The Rays have explored the possibility of dividing future seasons between Florida and Montreal, Canada, but that no longer appears to be on the table. St. Petersburg mayor Rick Kriseman announced this week that he will not give the Rays permission to seek a Tampa Bay-Montreal split, per Josh Solomon and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. While the Rays had hoped to play games in Montreal by 2024, that’s not happening without the blessing of St. Petersburg.
Rays owner David Sternberg isn’t thrilled with Kriseman’s decision, as he said, “We do not agree that this is the best path forward.”
Sternberg went on to suggest future relocation could be on the table, stating, “We recognize that we must now consider our post-2027 options and all that entails and we remain steadfast in our belief that the sister city concept is deserving of serious consideration.”
Likewise, Rays president Brian Auld isn’t happy.
“It remains clear to us, and we continue to believe that it’s also true for the city, that the worst of possible outcomes here is for the team to be compelled to stay here through the end of the 2027 season,” Auld said, “and forced to pursue other options in a noncooperative engagement with the city of St. Petersburg.”
The Rays will be free to relocate if they and their city don’t establish a new union after the 2027 season. Until then, the Rays are bound to Tropicana Field – which many regard as one of the worst stadiums in baseball. Thanks in part to their unpalatable facility, the Rays posted the second-lowest attendance in baseball in 2019. It looks as if franchise higher-ups have had enough. Auld essentially told the Tampa Bay Times that, barring a true solution to their stadium problems, the Rays stand a good chance of leaving when they’re able.
“We don’t like to say never, but I think as (Sternberg) said on the day of the (June 25 Montreal) announcement at the Dali museum, it’s highly unlikely that a full season baseball team in Tampa Bay is going to be here in 2028,” Auld said.
Meanwhile, Rays president of baseball operations Matthew Silverman admitted that “the clock is ticking” in regards to an answer on the organization’s future. If the Rays do exit Tampa Bay in roughly a decade, Solomon, Topkin and TB Times colleague John Romano list Orlando, Nashville, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Portland, Vancouver and even Montreal as possible new homes for the franchise. Orlando’s efforts to land a major league team are already underway.
96 wins. 2nd lowest attendance. The city should never get a baseball team again once the rays leave. It’s a shame. They consistently put a quality team on the field.
Tropicana field is the worst venue in the MLB and most baseball fans in Florida support their division rival Yankees more than them. It’s a shame but it’s a product of the environment, can’t blame the fans. The most disappointing part of this is the stubbornness of the Mayor not allowing a sister city like Montreal become an option.
Yea you can’t blame the fans that’s because there is only 1200 of them it’s the rest of Tampa/St. Pete that deserves blame.
This team deserves better and they should relocate.
Why don’t they move and the Marlins can change their name back to the Florida Marlins and split time with Miami and Tampa. They both have terrible attendance but one would hope that both cities combined could at least come close to having one full actual fan base. The state of Florida clearly cannot support 2 teams. If both the teams in one state finish in the bottom 2 in MLB attendance it doesn’t bode well for the states ability to support multiple teams. Especially when one of those teams with league worst attendance made the playoffs and still received negligible fan support.
Oakland Alameda stadium is the worse and no other park comes close I’ve been at that dump twice I needed a techna shot.
Dodgers stadium is pretty bad too not as bad as oakland.
Globe life in Arlington is pretty bad too. the white sox stadium is bad too.
Make no mistake the trop is not stae of the art but it’s not the worse I live in orlando I’ve been there. What it is, it’s hard to get to it’s way far away from the real fans
You’re an idiot if you think Dodger Stadium is bad. Or you hate the Dodgers… one of the two. Probably the former knowing you.
The trop is pathetic, its an incredible pain to get too from Tampa, it’s a dome in Florida…Clearwater has 2 better minor league fields and I’m from Chicago, comiskey blows the trop out of the water in up to dateness, and I hope the White Sox move to Siberia
No. Global life is fine. The White Sox Park is great. Dodger stadium is awesome. I think that you need to get a dictionary and look up the word bad.
