TAMPA - Add another name to the list of people proposing a baseball stadium site in Hillsborough County: Dick Greco.

The former Tampa mayor, who does real estate consulting, is representing an unnamed development firm that is considering leasing land where the Florida State Fair is held. The company would build a mixed-use project that could include hotels, shops and restaurants.

It also could include a Major League Baseball stadium. Recently, Greco has shown various civic and government leaders a rendering of a stadium at the fairground. Greco confirmed that his client is interested in having a baseball stadium, but insisted that a ballpark is not the driving force behind the development project.

He also said it could be a long time before the Tampa Bay Rays would be free to relocate from downtown St. Petersburg, if they choose to do so. The Rays have a lease with the city that obligates them to play at Tropicana Field through 2027, he noted.

"It could be a soccer stadium, it could be anything," Greco said of the stadium in his project.

Greco said he expects to present a formal plan in a few months to the Florida State Fair Authority, which would have to approve leasing the land. The fair authority is an entity under the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Although Greco would not go into details, he said hotels would be a natural fit because they could capitalize on all the traffic in and out of the nearby Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Michael Kalt, a Rays development official, could not be reached for comment about Greco's plan. In the past, the team has not commented on developer proposals to move the team.

Even if Greco somewhat downplayed the stadium possibility, it appears to be the first official word of someone proposing a stadium site in Hillsborough County. This week, news reports surfaced that someone is piecing together land for a potential baseball stadium in downtown Tampa's Channel District. However, the reports cited unnamed sources.

Some Tampa residents and politicians would welcome a stadium in Hillsborough County, but no politician appears willing to support using public funds to help pay for one in the current economy.

A new stadium could be expected to cost nearly $500 million, and the public often foots the majority of new stadium costs.

The prospect of a stadium in Tampa got a boost last year, when the ABC Coalition found that two of the three best sites for a ballpark are in Hillsborough County.

St. Petersburg's then-Mayor Rick Baker created the ABC Coalition to study whether the Rays need a new stadium, and if so, where it should be. The mayor assumed the group would limit its research to possible St. Petersburg locations.

However, the group, which only has the power to make recommendations, looked at the entire Bay area and determined that the best potential sites were the Gateway area of St. Petersburg near the west end of the Howard Frankland bridge, downtown Tampa and Tampa's West Shore area. The fairground was mentioned as a potential location by the ABC Coalition, but it was ranked lower because of its more distant location and weaker demographics.

So far, St. Petersburg officials have declined to meet with the ABC Coalition to discuss its findings, and it's not clear that the Pinellas County Commission will either. St. Petersburg leaders fear that if they meet with the coalition, it could hurt the integrity of the city's contract with the Rays.

Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Ken Hagan sent a letter this week to the ABC Coalition inviting the group to speak to the commission. At Wednesday's meeting, commissioners insisted they are not trying to steal the team and only want to help keep the Rays in the Tampa Bay area.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.