Stu Sternberg stood at a podium in September 2023 and declared "Major League Baseball is here to stay" – then walked away from a $1.3 billion stadium deal 18 months later, blamed a hurricane, and sold the team.
That's what Tampa Bay baseball looked like before Tuesday.
But Ron DeSantis just showed what competent leadership looks like instead – and he did it without spending a single state dollar on the ballpark itself.
DeSantis Gets Done in Months What Sternberg Couldn't in 28 Years
The Florida Cabinet voted unanimously to transfer 22 acres of state-owned land to Hillsborough College – clearing the most critical legal hurdle between Tampa Bay and a new ballpark targeting a 2029 opening.
DeSantis. Attorney General James Uthmeier. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. CFO Blaise Ingoglia. All four voted yes.
Here's what makes this deal different from everything that came before it: the state gets its land back if construction components aren't in place within five years.
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No blank check. No bailing out billionaires. No eating cost overruns like the Pinellas County deal that imploded last March.
State support runs through land, infrastructure, and road improvements – not a direct subsidy to a baseball franchise.
The previous ownership's approach was different. Sternberg blew up a deal with $600 million in committed public funding on the table – funding that took years to secure – then pointed at a 30-day hurricane delay as his justification.
Pinellas County Commissioner Chris Latvala wasn't buying it. Sternberg "should be ashamed," Latvala said publicly, for trying to profit off a storm that "hit a bunch of other folks" who weren't millionaires and billionaires.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred eventually pushed Sternberg to sell.
New ownership under Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski arrived last September with Florida roots, a clear vision, and – for the first time in franchise history – a governor actively in their corner.
The Blueprint That Already Works
Zalupski's team isn't guessing at a formula.
They've said it publicly: Tampa Bay's development will be modeled on The Battery Atlanta, and they've met directly with Braves ownership to study how it was done.
Zalupski called it "the gold standard of what we want to build and develop here in Tampa Bay."
The numbers from Atlanta tell the story.
The Braves opened Truist Park and The Battery in 2017 alongside a 60-acre mixed-use district that now draws 9 million visitors a year.
Taxable property values around The Battery climbed from $5 million in 2014 to $736 million in 2022.
The stadium complex generates $38 million in annual taxes to the county, state, and school district – more than the county's yearly debt obligation.
Cobb County no longer uses general fund tax dollars to cover stadium costs at all.
That's what a well-structured public-private partnership actually looks like.
The taxpayers end up ahead.
The Rays are projecting a 130-acre development – more than twice the size of The Battery – with 12,000 on-site jobs, targeting a 2029 opening.
Hillsborough County is running its own independent economic study before any public money moves. Verify the numbers, protect taxpayers, then build.
What DeSantis Built That Nobody Else Could
The Rays have been chasing a new home since 2008. Ybor City – dead.
A proposal to split games with Montreal – killed by MLB after fans revolted.
The Gas Plant District – torched by the previous owner on his way out the door.
Every failed attempt had one thing in common: no governor standing behind it.
DeSantis appeared alongside Manfred at Hillsborough College earlier this month and said what no Florida governor had ever said about this franchise – "Baseball belongs in Tampa Bay. Baseball can succeed in Tampa Bay."
Then he backed it up with a unanimous cabinet vote and a structural safeguard that protects Florida taxpayers if the project stalls.
The five-year reclamation clause isn't a threat.
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It's the accountability mechanism that makes this deal credible.
If Zalupski builds what he's promising, those 22 acres anchor the most ambitious sports-anchored development in Florida history. If he doesn't, Florida gets the land back.
Sternberg burned through goodwill with two counties, tried to move the team to Canada, and walked away from $600 million in committed public funding on his way out.
DeSantis laid the foundation for what Sternberg never could – and he did it in months.
Sources:
- Associated Press, "Ron DeSantis, Florida cabinet approve land for Rays ballpark," ESPN, Feb. 24, 2026.
- Katlyn Fernandez, "DeSantis, Florida Cabinet vote to give Tampa Bay Rays 22 acres for new stadium," WFLA, Feb. 24, 2026.
- "DeSantis, Florida Cabinet approve Hillsborough College land for potential Rays stadium," WUSF, Feb. 24, 2026.
- "Manfred, DeSantis Back Rays Stadium, Funding Questions Persist," Front Office Sports, Feb. 3, 2026.
- "Divide emerges on funding for Rays' Hillsborough stadium plan," Axios Tampa Bay, Feb. 4, 2026.
- Cobb County Georgia, "Braves Stadium Information," June 24, 2025.
- theScore, "Rays' future uncertain until there's a stadium endgame," Sept. 15, 2025.