Before Guggenheim took over, dodger stadium was a dump. They funneled a few hundred million in renovations over a 2 year period.
Oakland isn’t that bad. I’m a giants fan and hit up PacBell errr, Oracle I guess, a few times a year. Try to hit the bay bridge series in Oakland. Tickets are cheap, food is cheaper, and you can park for free at the Bart station. As long as you aren’t there while the pipes are broken it’s really a nice traditional stadium experience. Not to mention the huge bar where most stadiums are packed with suites.
Dodger stadium isn’t run down but compared to modern stadiums and the amenities they have Dodger stadium isn’t anywhere near as nice and I’ve been to Dodger stadium. Dodger stadium also doesn’t have the history or nostalgia of Fenway or Wrigley, only Dodger fans think it does.
You miss the point Juan g was making. The Trop is far from the worst though not the best! The Trop is clean, every seat can see the game and is a perfect 72 degrees every game. The location is not helpful is the issue. I go to 30 games a year, have you ever been there?
On what planet is the White Sox stadium bad? You’ve clearly never been to a game there.
I have been there a number of times. It is bad, akin to the old Kingdome in Seattle. It is clean because it is not well attended, and you can see everything because noone is in seats in front of you and you can move down in 3rd inning to the empty rows. Tampa area is too nice to have such a bad ballpark.
Got to agree the trop location is bad and the venue is not the best…. it would do much better in Tampa, but the owner expects the town to pay for it, which there probable not going to get!
I can say as a Cubs fan that Guaranteed Rate is a great venue for baseball. The only downside is the neighborhood location.
The average attendance at the Trop was 14,500 last year (the seating area open holds only 23k). That is not nothing and enough people to make quite a mess. So please don’t assume their are no fans going to games. What is factually happening here is 1) the team is not marketed at all here since Sternberg wants to leave without paying the penalty of a breached contract along with the 500 million value of the Trop land he has monetary rights to. 2) he prefers Montreal so he can acquire 3 cable contracts (1 in french) at about 70 mill per (The Rays have a very profitable/loyal TV audience here in Tampa).3) Us fans and our corporations are bashed any time the Rays FO get a chance 4) Sternberg wants a free stadium and Tampa-St. Pete want a partnership approach. When calmer heads prevail we hope to find a local solution and i think we will.
I’d say that’s the conventional wisdom, and it’s correct, too. For years people have talked about the need to build hotels, restaurants, bars, etc. to make the surrounding area more appealing to fans. Attendance has nothing to do with the quality of the ballpark.
If a stadium was built in the vicinity of Interstate’s 4 and 75, the attendance would easily double for each home game. It would make it way easier for fans to get to the stadium quicker from cities like Orlando, Gainsville, and those counties south of Tampa and near I-75.
I live near Jacksonville, and I could make it there in about 2.5 hours.
Just move from St Pete!
I didn’t understand how annoying it is for Tampa fans to travel to st Pete in the afternoon ( rush hour) over just 2 bridges ( 1 under major construction) to see a game in an awful stadium. the lighting are always packed. the Buccs draw despite a horrible team. if you do not understand this isn’t the Tampa bay rays it’s the st Petersburg Ray’s.
Bingo… right on point!
THEY DONT EVEN HAVE JALEPEÑOS FOR THEIR NACHOS!!
Finally, someone is getting to the real issue here. Thank you, Harpchado.
But, do they have garlic fries?!?!
Reason for moving the team right there!!!
They shouldn’t be allowed to call them nachos
Where in the world did u pull that most fans in Florida are Yankee fans from? I’ve been in this state just about all my life (many decades) and that is far from the truth, not even in Tampa where the NYY have ST is it true.
I’ll give u some credence that when the NYY and Boston come to St Pete, it’s “tough” to tell who the home team is, but what u just stated is hog wash matey.
