Mom’s MLB ticket surprise sends boys running and crying
In Charlotte, NC, Charlie Sue surprised her sons, Austin and Ducky, with tickets to see the Red Sox, sending the boys running and crying in joy.
The best team in the American League does not know where it will be playing in three years, but it is one big step closer. After reaching an agreement on the structure of the financials on Friday, the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium deal is heading to a vote next week.
Tampa City Council will take up the final arguments on a $2.3 billion ballpark Aug. 27, with $976 million of it public money. That depends on negotiators delivering the documents first. Council Chair Alan Clendenin said Friday the agreements were in place and the vote would go forward. Hillsborough County will vote within hours of the Tampa City Council vote on Aug. 27 or the next morning, Chair Ken Hagan said. He put the odds of the project going through at 85%.
There are five or six documents, Clendenin said, including the non-relocation agreement, the clause that stops a team from taking public money and leaving anyway. St. Petersburg spent 20 years learning what that is worth. After announcing they were “Here to Stay,” in September 2023, longtime owner Stuart Sternberg sold the team. Patrick Zalupski’s group bought the team in late 2025, and CEO Ken Babby has run the stadium push since.
The Rays are 76-51, four games ahead of the Yankees with the best record in the American League. They are doing it on a payroll of about $90 million, 26th out of the 30 teams on opening day, in front of about 17,259 people a game.
The new building is supposed to fix that. The plan is a 31,000-seat domed stadium, the smallest permanent home in the majors, which is the point. The revenue is meant to come from the roughly 130 acres of apartments, hotels and restaurants around it rather than the seats inside it.
The plan puts that new ballpark across the street from the Buccaneers stadium and next door to Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ spring training park where the Rays spent all of 2025 after a hurricane damaged Tropicana Field.
The plan is timed for ground breaking in September 2026 to be ready for first pitch in 2029. The Tropicana Field lease expires after the 2028 season. The Rays want to be in their new stadium by opening day 2029 and their timeline calls for shovels in the ground by September to make that happen. St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch said that Tropicana Field could host the Rays for five to seven more years after the lease runs out if needed.
The county would cover $796 million of the public money. The city would cover $180 million. The Rays would put in more than $1.2 billion and eat any overruns.
The city’s $180 million has been the sticking point and this is what had been reworked in the documents that will be voted on Aug. 27.
The Rays need four votes on the seven-member council. Bill Carlson is the fourth and he has not said yes. If the deal dies, Babby has warned the team could look at other options. Orlando has an organized group that wants to bring the Rays there. The new ownership group is based in Jacksonville and Babby had his minor league team there, making them familiar with the feasibility of a team there.
The Rays will be on the road in Detroit when the vote comes down.