Dismissing the value of the land now mostly used for parking, Gov. Ron DeSantis joined the Cabinet on Tuesday in agreeing to include 22 acres at Hillsborough College as part of a future deal for a stadium location for the Tampa Bay Rays.
DeSantis and the Cabinet — Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson— approved the inclusion of land at the college for the talks with Rays ownership over the use of about 113 acres of the Dale Mabry Campus for a proposed stadium and accompanying mixed-use development.
“I like baseball. But not everyone is going to just go watch baseball because they love it. You have to draw them with other things,” DeSantis said. “The (National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay) Lightning have done a great job with making it the place to be. That’s why they sell out. And I definitely think there’s potential in Tampa for this.”
The proposed development, which would include educational buildings, is portrayed as emulating The Battery Atlanta, a 10-acre mixed-use project the Atlanta Braves developed next to the taxpayer-funded Truist Park northwest of Atlanta.
Uthmeier said including the 22-acres into the mixed-use development will create a greater benefit for the land than in its current use.
“What today is just a bunch of parking lots will be completely renovated to a live-work-entertain district that is going to have significant economic benefits to the state,” Uthmeier said. “I also think there’s a lot of great opportunities for the students to do internships, apprenticeships; walk right across the street and have job opportunities right there.”
DeSantis called the land “underutilized” and that it isn’t “worth very much outside of this proposal.”
“A home builder would not put a subdivision there. No way,” DeSantis said. “People wouldn’t do commercial buildings right there right now. In order to make this something special it really has to be something unique like this.”
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.”
DeSantis, who grew up in nearby Dunedin, leaving to play baseball at Yale University before the Rays were founded in 1998, said the overall deal would be good for the college and ensure baseball remains in the Tampa Bay region.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done on that campus, and my view on that is rather than pour money into rehabbing old buildings, why don’t you reimagine it in a good way,” DeSantis said.
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 January 29, 1947. Since 1968, the land has been held or leased to the college and other state agencies, according to Cabinet records.
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 the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County.
Under previous owners, the Rays have been attempting to get a new stadium for more than a decade.
The Rays currently play at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, although the domed stadium was slammed by a hurricane in 2024 and the team had to play at Steinbrenner Field – where the New York Yankees play Spring Training games – last year.
The proposed budget out of the Florida Senate offers $50 million to help the college relocate facilities for the stadium, but the House spending plan doesn’t include the funding.
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