And the Red Sox get more support. And the blue jays
Meh. I was in town and caught a game at Tropicana. I thought it was just fine as a ballpark. I’m not there for the park, I’m there for the game. And they beat the Yankees, so all was good. The next day I was at the beach, downtown St Pete has some great restaurants, had a really great time in that area. Not sure what the big deal is.
I’ve been to most of the Stadium’s, and can honestly say this was one of the most fun places I had visited. Bars lined the street to the stadium, so before and after was a great time. However, the overall area is more retirement style community, amd most of the populous is in Tampa proper.
The problem is you were visiting in that area. Travel out of the area to where the population actually lives and then commute to the games and see how much of a pain it is to get to
I wonder what will happen with the giants attendance after the off season construction. Despite being located in the heart of the bay, it’s always been super easy to drive right to the park, with minimal traffic. People who live in San Francisco have a tuffer time than those who commute to games. This off season they are getting rid of the parking lot and re doing the streets so you can longer drive right to the stadium. As the above posters stated, it’s not Tampa bay park that is the issue, it’s location. I wonder what the average travel time for a rays fan is to get to a home game.
Antibelt nailed it; decent ballpark, awful location. If the Trop was actually IN Tampa they would generate bigger crowds.
Oakland is worst
Tropicana Field isn’t even the worst MLB ballpark in Florida. That disaster in Miami is much worse. Not only did Loria get the state to pay for a stadium, he got them to pay for a dump.
You need to put down the pipe , they do not always puta good product on the field but they do put the cheapest , it’s quite clear you’ve never gone to a game there as traffic is a complete mess , not even close enough parking , no cash accepted at stadium , terrible neighborhood ,the list can go on — they need to goto Tampa , not to mention they care nothing for the fans as they have driven them away — this is an ownership group that cares only for money and even with that low attendance they still make tons of money — the location stinks period
Very accurate statement. The Rays never market the team and have the coldest relationship with corporations in the Tampa area. mr. Sternberg has bullied St Pete and Tampa to pay for all the stadium without reasonable debates. He’s very smart and extremely cheap. If he leaves he loses an 80 mill per cable contract…Lets see him get that in vegas or Montreal!
The Marlins should’ve never got a new stadium. They have neve had more than 10k fans. A few years ago 2018 vs the Cubs all 3 games they did but it was probably 9600 Cubs fans 400 Marlins fans and half of those were employees of the stadium. Ew
Good. It’s a stupid idea to split your home games between two cities.
Not if the city it’s in won’t support the team. Then it could be a very smart idea.
Then they should just relocate to another city altogether. Splitting your home games between two cities just makes it inevitable that the team will eventually leave. There’s no way a team would do that split for decades.
They will. They have to wait until 2027. They were hoping to create a scenario that would make Tampa Bay/St. Pete work, at least in the meantime. The way it is now is untenable.
Not if the idea is Montreal.
I agree that the 50/50 idea is bad. However, the Rays flat out need to get out of St. Petersburg too. It’s too bad they’re stuck there for so much longer.
Not true. If the stadiums are already built it makes perfect sense. The naming might be wierd, but access to 2 fanbases is never a bad thing.
It makes zero sense
Agree. Almost as bad an idea as bringing a team to Tampa in the first place. A typical fan has no interest in having his team’s sense of home geographically divided. How do you even sell that to an already weak fan base with a weak loyalty?
They don’t deserve the Rays. Let them go to Montreal where they’d be appreciated.
Appreciated like the Expos were?
The Expos were fine until the strike, and then Jeffrey Loria purposely ran them into the ground and alienated all the fans so they could move.
They were lower-middle of the pack in attendance for years. Every team goes up and down attendance-wise. Take a look at even the Yankees attendance in the late 80s and very early 90s. With a competent ownership group, they’d be fine and viable in Montreal.
^ This.
Except that isn’t true. I was around for the Expos before the strike and they were struggling to compete then too. They couldn’t afford to keep Dawson and couldn’t afford to really surround he and Raines with enough talent to be more than a middle-of-the-pack .500 team. You are correct that the strike probably did more damage to the Expos than anyone, but the seeds for failure in Montreal were planted long before that strike.
