TAMPA, Fla. _ The Rays on Tuesday unveiled the team's plans for an Ybor City stadium: It will have see-through sliding glass walls, a fixed translucent roof, an artificial turf playing field and will be integrated into the historic Latin neighborhood with an evolving design.
"It will provide a ballpark experience like no other," Rays executive Melanie Lenz.
The estimated cost of the stadium and surrounding infrastructure is $892 million. The stadium itself is projected to cost $809 million, and the roof will cost about $240 million of that.
As for arguably the biggest question of who will pay for what, team president Brian Auld said: "We don't have those answers yet."
Principal owner Stuart Sternberg talked about the "ingenuity" involved in the design and seating concepts which include picnic, patio, table and fountain seating areas among others.
The stadium will seat 28,216 and, with standing areas, could hold 30,842. That would give it the smallest attendance capacity of any Major League Baseball venue. Tropicana Field's current capacity is 31,042.
Stadium design officials said the idea of having the sliding walls is to "let the outside in and the inside out."
Sternberg stressed that the stadium, which covers about 900,000 square feet, will be available for use year-round and "will be of, by and for the people of Tampa Bay."
How would that work? There's been discussions of closing part of an adjacent street to create pre- and post- game festival areas. Food and beverage outlets there could operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week, year-round at the stadium.
The field itself could also be opened to kids to play on during the offseason, the concourses could be opened to the public and the flexible-design areas could make be made available for meetings and other events.
Urban planners at the presentation touted a series of transportation options, including the nearby Amtrak train line, to facilitate access and egress. Planners also insisted there is enough parking for fans in the stadium area, which has been a key concern.
The Rays unveiled the stadium's design and details on Tuesday about a half mile from the proposed site near downtown Tampa that was announced in February as their top choice for a new home.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, city and county officials and a number of area business and community leaders attended the announcement at the Italian Club. Top Rays officials, manager Kevin Cash and original owner Vince Naimoli were there as well.
Before the unveiling there was speculation that the estimated cost could over around $800 million, including a retractable roof. And a significant question that remains unanswered is how much the team plans to contribute to build its new home. In November, the team floated a figure more than $150 million to the Tampa Bay Times.
Team and area officials are banking that excitement over the design will boost support for the project from the public, from community and government leaders and, most importantly, the corporate executives whose commitments of financial support will be integral to the team's success in Tampa. A group of business leaders led by Charles Sykes and Ron Christaldi and called Tampa Bay Rays 2020 has been working to build corporate support.
"It's about creating and developing a buzz around this and to get some community buy-in," Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said Monday. "Folks want to see it and imagine it. It makes the job of building support that much easier."
The Rays have referred to the stadium as both a "next generation" and "neighborhood" ballpark, and worked with the architectural firm Populous on the design of the proposed ballpark.
Sternberg was confident in advance of the announcement that the unique design as "the most fan friendly, forward-thinking" stadium in baseball would be well received.
"People are going to love the place," he said Friday in New York. "They're going to love it."
The 14-acre plot just north of the Ybor Channel is currently the site of warehouses and parking lots, but is part of an historic area with long-standing baseball tradition and is near just the Ybor City entertainment area, but also downtown Tampa, which is undergoing a massive redevelopment led by the Water Street Tampa project.
"Ybor City is authentically Tampa Bay," Sternberg said at the February announcement. "It represents the finest opportunity for Major League Baseball to thrive in this region for generations to come.
"This is where we want to be playing baseball."
Building a new stadium is expected to take four to five years. The Rays are signed to play at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg through 2027 but have an agreement in place to negotiate an early departure for a new stadium elsewhere in the Tampa Bay area.
That three-year agreement expires on Dec. 31. What is unclear, however, is if the Rays need to firm up the financial details of building a new stadium by that deadline, or only need to provide notice to St. Petersburg that it intends to move to Ybor City.
Sternberg told the Times last month he did not think an extension of that deal was needed.
