(The Center Square) — The Tampa Bay Rays announced Thursday the team is abandoning a $6.5 billion stadium and downtown redevelopment deal in St. Petersburg that has been two years in the making.
The team said in a statement released on X ahead of a March 31 deadline that it’ll be returning to a repaired Tropicana Field in 2026.
In December, the team said the deal was still in effect.
“After careful deliberation, we have concluded we cannot move forward with the new ballpark and development project at this moment,” team owner Stuart Sternberg said in the statement. “A series of events beginning in October that no one could have anticipated led to this difficult decision. Our commitment to the vitality and success of the Rays organization is unwavering. We continue to focus on finding a ballpark solution that serves the best interests of our region, Major League Baseball and our organization.”
The team was supposed to contribute $700 million to the project, with the rest of the cost of the stadium itself coming from funds from both St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.
The project has been hit by delays caused by Category 3 Hurricane Milton, but both the St. Petersburg City Council and the Pinellas County Commission approved bonds to finance the stadium and the surrounding development in December.
The city council also voted to approve and then delay about $23 million to repair the roof of the Rays’ present home, Tropicana Field, that was heavily damaged by Milton. The storm tore 18 out of 24 roof panels from the stadium, which was built in 1990. The stadium requires an estimated $55 million in repairs, which the city says it will now perform to get it ready for the 2026 season.
The Rays will play their home games in 2025 at the New York Yankees’ spring training park, George Steinbrenner Field, across the bay in Tampa.
The Rays will be one of two teams, with the Athletics being the other, to play their games this season at a minor league ballpark. The A’s are set to play in Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park as the team awaits a decision in Las Vegas on a planned stadium to be built there.