When in Montreal they needed a new stadium. It was a similar situation. The ballpark was outdated and far away and inconvenient to get to for the majority of the population.
You could say the same about 1/2 the teams in baseball. as far as keeping their star players. Get a decent stadium and a decent product on the field and a franchise will be fine in Montreal.
John Kappel – before you drop “this” on an ill-informed comment you might want to double check the validity of the information. Montreal wasn’t drawing big crowds when they were a good team in 92-94. Montreal was below league average from 1983 onward. Only drew over 2-million fans a few times.
Montreal would support a team for about 5 minutes and lose interest. The culture is different there; baseball is not part of it.
Hiflew, the day the players walked out for the 1994 strike…the Expos had THE best record in baseball. History will never know what might have occurred. Saying they weren’t competitive is incorrect, and citing evidence from 10-15 years before their relocation is an inaccurate portrayal. NO ONE was signing players during collusion and Dawson’s infamous “Blank Check” deal with the Cubs for the 1987 season.
The Montreal Expos had one of the finest player development systems in all of baseball. They were an organization destroyed by their owner and MLB during that push for publicly funded stadiums.
Different time and different place..and shouldnt bode on Montreal as a viable market now. Outside of an additional team in the NY or LA market…I’m not sure there is another market that’s not small market. Montreal though passes the business demographic smell tests.
You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, Expos would be appreciated if they came back.
As much as I miss the Expos, I wonder how well they would do. Winning seasons and non winning seasons.
I’m not totally up to speed on this subject, but from what I understand, besides being extremely outdated, Olympique Stadium was quite a ways from the city.
Montreal gotta get a new ballpark.
A little out of the way except their subway system is very good. They have a stop below the ballpark. Stadium was falling apart for years.
Hey you aren’t the same Pokeli as the YouTuber who made those 4-bit and 8-bit renditions of all the Pokémon games, are you?
etc, etc, etc, cant have multiple Florida teams. relocation would help both them and the Marlins. Vegas-bound.
Marlins going nowhere.
Just contract the Marlins and Rays. Then send the NHL Panthers to Quebec City, and, since I’m feeling benevolent tonight, keep the rest.
The Marlins situation explains Florida’s support of MLB perfectly.
For over 20 years the franchise argued for a new park, saying it would bring people out to watch the team. They finally got one. People don’t come.
Florida is a nice place for Spring Training baseball, especially when fans of the teams escape winter to fly down and get some sun. Come summertime local residents don’t want to sit around a ballpark for 3-plus hours watching players striking out, walking, and hitting endless foul balls. 3-plus hours to see maybe 12 minutes of action. Floridians have better things to do in those areas, it’s an outdoor lifestyle.
The worst thing Tampa Bay – St. Petersburg can do is spend billions of taxpayers money for yet another baseball park. The best thing they can do is get as much money as they can for letting the franchise out of their contract and allowing them to move. Other then local sportswriters and sportscasters, very few in the area will miss the team. Those that like MLB can watch the Braves on TV.
Hopefully this news doesn’t negatively impact MLB’s desire to expand to 32 teams in the near future. The Commissioner is already on record stating that the stadium issues with the Rays and A’s need to be resolved first. With the Rays “compelled to stay here (Tropicana Field) through the end of the 2027 season” this could push back their time frame to expand considerably.
That’s okay. Not enough talent for 30 teams as it is.
Simple solution: Pull the plug on Tampa and move the A’s to, ohhh, let’s say Vegas. Then you can add a new team to… let’s say Portland by 2025 if you act quick.
PS: I know that would still be 32 teams, but that’s really what the cap should be. Or add 32 and institute an honest to god salary cap.
LOL
They don’t have enough pitchers now, especially relief pitchers. Might as well let batters hit the ball off a Tee.
At least a third of the players on major league rosters don’t belong at that level. And you want to dilute the talent level even more?
