The Rays’ quest for a new stadium has been an ongoing saga for years, but things took a small step forward yesterday, as Jeff Patterson of WFLA Channel 8 in Tampa reported that Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan announced a proposed site for a new stadium. The new Ybor City site would move the Rays from St. Petersburg to Tampa, hopefully leading to an increase in attendance thanks to a more desirable location and a newer facility.
“This is another important step in the site selection process, and we are grateful for the time and attention that went into making it a possibility,” said Rays president Brian Auld in an official statement on the proposal. “We look forward to getting to work evaluating this option, along with those in Pinellas County, including the Tropicana Field site, as a potential future home for Rays baseball in Tampa Bay for years to come.”
Certainly, the proposed site doesn’t guarantee that the Rays will break ground on a new Ybor City facility just yet. To the contrary, as Auld indicated in his comment, the Rays are only just scratching the surface of evaluating the newly proposed construction site, and they’ll likely do the same with other potential locations before ultimately determining a course of action. There’s also the matter of the Rays’ current lease at Tropicana Field, which reportedly runs through the 2027 season. Terminating that lease early will come with its own set of financial repercussions, including millions of dollars that’ll need to be paid out to the city of St. Petersburg as well as the forfeiture of a 50 percent share of development rights at the Tropicana Field site, as WFLA’s Mark Douglas writes.
The level of effort required to navigate such a large business endeavor, of course, is enormous, and with that in mind the Rays are set to shuffle their front office mix, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. President of baseball operations Matt Silverman is set to take on a broader role and serve as a co-president with Auld, per Topkin’s report, moving further away from the baseball operations mix and into a more overarching role with the front office. Silverman’s roots with the Rays are on the business side of the operation, and he’d previously been an integral part of the stadium talks before shifting to president of baseball operations in the wake of Andrew Friedman’s departure.
Silverman’s new title isn’t yet clear (nor are any other new titles that may emerge), but the change may not be as drastic as one would expect upon first glance. Despite keeping the “president of baseball ops” title, Silverman effectively handed day-to-day oversight of baseball operations over to Erik Neander and Chaim Bloom a year ago. Both vice presidents at the time, Neander was named the team’s new general manager, while Bloom was bumped to senior vice president of baseball operations.
As such, a shift of Silverman’s focus more to the business side of the equation doesn’t necessarily reflect a seismic shift in the team’s operational hierarchy, though it’s possible that he’ll have less overall say in baseball decision-making, with Neander and Bloom factoring even more heavily into those processes.
I don’t know, FL isn’t really a great state for anything but Football, NFL (for now) and College. I still think they should move the team from the state.
However, maybe it works like Atlanta, w/ a new stadium they can have a higher average attendance.
I’m not super familiar with the Tampa/St. Pete area, but I do know the few times I had been that the stadium was in what appeared to me a poor place. My brother in law (and family) lived there for years and definitely hated the location.
Perhaps a change in venue helps the Rays.
Lightning (NHL) is successful in a location close to this new proposal.
Great baseball state … not a great MLB state.
Doubt Tampa will go for white flight like the Braves did. And their attendance was basically the same as it has been the past few years, just a smaller stadium makes it seem like bigger crowds.
…And hockey with the Lightning selling out every night and having already won a cup.
Millions attend spring training games in Florida every year. It’s not about the fan base for the Rays. It’s about the location and the facility itself.
The majority of the population base is in Hillsborough County, 20-30 miles away from Tropicana Field and across one of 3 bridges, The inevitable car accidents, and rush hour traffic makes traveling to the park a nightmare most evenings. Not only is Tropicana Field is in a hard to get to location within St Pete, but there is little to do close to it. Once you arrive and park your car, you will be walking a long way to the park. A mile is not uncommon. There is little in terms of public transportation to get there.
Once you are in the park, it’s small – the smallest in baseball, and dreary. The sightlines are bad and if the game is sold out, thousands of people in the uppermost seating have an obstructed view of the game.
