Future of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays to come into focus with key meetings on $1.3B stadium project

By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The future of the Tampa Bay Rays is about to come into clearer focus as the St. Petersburg City Council begins discussions about the team’s planned $1.3 billion ballpark. The stadium would be the anchor of a much larger project to transform downtown with affordable housing, a Black history museum, a hotel and office and retail space. The council begins a look Thursday at the plans for what the city calls the Historic Gas Plant Project. The name is a nod to the area’s history as a once-thriving Black community that was demolished for a highway and the existing Tropicana Field.