Sure there are enough pitchers, but everyone is afraid to let them pitch. Relatively not that long ago, starting pitchers were part of a 4 man rotation and pitching 250+ innings a year. Yeah, it has been 30-40 years, but we are not talking the early 1900s either. The problem is that people think pitchers have to throw 100% every single pitch instead of learning how to locate their pitches at 80%. with the occasional country fastball added to the mix.
The way that relief pitchers are used now, there have NEVER been enough pitchers. I grew up reading box scores in the 80s and I don’t remember very many games at all that had more than 3 pitchers involved unless the game was an absolute massacre or a really long extra inning game. Now every game teams are trotting out 6-7 pitchers each in regular 9 inning game. Personally, I feel there are too many pitchers on a roster and managers feel like they have to use them since they are being paid.
The talent level is fine. The USE of that talent is where the problem lies.
Exactly this. There has never been more people in this country than there is now and MLB pulls talent from farther afield than ever before. Of course there is enough talent out there,this despite the attraction of other sports. The “watered down” argument never has held any, uhh…water.
Billionaires looking for another welfare check: If they want a new stadium and it is such a good investment… build it without the public paying the bill
Hey “old guy”. If somebody offered to build you a new mansion in another city, or at least a state of the art retirement home, at no cost to you and considerably better than the piece of crap you already live in I’m sure you would be the first person to stand on principle and say, “no way, Jose”.
That’s some effed up logic. I don’t believe billionaires tend to live in pieces of crap.
Why should people of modest means be forced to pay for a baseball stadium, for which they may have no interest in?
But that is not what is happening they are trying to extort a new stadium out of the public by threatening to leave town… They lobby heavily for government money to support their business… its welfare they are demanding..
Yet that scenario you describe never happens. The reality is tax payers are mislead with falsehoods about the benefits of using tax dollars to build a stadium that never materialize. Get a clue.
and every study done by non Team related sources shows that stadium do not create jobs, they just move entertainment money around the community..
You are totally correct about professional sports franchises not creating enough jobs to offset the cost of building and maintaining a stadium (not counting granting franchises tax breaks).
Having 81 dates a year helps some local businesses such as bars and restaurants. But the problem is – almost all of those jobs are part-time, minimum wage jobs.
I’m familiar with the studies that have been done. Let the owners, players and their unions take less money and have them work in partnership to build and support the ballparks. There is no reason at all for the public to pay. Do they pay when Burger King wants a facility? When a movie theater wants a new building?
Make no mistake – as we’ve seen in LA, there’s been a backlash around this country where taxpayers have to fund facilities so that so-so players get $100m contracts, claim they love the local fans, then demand to be traded or leave in free agency.
The contracts aren’t what is driving the process: Every MLB team is worth over a Billion dollars because of their publicly financed stadiums.. 10 years ago.. there was Only 1 team valued at over a Billion : The Yanks.. and they got special tax breaks when they built.. The teams promise they are building teams to win and then After they get the stadiums pocket the money and claim the prices are too high: I know the Twins did specifically this . When they can begging for Public Financing; they testified before the MN State senate that the money would be used for keeping the stars and adding to them so the State could have a world class championship team.. instead they tanked and pocketed the profits.. This years spending is currently projected at less than the year they opened Target Field if you take into account baseball inflation: the Twins would have to spend 160 mill on players to be at the same level as when target field opened… that isn’t fulfilling their promise: They lied for money and extorted the state with the false contraction.. we’re leaving carp.. i sat thru those hearings as much as i could.. i heard it all ..
I’ll stick with the old adage that you can’t be a major league city without an MLB team, Most of us would prefer that teams pay for their own stadiums, at least in part but good luck with getting those billionaires to invest in the sport by also having to pony up for the sort of state of the art stadiums fans want to flock to. This not only applies to MLB owners but even more so to those in other pro sports that have significantly fewer home games. How Many NFL owners own or built their stadiums? How would that even be financially feasible with an 8 game home schedule and a couple of pre-season games each year?