It was a bad idea when it was built, the Rays are in a bad lease, and it will not get better unless they move. A new stadium in the same place will only make it a more expensive problem in a prettier package. They will still not be able to consistently draw fans to that location.
Moving to a different part of the Bay Area won’t result in a worthwhile change in venue. It’s wishful thinking at best
Nonsense. Am from this area (50m away) and the negotiations right now seem more serious than ever. The location is really nothing but a bunch of dump old warehouses currently of 14 acres total in the channel side location. This is the 2nd best location I had been thinking of personally for Tampa, after the old fairgrounds area.
This will still allow people from central florida to have 100% better access and cut an easy 45 minutes to an hour from travel just by eliminating that foul bridge over the bay. Nearly every issue has been with the council of St. Petersburg refusing to allow the Rays to leave. Hopefully, those people pay for the mistakes they made at sometime which was nothing but greed related.
I’m a little confused by your post. Who was greedy? If you were king, how would you resolve this and who should pay for it?
You evidently have no understanding with regards to the long standing stadium squabbles in Tampa.. So why do you want to bother me about it? Your NYY leached off of both Florida and the city of Tampa for steinbrenner field.. he didn’t fork over the entire amount, tho don’t remember entire details off hand..
That wasn’t what squabble was about tho.. Financing.. Squabble is about WHERE new stadium is to go.. St petersburg,if u read the article wants it BACK on the wrong side of the bridge (st pete) and we begin the same cycle of half to less than half filled stadiums, or 10-15k fans per game, unless Boston-NY plays.
so true
Yo they should move to Ithaca
In all fairness, Hoy Filed is a more desirable location than the Trop.
They should consider a move to Montreal. Franchise would probably do better.
Been there done that..
Yeah and have them take the Expos name and bring back the old logo.
The Montreal Montrealians of Quebec.
Or
The Montreal Quebeciens of Canada.
Or
The Montreal Mighty Sasquatch.
Expos just…sucks for a name.
Been there, done that in Montreal with Jeff F’n Loria.
See the results in Montreal? See the results close up in Miami?
Put a decent ownership group in decent stadium in Montreal, and it will work WORLDS better than Tampa.
The Expos were among the lowest in attendance from 1986 to 2000, before Loria bought the team. They had the best record in the NL in 1994 and were still only 11th out of 14 NL teams in attendance. That’s two different ownership groups, with Loria the third. If ownership were the problem then it’d likely be the problem if MLB comes back.
Montreal isn’t a viable location for an MLB team. The attendance figures you posted are just many of the reasons,Hockey,Weather,Taxes,and so on. Most of the posters on here who bring it up probably weren’t even around for the Expos being in Montreal. Pre Loria was probably sadder then his tenure of ownership. The locations that could and would support a team just to name a few Vegas,Nashville,San Antonio,and the Raleigh area.
It is if they get a new ballpark
If they want to have home games where there’s more fans than beer guys I don’t know that Montreal is the place
MLB will probably force them to move to Mexico City to improve “diversity” and to spite President Trump.
Vive les Expos.
Both Florida MLB teams needs to pack up and move. Florida isn’t a MLB state. Both teams cannot get the fans in the stands and both teams needs a complete rebuild. Change of states would be a great start.
I don’t think the rays “need a complete rebuild”. a couple years ago I might have agreed with that statement, but now tb is on the cusp of introducing a ton of young talent to a strong vet base that will make them contenders for quite a few years. FL is viable for mlb, it just has to be in the right location, i.e. where the people are.
It’s about tv markets we know that and why leave the 12th best tv market (central Florida) with a population expected to double in 25 years.
Build a new stadium with more corporate boxes that’s who pays the bill anyway at the ticket office and get a 2 billion dollar tv contract when it’s time for a new one. They are not going anywhere!
