The Rays Want To Build A Brand New Stadium In The Heart Of Tampa (Photos)

Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Rays unveiled the franchise’s latest attempt to construct a brand new ballpark in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area. The nearly $900 million proposed facility would sit on the southern tip of Tampa’s famed Ybor City neighborhood, just north of the Selmon Expressway, three blocks from the heart of Ybor’s thriving nightlife district.

The potential stadium site is one mile east of downtown Tampa, four miles southeast of Raymond James Stadium and 24 miles northeast of the Rays current home, which is found just outside of downtown St. Pete.

Adorned with a fixed translucent roof, transparent sliding glass doors and an artificial turf playing surface, the proposed park would emulate many of the characteristics of Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium, home to both the Vikings and last February’s Super Bowl.

The new structure would feature a capacity of 28,000 seats, with standing room sections allowing for up to 31,000 fans to attend games.

Since the Rays began play in 1998, the club has called St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field home. Originally constructed in 1990, “The Trop” has never really provided much of a home field advantage thanks to its bland, warehouse like design, as well as its location on the west side of Tampa Bay, which has made it very difficult to reach for many residences of Florida’s populous I-4 corridor.

Every season, the Rays rank near the bottom of MLB in attendance, with home games against the Yankees and Red Sox almost always becoming defacto road contests.

Like every past and present Rays stadium proposal, the next and most important thing to consider involves how this state-of-the-art project will be paid for.

Below and in the upper right are a series of architectural renderings, provided by the Rays organization.