At least MLB has an 81 game home schedule with the potential to add other events, especially with a stadium that can be covered during the offseason. In theory at least, municipalities, counties and/or states should gain considerably more revenue by owning sports facilities over just receiving their percentage of gates, concessions, parking, etc. City residents also construct, work in and around those stadiums, earn income and pay taxes.
You’re dead right.
The season splitting idea is an attempt to force the issue, one way or the other. I don’t like teams holding cities hostage but would love to see a team back in Montreal.
I don’t think there was one person on earth who thought this idea would actually happen when it was announced. Including the Rays owner.
This happened to the expos when they played in puerto rico basically half the season then they left to Washington
Tampa is in the bottom third in market size among the MLB teams. That market is full of people who came to the area with other baseball allegiances. And it has one of the worst stadiums in baseball. No wonder their attendance is so low despite some success on the field. I do not blame St. Pete for putting the kibosh on playing in Montreal. But if this team is to succeed in this market, a new stadium is an absolute must. So area leaders best get busy working with the team to fix the stadium issue if they hope to keep them in the area. Otherwise, step aside and let the Rays move to a market that wants them.
they need out of st Pete. the tampa sports teams draw good attendance numbers. st Petersburg is the issue.
The Hudson Bay Rays.
As a Tampa native I firmly believe that the TAMPA BAY Rays belong in TAMPA, not St Pete. Tampa is Hillsborough County, not Pinellas. The Lightning have not problem pulling in crowds, neither do the Bucs, because both stadiums are In TAMPA. Fans don’t want to spend hours on the causeway or Howard Frankland trying to get to a game at rush hour.
I go to a lot of games and it’s a solid hour, if not more, to get from New Tampa to Tropicana. There are plenty of locations in Hillsborough, they’re just having a pissing contest about money. They already spend the least in the league, it’s not really a shock, but the team and the city deserve better.
Keep them in Tampa. It’s a big market, they’ll have a better turnout if they come into Tampa city limits.
I moved here 8 years ago and didn’t understand this issue until I got here. I normally went to 10 to 15 games a year. since moving here I barely make 3. the afternoon traffic is awful. by the time you get back home to tampa from a game its midnight. good luck getting kids up the next morning for school or just having energy for a normal 9 to 5.
That would seem to be an ideal scenario provided that the city of Tampa can match the stadium offers that other prospective cities will wave in front of Rays owner David Sternberg. The stadium built in Tampa would also need to be a significantly better baseball facility than Tropicana Field, hopefully one that sports a retractable roof that MLB should make mandatory for any new venue being built by any team in the future. If they can build such a facility in Milwaukee there is no excuse not to have one constructed in Tampa, let alone any market big or small anywhere else in the US with the possible exception of southern California.
I’m positive the Tampa Bay rays owner is not named David Sternberg? I don’t know who the hell David Sternberg is. Stuart is the owner, unless he has a different legal name….
Uhhh… LA Dodger fans would like a word about your traffic “woes.”
Baseball just isn’t viable anywhere in Florida (and neither is football, for that matter). I’d like to see all four teams leave.
*Five. I’m assuming you left out the Jaguars.
It was actually the Bucs that I forgot…
It is if it’s college football.
Contract the A’s and Rays and assemble a new team with players from both organizations.
Rays attendance was up this season and tv viewers are through the roof
In 2019, they averaged 14,552 fans per game for a total of 1,178,735 for the season. The AL average was 2,039,521.. They won 96 games and were still 42% below average.
In their 22 seasons, they have averaged over 20,000 fans per season just 5 times, the last time in 2010. They have averaged more than the AL average just once; their inaugural season.