They’d much rather have seats full rather than more t.v’s on. Montreal would probably get more of both anyways
About the same size TV market as Montreal. In St Pete, the seats being filled is a measure of where the stadium is and how bad the stadium experience is.
Simple economics this is about money. No way Rays leave fast growing market already 12th best in North America for a smaller market with little growth. All this move talk is just a negotiation tactic to now have Tampa pay for part or most of the stadium costs then also have the large corporate entities buy out the luxury boxes and field boxes behind home plate! That where the money comes from but not as much as the TV rights!!!
Follow the $$$
No way Rays move out central Florida period
Look at what the marlins got in Miami $$$
3 years after stadium in Tampa is built the Rays will sell for more!
Now try selling the same franchise in Montreal no way… this is a Wall Street guy he will stay in the best market!!!!!
The Rays only won 77 games in their last year under Maddon and still drew 1.4 million fans. The next season, they won 80 under Kevin Cash and drew under 1.3 million. So with more wins did not come more tickets sold. A theory is that rivals no longer draw as they once did in Tampa. The retirement of Derek Jeter and David Ortiz and the presence of less established stars on the Yankees and Red Sox have compelled fewer fans to flock to the Trop. Maybe with the rise of Judge and a few others can help bring in some fans.
It’s not working in Tampa. Move to Montreal
Going back to Montreal is like going back to a former girlfriend thinking all is better now and it’ll work out this time. Rarely works out. There are no better metro areas who currently are without a team.
The Trop is an embarrassment as a stadium in construction and location.
The reason Montreal failed was terrible stadium in a location that was a nightmare to get to. For those who have not been to Montreal, you would be hard pressed to find another city in North America with such terrible traffic. Olympic stadium was not overly close to either the north end or south end highways, and the streets it intersected were old and small.
If they built a new stadium in the south end of downtown, near the hockey rink, or even by the waterfront in Old Montreal, I would be willing to bet a reasonably competitive Expos team would draw 2.2-2.5M.
Also, can’t forget about the fans basically boycotting baseball after the strike of 1994. Not to mention that MLB took the team over and hampered their efforts at actually competing. MLB basically wanted them to fail.
“The reason Montreal failed was terrible stadium in a location that was a nightmare to get to”.
This is the exact reason that the Rays have trouble drawing fans as well – a stadium location far removed from over 75% of the fan base of Tampa and even worse for the fans coming from other parts of Florida. Moving to a stadium on the east side of the bay will result in more fans at their games (me included).
It’s funny that you say that because it’s exactly why the Rays are not drawing fans to Tropicana Field. Bad stadium in a bad location a long way from most of the fanbase.
Move the Rays to a new stadium in Hillsborough County where the majority of their fans are and they will draw 2 million plus.
the reasons you give for Montreal failing as a baseball city are the exact problems Tampa faces now. location, crappy park, traffic. the proposed site near downtown Tampa is not bad at all – right off i4 and 275 and 6-8 blocks from downtown. you could get the Orlando crowd from i4 and Tampa residents will have a much easier time getting to the park. it could work well.
I live in Orlando, and that would cut off a good 30 to 45 minutes for me when you factor in traffic on I-275 and the bridge
Montreal will definitely be getting a franchise back either if it’s the Rays or expansion
The problems with a team in Montreal is that if the Canadiens are in a playoff run , the expos will be forgotten for that time period and the stadium location . Olympic stadium was not only in a random spot that required sitting in hours of traffic there and back , but was also a dump .
You never appreciate something until it’s gone.
A downtown location for the expos would provide a great atmosphere and big crowds
This will be a huge boost for the team and the area. It’s an easy corridor for fans from all the bigger cities in the area and isn’t bottlenecked by bridges. The only issue will be finding areas to park down there because it’s not exactly the friendliest. But from the sound of things they were looking to buy a parcel of land to turn into parking as well. I love going to games in St Pete. Also, having a new location will be nice to just get this tired “tHey ShOUld go TO mOntrEal” joke over with.
