Led by a prominent real estate developer, a new group of private business owners have recently proposed a plan to the St. Petersburg City Council touting the benefits of a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium.
The plan proposes a new stadium in the Carillon business park area, just west of the Howard Frankland Bridge. The leader of the group Daryl Leclair, and his company Echelon, owns 12 acres of vacant land in the area where they hope to put a new stadium.
After months of silence, Leclair sent a letter to St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster on Wednesday requesting an audience for his group to propose the plan to. The letter states that Leclair and his development team CityScape have met with experts in stadium design, demographics, and traffic analysis during their planning period.
The letter was received by Foster a day after the Pinellas County Commission voted to request a meeting with the Rays and St. Petersburg officials to discuss the future of the team in the area.
The Rays have stated openly that Tropicana Field is outdated and too far from the heart of Tampa to draw the crowds and money they feel they need to operate effectively. But, since the team's contract with Tropicana Field is effective until 2027, Mayor Foster has refused to allow the Rays to negotiate stadium deals anywhere outside or adjacent to city limits.
The Rays, though, say they're open to any proposed stadium plans within St. Petersburg city limits or not.
According to estimates, a new roofed baseball stadium would cost around $500 million. The Rays say they'll contribute $150 million, but the rest of the remaining cost is still up in the air.