Right their attendance and viewers were still up this season when most clubs saw a decline
For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the Trop when I went. And I think we saw this playoffs that when the fans pack the place, it’s a great environment. It sounds like the location itself it the issue for locals. I’m rooting for you rays fans. I hope they can stay in Florida
The only way baseball works in non-big media markets is by having a downtown core stadium. That might work in Tampa. Same with Montreal. The Olympic Stadium is a barn and far too removed from the city. Montreal needs a downtown core stadium for long-term baseball to work there again. I used to live in Montreal, trust me the downtown stadium is the only thing that will make baseball work in Montreal.
As far as the Mayor goes, he has a right to refuse and as a business guy he should refuse. They spent a tonne on the stadium and now he wants his promised return. If the Rays want out or to share the season, they need to make sure the city gets fully paid anyways for its lease and ancillary revenues. Period. No discussion. Pay the bill. Why should the city take the financial hit?
Just for the record, that stadium wasn’t originally built for the Rays. The stadium was opened in 1990, the Rays didn’t begin play until 1998. The first plan was reportedly to get the White Sox to move their franchise to the stadium.
First was the White a Sox, then talk of the Mariners & then the Giants.
The Giants were the closest with a last second sale to a local businessman to keep them in San Fran until a new owner could be found that would keep them local.
Moved out of Candlestick park and the rest is history. Location of the stadium is huge for attendance.
Disagree….the Royals have built a regional team by having an easily accessible stadium near a suburb off an interstate. We’ll see what happens long run of they try to move downtown and people from Kansas drive 4 hours just to fight downtown rush hour traffic and walk 2 miles to the game. People were always curious why Royals Stadium had turf. Its because people from 4 hours away would turn around and go home after games and they wanted to avoid rainout. Non plains area people dont understand KCs interesting demographic.
Nashville would be interesting. Not sure if it would be viable though.
Look at states that don’t have a professional sports team.
To my knowledge South Carolina Wyoming Montana Nebraska New Mexico Alabama Oregon Wisconsin so many states would welcome an mlb team. Oklahoma City got the thunder and attendance wise do fine. Idk why mlb isn’t like let’s try there.
Wisconsin got the Bucks, Brewers & Packers
Wyoming? Let’s put it in Cheyenne with a population of 40K or so…and almost no population around…and the ones who are there have summer chores. That’s only about 2 hrs from Denver when traffic is ok. And let’s not mention the planning and execution or the Worlds largest rodeo and frontier days that takes up a lot of time leading to the last week in July. Theres a reason a cowboy is on their vehicle plates.
You realize the owner’s first name is Stuart not David
Yeah, that bothered me too. I thought I was the only one that noticed. Looks like it went right over the head of a hell of a lot people
Pathetic. They’d never botch the Steinbrenner families names. Small team, no respect from the media.
David Sternberg……..Stuart Sternberg (Aka Stu) is our owners name. How do you get this wrong………
Time to move, all the cities listed would welcome and support a team like the Rays. They are good.
Nobody buys a Rays season ticket in December, because they’re not sure they’ll be alive in July…….(ty Mad Dog)….
I’m not sure this mess keeps expansion from happening. Current owners may or may not be owners in 2027, and that (approx.) 50M per team is a huge incentive to expand. And they may have to expand anyway, to keep the Union off their backs; adding the 26th man don’t feed the bulldog.
And expansion could definitely help the Rays, as I’ve noted before. With realignment, they’d get away from NY, Boston and Toronto; maybe even BALT. Besides, MLB doesn’t want to give up the TV market.
Maybe it needs a two, or if need be three, step process.
Step 1: team sends whatever notice is called for under their contracts that they are formally rejecting any renewal and will leave 2027. Lock it in.
Step 2: come up with a present-day value from an amortization table of what makes st Pete whole for the entirety of the remaining revenue stream of remaining on-site. I have no idea what it’d be, but it’s possible if they would pay 200m over 8 years, maybe 150m today is the equivalent.
Optional step 3: either take out debt to pay off the city, or, mlb requires ownership to sell the team to a new ownership who makes the payment. Wouldn’t be the first forced sale of a sports franchise.
