Trying to predict the future of Tropicana Field, is kind of like predicting the Rays next winning season. You know it will happen, you just don't know how.
"Baseball is part of the fabric of the community," says St. Pete councilman James Kennedy. "I learned baseball from my father and his friends going to Yankees games," he recalls. These days he's fighting to keep his new hometown team.
“It's the best pitch we have,” is how Kennedy describes the idea of redeveloping the 80 plus acres surrounding Tropicana field. It's land the city already owns. World renown architect firm HKS-- which built the new billion dollar state of the art AT&T stadium for the Dallas Cowboys-- designed the project.
"It has the infrastructure available it has the interstate, we are going to have bus rapid transit in a year or two, connecting downtown with the beaches," says Kennedy.
The proposed plan calls for redeveloping not only the land around Tropicana Field, but also the 175 corridor. The city says whether the Rays stay or go, they're redeveloping the land.
"The city has this 88 acres that is a diamond in the rough," says Kennedy.
The St. Pete Mayor's office says it will pitch this plan to the rays sometime after the season.
