2028 season — where do the team’s building plans stand?
“(Rays CEO) Ken Babby told me back in August that they had intended on doing a groundbreaking in September,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said last week. “I think it’s imminent. It’s going to happen soon.”
Work is on schedule, Babby says
In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Babby said progress is on pace.
“We’re still fully focused on 2029; nothing has changed,” he said, adding that work will begin on “the Nest” — a temporary campus for Hillsborough College students — in the coming weeks.
“There’s site work being planned as we speak,” Babby said. That campus should be open in time for the spring semester, he said.
While city and county officials approved a stadium funding agreement in August, slices of the deal have yet to be finalized.
The local governments plan to issue bonds — which accrue interest — to cover part of their contribution to the project. Before money can be spent, those bonds must first be approved through a legal process called bond validation, where local governments seek a court ruling that says they are allowed to take on debt for the planned purpose.
Also included in Hillsborough’s portion of the deal is $360 million from the Community Investment Tax, a half-cent sales tax that typically pays for roads and upgrades to public buildings. To use that money, county commissioners must first hold a public hearing and add the ballpark to a list of projects that can benefit from the tax. That hearing is set for Nov. 10.
Babby said the team does not anticipate roadblocks in that hearing, nor with issuing bonds.
“A respect for the government parties is part of the timeline,” he said.
‘Aggressive and perhaps audacious’
A year ago, after buying the team, Rays managing partner Patrick Zalupski said building a stadium by 2029 was “aggressive and perhaps audacious.”
Walter Franco, principal and research director at consulting firm Victus Advisors, told the Times in February that a stadium could be finished by the deadline if the Rays broke ground in the next few weeks.
That was more than seven months ago. Now, the Rays have roughly 2 1/2 years to meet their goal.
Babby says it’s possible. He has previously compared the Rays’ schedule to that of the Athletics, who broke ground on a Las Vegas stadium in 2025 with plans to finish by 2028. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has made the same comparison.
Two other recent stadiums have opened in roughly 30 to 35 months, said James M. LaFave, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois: the Braves’ Truist Park and the Rangers’ Globe Life Field.
Like those teams, the Rays have the advantage of mild weather that allows for construction through the winter, LaFave said. Their proposed 31,000-seat ballpark is also smaller than the other three venues, which could be an advantage.
But several Hillsborough College buildings must be demolished before work can begin on the foundation or structure of the stadium, which could add time.
Among the buildings set to be torn down are those that house student services, technology, social sciences, humanities and learning resources, along with the athletic department and dental clinic, according to an environmental permit application filed in March. Construction on the Athletics’ stadium project, meanwhile, began months after the casino that previously stood on the site was demolished, LaFave said.
“If you let the past examples speak for themselves, it certainly seems possible, when you’re in the solid 2 1/2 year range, to just barely make it happen,” he said. “But it’s getting awfully close to where 2 1/2 years is going to be absolutely necessary to get to the end, and that’s getting awfully close to, or past, opening day.”
Benjamin Flowers, a professor of architecture at Ohio State University, said every stadium project is distinct.
“Success on one project and one timeline really doesn’t mean anything to another,” he said.
At $2.3 billion, Flowers said, the proposed Rays stadium is also more expensive than those of the Athletics, Braves and Rangers. That extra money is likely not going toward the excavation or foundation, he said. “It’s likely going into the finishes, the luxury boxes and all the stuff that comes up to the end and moves slower than stuff at the very beginning,” he said.
Still, Flowers said, “Anything is possible.” The Empire State Building was erected in 410 days, he said. The Pentagon took less than 1 1/2 years.
“In an ideal world where everyone’s on the same page, and we’re all pointed in the same direction, and everyone has the same desires and aspirations and is 100% in agreement, it’s possible,” he said.
“Is it likely? My gut feeling is, it’s going to be hard.”
