Rays reveal new stadium details, including $892 million price tag

TAMPA, Fla. — The Rays on Tuesday unveiled the team’s plans for an Ybor City stadium: It will have see-through sliding glass walls, a fixed translucent roof, an artificial turf playing field and will be integrated into the historic Latin neighborhood with an evolving design.

“It will provide a ballpark experience like no other,” Rays executive Melanie Lenz.

The estimated cost of the stadium and surrounding infrastructure is $892 million. The stadium itself is projected to cost $809 million, and the roof will cost about $240 million of that.

As for arguably the biggest question of who will pay for what, team president Brian Auld said: “We don’t have those answers yet.”

Principal owner Stuart Sternberg talked about the “ingenuity” involved in the design and seating concepts which include picnic, patio, table and fountain seating areas among others.

The stadium will seat 28,216 and, with standing areas, could hold 30,842. That would give it the smallest attendance capacity of any Major League Baseball venue. Tropicana Field’s current capacity is 31,042.

Stadium design officials said the idea of having the sliding walls is to “let the outside in and the inside out.”

Sternberg stressed that the stadium, which covers about 900,000 square feet, will be available for use yearround and “will be of, by and for the people of Tampa Bay.”