Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet will be asked Tuesday to designate 22 acres at Hillsborough College into the talks involving a stadium location for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Hillsborough College is working with the Rays ownership over the use of about 113 acres of the Dale Mabry campus in Tampa for a proposed stadium and accompanying mixed-use development.
The proposal includes the use of 22 acres of non-conservation land at the college, which could “provide a greater benefit to the public than its retention in state ownership.”
“Today, while a portion of the property is utilized for college purposes, a significant portion of land is solely used for parking (single level surface) purposes, which provides an opportunity to reconfigure the campus through real estate optimization,” the proposal states. “Previously, portions of the adjacent property were conveyed by the Board of Trustees for sports and entertainment uses, including the current home to George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Spring Training Home to the New York Yankees and Tampa Tarpons.”
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DeSantis and the Cabinet – Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson – will be sitting as the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which oversees management of most state lands.
The proposal includes a requirement that within one year the college update its campus master plan to integrate the dual missions of school and the Major League Baseball franchise and to maintain existing government leases until they are modified by the Rays.
Also, the recommendation calls for the college to work with the Rays on applications and permits, and that state permitting agencies “expeditiously review all state and local applications, permits, or zoning requirement, or additional submissions in support of the project.”
Florida has owned the land since it was acquired from the U.S. government as part of a 155-acre acquisition by the State Tuberculosis Board of Florida on Jan. 29, 1947. Since 1968, the land has been held or leased to the college and other state agencies, according to Cabinet records.
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The Rays' ownership group, which bought the team last year, is looking for a public-private partnership, and any deal would have to include support from Tampa and Hillsborough County.
Managing partner/co-chair Patrick Zalupski has said the team's goal is to move into a new ballpark for the 2029 season. The Rays' lease at their current home, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, ends after the 2028 season.
The Rays, under former principle owner Stuart Sternberg, had been attempting to get a new stadium for more than a decade.
The proposed Tampa development, which would include educational buildings, is portrayed as emulating The Battery, a 10-acre mixed-use project that the Atlanta Braves developed next to the taxpayer-funded Truist Park northwest of Atlanta.
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DeSantis has suggested Hillsborough College could shift money from deferred maintenance projects to assist the deal.
“I’d rather put that money to the reimagined campus than trying to rehab some of the old buildings,” DeSantis said during a Feb. 3 press conference with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred at Hillsborough College.
DeSantis also suggested the state Department of Transportation could help with access to the revitalized property.
The proposed budget out of the Florida Senate offers $50 million to help the college relocate facilities for the stadium, something that is not included in the House spending plan.
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In 2022, DeSantis vetoed a $35 million earmark for a new spring training facility for the Rays in Pasco County, explaining he opposed tax dollars going to professional sports stadiums.
“We were not in a situation where use of tax dollars for a professional stadium would have been a prudent use,” DeSantis said at the time.
