Construction work on a new ballpark in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the Major Leage Baseball team was suspended in November last year amid uncertainty over funding.

Now the Rays鈥� principal owner Stuart Sternberg has told fans that the team 鈥渃annot move forward鈥� with the project 鈥渁t this moment鈥�.

Announcing the decision on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Sternberg said, 鈥淎 series of events beginning in October that no-one could have anticipated led to this difficult decision.鈥�

The new ballpark in St. Petersburg was originally due to be completed in time for the 2028 season, with Skanska USA acting as owner鈥檚 representative for the $6.5bn redevelopment of the 86-acre historic gas plant district where the current stadium sits and the design and construction of the new stadium.

The Rays committed to pay for over the stadium鈥檚 cost including any overruns but were relying on the city of St. Petersburg to contribute $417.5 million towards the district, with another $312.5 million in tourism revenue coming from Pinellas County.

Skanska鈥檚 appointment was announced in July, ahead of October鈥檚 Hurricane Milton, which tore off the non-retractable roof of the Ray鈥檚 current home in St. Petersburg, Tropicana Field.

The Rays announced that they would play 2025 home games at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa as a temporary measure but some of the county commissioners argued that this was taking tax dollars that would have paid for the project out of the area. Their preferred option for a temporary home was BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater.

But the Rays argued that they couldn鈥檛 get BayCare Ballpark into a condition where it could host regular games by opening Day in March. They warned that the county鈥檚 failure to finalise bonds in October 2024 meant that the new ballpark could no longer be delivered by 2028, pushing costs for a 2029 delivery 鈥渟ignificantly higher鈥�.

Facing a 31 March 2025 deadline to show their intent to move forward with the project, the Rays ultimately decided to pull out.

In a statement shared on Facebook, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said, 鈥淲hile the decision of Tampa Bay Rays ownership to terminate the agreements for a new stadium and new development is a major disappointment, it is not unexpected. Nor is it the end of the Historic Gas Plant District (HGPD) story.

鈥淭he city will continue to pursue all avenues that will help us deliver on our ultimate goal: utilising the HGPD property to benefit the community and fulfilling the 40-year-old promises of economic development and opportunity made to the African-American community in St. Petersburg, as well as the community priorities identified through the current development process, which began in 2022.

鈥淭he city intends to honour our current commitment to repair Tropicana Field in accordance with the current use agreement. As for the future of baseball in our city - if in the coming months a new owner, who demonstrates a commitment to honouring their agreements and our community priorities, emerges - we will consider a partnership to keep baseball in St. Pete.鈥