Rays’ $2.36B ballpark is among the most expensive sports stadiums by seat - USA Today

Last month, the Tampa Bay Rays secured funding approval from local city and county governments for their upcoming $2.36 billion stadium, set to arrive in 2029.

With an expected capacity of 31,000, the future ballpark works out to a cost of $76,100 per seat — among the priciest in all of professional sports.

USA TODAY compiled data on 24 MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL venues opened since 2016 or scheduled to open in the future and estimated the cost per seat of each venue.

The Rays’ planned stadium fails to come near the $111,100 figure held by the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome, which now-suspended owner Steve Ballmer built for $2 billion total. However, it does sit near Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium and San Francisco’s Chase Center.

Those venues were built at a cost of $78,300 and $77,500 per seat, respectively, just ahead of the Rays’ future home, which Rays' owner Patrick Zalupski hopes to break ground on this month. SoFi is notably the most expensive stadium ever built, with a total price of around $5.5 billion.

It’s also costlier than a few future venues. The NBA’s Spurs are developing an arena in downtown San Antonio for $70,300 per seat, while the Thunder are constructing one in Oklahoma City for $57,600.

Most markedly, it beats out all the MLB ballparks in our dataset — the closest is the Athletics’ planned Las Vegas home at $53,000 per seat.

The Rays’ stadium’s ability to transcend sports in cost per seat is part of its compelling story.

Besides it and SoFi Stadium, the remaining five in the top seven most expensive venues per seat are indoor arenas developed for basketball or hockey. That fact is not so surprising — with fewer seats, basketball or hockey arenas can balloon in cost per seat much more easily than baseball or football.

And indeed, many NFL stadiums in our dataset cost under $40,000 per seat, including the Bills’ just opened Highmark Stadium, the Titans’ new Nissan Stadium and the Browns’ planned dome.

The two most recently built MLB stadiums — the Rangers’ Globe Life Field and the Braves’ Truist Park — also came in under that $40,000 line.

However, both the Rays’ and the A’s new ballparks will offer two of the most intimate settings in baseball: when they are built, they will rank No. 1 and 2 for the smallest ballparks in MLB.

That smaller setting could help explain the rising costs compared to previous baseball venues, although inflation also plays a role.

Truist Park was built in 2017, while Globe Life Field was completed in 2020. The A’s are scheduled to move into their new Las Vegas home in 2028, while the Rays plan to move into their new stadium in 2029.

However, even accounting for inflation, the Rays’ costs are still exorbitant. Adjusted for inflation, the cost per seat of the Rays’ planned venue is more than three times as high as Truist Park and nearly twice as costly as Globe Life Field.

And going further back in time, the Rays’ costs still reign supreme.

In 2009, new Yankee Stadium was completed with a price tag of $2.3 billion. With an opening capacity of 50,287, that works out to roughly $45,700 per seat — nearly the same cost as the A’s planned ballpark.

However, even adjusting for inflation, it still falls short of the Rays’ venue: $45,700 in 2009 converts to around $72,000 in 2026 money, per the BLS’ CPI inflation calculator, or 5% shy of the Rays’ $76,100 per seat.

The Rays look set to hold the crown for a while longer, too.

The Kansas City Royals announced plans in April for a downtown stadium project with an estimated cost of $1.9 billion, but no details on capacity. Even if that stadium seats just 30,000 fans, it’ll come in at around $63,300 per seat, well below the Rays’ figure.

That’s the only other announced MLB stadium with a price tag at the time of writing.

So, the Rays’ stadium is certainly the priciest park in baseball for the time being, and it’ll likely be that way into the future.

Methodology: USA TODAY compiled cost and seating capacity data for MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL venues opened or planned since 2016, then divided each venue’s total reported cost by its opening or planned seating capacity. Where planned venues had a range of capacity estimations, the larger number was used. Little Caesars Arena is plotted twice in the “Squeeze play” chart for both its hockey and basketball configurations.

Costs for venues built through 2021 use Bradbury, Coates and Humphreys’ "U.S. Major-League Sports Stadium and Arena Construction Costs (1909-2027)" dataset, while more recently built and future venues come from USA TODAY reporting of team and stadium websites, news articles and government filings.

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