Not bottlenecked by bridges, but rednecked by rural Florida. The people on the beaches in Pinellas, where the money is, will largely pass. What people don’t seem to understand is the Rays are currently the cheapest ticket in baseball. Ticket prices will have to double as the owners will be looking to get their (relatively paltry) investment back asap, plus I’m sure they’d like to at least be around league average. You can currently bring your own food! into the Trop….hiiiiighly doubtful in the new crib. Parking is cheap at the Trop, whereas there’s no parking at the newly proposed spot, and no public transportation to speak of, and to me a place not to spend time in after dark. Florida isn’t a baseball state. The average age of people watching the WS is 55. Baseball is a dying sport. My vote is to let them walk.
What parking at the Trop? You walk blocks to get in. Lot 1 is not available to you or I. Lot 6 and 7 are close, but half of the spaces are reserved. Less than 1800 spaces are available to the general public. Lot 9 is only a few hundreds of spaces and I have never seen it opened to the public. Lots 11-14, where you will probably have to park and which make up more than 2000 spaces, are 4-6 large blocks away. The neighborhood is not the best either. Otherwise, you are parking on the east of MLK, also not the best neighborhood.
If you live in Hillsborough County, along with 1.4 million other people, you spend at least 60 minutes to travel the 20-30 miles to the Trop and that is if there are no accidents on or approaching the bridges. A typical commute to the game is closer to 90 minutes.
The average age of a Rays season ticket holder, a much more important piece of information, is 44.6 years old. 70.2% live in Hillsborough County. Only 828 seats or about 13% of the 6284 total were purchased by season ticket holders living in Pinellas County. More seats were bought by season ticket holders residing in Manatee County and other areas of the state. Buy in-stadium advertising or any other in-stadium marketing program with them and they will happily provide you with complete demographics of their ticket buyers.
With all due respect…”You walk blocks to get in”…which brings up another point…it’s an out of shape fanbase. You must believe that people in major cities just walk out their front door and there’s the stadium. When I lived in the Boston area I had to drive 25 minutes to the train station in Revere, train into Boston, switch trains, then had a good walk to Fenway. Those who want to be there will put in the effort, those that don’t will make up excuses…regardless of location.
We live 5 minutes from the Trop and my wife works in downtown Tampa. She gets to work faster than people coming from the north in Tampa and those from the Brandon area. The biggest problem is the brainiacs who decided a 4 lane bridge should dump into two by the airport…on the Tampa end.
Neighborhoods….Stadiums are in lousy neighborhoods nationwide for a reason…real estate is too expensive and the people who live in nice neighborhoods don’t want a stadium right down the street or drunks pissing on their laws. The Trop area is Beverly Hills compared to the proposed unsafe hellhole. “Hey honey, lets go to a game, then while looking for our stolen car I can get stabbed and you raped” isn’t my idea of a good time.
Funding…these owners don’t want to put down any more than necessary. $200 mil or so…fine…that will break ground, which they don’t own yet. The Miami crib was built on the site of the old Orange Bowl so they had the land. Final construction costs will come to just over $2 billion over the length of the bonds in Miami. People down there are not happy about it and the new playpen isn’t drawing flies. Good luck with that sales job.
Bottom line…this proposal isn’t going to happen. If it was going to happen it would have happened already. This team is gone. I’d bet all I own on it.
Las Vegas Rays! Maybe share a stadium with the Raiders until a baseball only field could be built. The name Rays would fit well
I’ve been to the Rays stadium and I do think the location definitely hurts. The actual stadium isn’t so bad. I like the dome and it has a cool feel to it.
But at this point, I wonder if the Rays should just wait until 2027. It seems like by the time they could get this all finalized, it would be around then anyway.
Maybe they can get all the plans set up for 2027 to move to Tampa and avoid the penalties of breaking the lease. Hopefully the team is still around by then.