Ferg’s Sports Bar and Grill has been inextricably linked to Tropicana Field since 1992. But as the Tampa Bay Rays prepare to leave St. Petersburg, owner Mark Ferguson is betting millions that the EDGE District’s economic engine doesn’t require an outfield.
To be sure, Ferguson will miss his reason for purchasing a small service station, built in the late 1930s, that sat empty across the street from a stadium without a team. “A sad day for St. Pete, a happy day for Tampa,” he said of the Rays recently inking a long-elusive stadium deal across the bay.
Ferguson also expressed appreciation for the team remaining in Tampa Bay. Then he went right back to building an entertainment empire.
Last year, USA Today realized what thousands of loyal patrons and visitors have believed for over three decades: Ferg’s is the “best local sports bar” in America. It is also a concert venue – Kiss frontman Gene Simmons will perform in January 2027 – that can accommodate 2,000 people around its main stage pavilion.
Closing a parking lot increases the outdoor capacity to 3,500 people, Ferguson said. Approximately 2,500 people recently crowded structured areas to watch the college football season kick off, which coincided with a Rays home game.
“In four years, when the Rays leave for Tampa, we’re working on bringing something to the Trop that might bring in 220 events a year,” Ferguson told the Tampa Bay Reporter.
The team’s new owners hope to open a new ballpark in 2029. Many stakeholders, like Ferguson, believe that timeline is overly ambitious.
Either way, the area around the Trop will soon undergo an $8.1 billion transformation. In July, Mayor Ken Welch selected The Burg Bid, a development group led by St. Petersburg native Thompson Whitney Blake, to reimagine the Historic Gas Plant District.
Ferguson noted that the city spent $60 million repairing the Trop after Hurricane Milton shredded its roof in October 2024. Demolition will cost another $12.5 million.
“It’s brand new – let’s use it,” Ferguson said. “We’re going to be talking to people about taking over the whole building and bringing all kinds of stuff here.”
Potential uses include basketball, volleyball, and cornhole tournaments, concerts, a WNBA team, and “anything” else stakeholders can envision regularly filling the stadium, Ferguson said. “There are companies that will manage that whole building.”
Ferg’s has evolved exponentially in recent years – particularly as the Rays spent their 2025 season at a minor league stadium in Tampa. The St. Pete staple will “100% be okay” after the Rays leave, Ferguson said.
“St. Pete is a major league city because of the Tampa Bay Rays,” he added. “We hate to lose them, but St. Pete is now on the map. More people are coming, and it’s easier to bring stuff here.”
Ferguson is contributing $6 million toward the city’s $7 million purchase of a 0.86-mile, long-defunct CSX rail corridor that runs through his property. Officials will create a multiuse path that connects multiple districts and closes gaps in the regional recreational trail network.
In 2024, Ferguson was awarded $12.9 million, the largest ever in a rails-to-trails case, after suing the federal government over an eminent domain dispute. He allocated the roughly $10 million remaining after lawyer fees to the trail project and improving Ferg’s.
“That’s going to bring more people from North St. Pete,” Ferguson said of the trail. “They can walk, bike, or scooter down to the EDGE District, down to the Trop.”
Additional capital is on the way. Ferguson owns property across Central Avenue from Ferg’s, along a picturesque portion of Booker Creek.
“We have a contract to sell that to developers who are going to build 300 apartments,” Ferguson said. “They love being on the trail, and they love being on the creek.”
For now, Ferguson is relishing the Rays winning the ultra-competitive American League East in the team’s first season back at the Trop. Playoff baseball returning to St. Petersburg will “be amazing,” he said, and “means a lot to my staff.”
“Bartenders, servers – they’re going to get another payday on playoff baseball, just like they did with the World Cup.”.
Ferg’s, which encompasses nearly two city blocks, boasts over 70 TVs, eight permanent bars, a dog park, axe throwing, and pop-up pickleball. Many of the building’s materials are repurposed relics from the city’s past.
Ferguson said his brother and father taught him to “always use what you have.” Those pieces of history are now “in a building that will be here for another 100 years.”
While developers have increasingly inquired about purchasing Ferg’s, the former school teacher noted that “this is where everybody meets for big events in St. Pete.” Ferguson and his family value their hard-earned connection to the community more than a lucrative payday, he said.
Ferguson rarely, if ever, turns down a request for event space at what he calls the city’s melting pot. His family business, which “started with nothing,” has been an unmitigated success due to that commitment to community and organic growth, he said.
“We welcome everybody, and we have space for everybody.”
