Last Friday, a handful of Tampa Bay Rays officials, media representatives, and real estate developers met in a north St. Petersburg Hilton to hear the latest news regarding the proposed new Tampa Bay Rays stadium in nearby Carillon Park.
This new location would bring the Rays stadium closer to the bridges connection Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and cut down the average drive time for a person travelling to the stadium from Tampa to about 3o minutes.
Due to dwindling attendance numbers over the past few years at the Rays original home of Tropicana Field near Downtown St. Pete, prospects for a new stadium and location like these have become all the more enticing as of late.
Friday's informational meeting was no exception as Cityscape LLC CEO Darryl LeClair laid out a case for Carillon Park being the Rays ideal new home due to its equal distance from Clearwater, St. Pete, and Downtown Tampa as well as a number of other factors.
LeClair stated that other considered areas like Downtown Tampa or the Westshore area near Raymond James Stadium would be problematic due to the traffic issues a new stadium in these areas would yield.
The Carillon Park area is mostly a business-oriented complex which houses 14,000 (and up to 22,000) employees within 3/5ths of a mile from the stadium. Developers also proposed a tram-like system that would take office workers from their buildings and parking spaces to the stadium.
They left open the idea of this new Rays stadium having a fixed or retractable roof. The proposed cost is estimated to be between $540 and $577 million for a retractable or fixed roof stadium and $424 million for an open-air stadium.
