Rays withdraw from New Stadium deal in St. Pete

The Historic Gas Plant District will need a new redevelopment partner.

The Tampa Bay Rays have announced they are withdrawing from the redevelopment project for the Historic Gas Plant District, which would have included a new baseball stadium in downtown St. Petersburg.

The Rays were facing a March 31 deadline to provide evidence they had met the requirements to move forward with the new stadium construction, which was one of 12 contracts signed with the city of St. Petersburg as part of the overall redevelopment of Tropicana Field’s 80+ acre site.

We were able to confirm with the team this morning that the Rays have withdrawn not only from the stadium project, but the entire redevelopment.

As part of the announcement, Rays owner Stuart Sternberg affirmed the Rays intend to return to playing games at Tropicana Field for the 2026 season, which means attention will now return to the St. Petersburg City Council, who must decide whether it is better to complete repairs of Tropicana Field or to buy out the Rays from their contract restricting them to the stadium from 2026-2028.

If the city chooses to move forward with repairs, there is a wide range of costs that will need to be deliberated. Is the city responsible for repairing every aspect of the stadium, including fan amenities? Or is the city’s responsibility limited to the field itself being playable? Additionally, what happens if the stadium is not ready for Opening Day 2026?

We will have more questions than answers as the Stadium Saga continues.