Orlando would put an average of 25 to 30k people in the seats nightly. Booming Puerto Rican and Dominican populations, short trip up for current Rays fans in Tampa, Brevard county 40 mins, Osceola, Lake, Seminole counties would come to support. Play at Camping World Stadium.
At the very least, the fairgrounds in Tampa. But orlando would be really nice. They’d have to build a new baseball-specific stadium though.
Lightning are packed with 15,000. Bucs play 8 times a year, mostly on Sunday afternoons. Those aren’t great comparisons.
East side of the bay, either Tampa, or (fingers crossed) Orlando would make attendance better. But Tampa residents deserve blame, too. Sure it’s a pain to get to during rush hour traffic on a weekday. But it wasn’t packed on Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons. Especially tight games against Boston in late September WC push. Then all of a sudden, 33,000 people can take work off on a Monday to attend ALDS game 3. I went to 6 games this year from Orlando. 2.5 hours each way. So Tampa resident fans do deserve a lot of blame here.
The stadium itself isn’t that bad. I dont know why everyone craps all over it. It’s always 72 degrees, it has good food, and has good bars and stuff nearby, tons of parking. And they let you bring in all the food you want, free. Parking is even free on sundays if you have 4 people in your car. They really try to make it easy for fans to come. If you want beautiful scenery, go to the beach. It’s a baseball game. Stop feeding this self-fulfilling prophecy that the stadium isn’t good.
This BS by the team should really bring the fans in. The fans know for certain the Rays are gone in 7 years.
No kidding! It’s like telling your wife you want to take another lady out…but only half the time. Ridiculous to think that a team that cant build fan loyalty with an 82 game schedule and a permanent team is going to do so while being shared with another most likely more viable city. The Mayor knows this and is going to make sure they get their 82 games a year of tax money for the city before the Rays bolt. This city was lied to and built that place for multiple teams. I dont blame them. The White Sox wanted it then the Giants. Theres obviously no local cache to having an MLB team.
NOTE to MLB Rumors: RAYS OWNER’S FIRST NAME IS STU not David.
Rays owner David Sternberg isn’t thrilled with Kriseman’s decision, as he said, “We do not agree that this is the best path forward.”
#RaysUp
San Antonio should repurpose the Alamo Dome site for baseball and build decent passenger rail from the Amtrak station next door up to Austin. For the right developer this would be a gold mine, and Texas is full of rich developers.
Another mediocre market unless there’s a lot of expansion. I mean you have SA-Austin and a world of Rangers loyalty on TV…Astros growing a market atleast for the time being. Seems like a bum 3rd wheel even if I love the idea of a San Antonio team given I’m a Spurs fan.
I suspicion the Ray’s fan base is very young and unable to afford season ticket packages, or to attend many games. When I was there it was BY FAR the youngest demographic crowd I’ve witnessed and I’ve seen most of them.
I also wonder if that’s what’s boosting their tv numbers. There’s just not enough of them en masse to flush the overall attendance. The park also isnt a place for the young with disposable income to go to hang out either. It’s a baseball park in the 80s sense…and its built to watch the game in. Fact is, many arent even going to just watch a baseball game anymore…it’s a scene.
The same city who felt that Tampa devil rays was a terrible idea. Smh. Best name in baseball.
Is the consensus that the Rays would do much better moving from St. Petersburg to Tampa? Then what is stopping this?
I would think the state of Florida could house more than two teams. I would think, as it is, Jacksonville should also have a team. It is mind-boggling to me that the Rays are in danger of being relocated from the Tampa Bay/St. Pete area. There are a lot of people in that area. If the quick fix is moving the team to Tampa, that should be the immediate focus.
The Montreal Rays has a nice ring to it! The Tampa Bay fans can watch them play spring training games.
Following up this blog and Sternbergs Tampa Bay Times article 12/11. It is so obvious that the team wants to aggavate any local support left for the Rays. If Sternberg could just keep his mouth shut and move his team when legal we would pack any local stadium the Rays would be playing at in the present. I and I’m sure many other WC Florida baseball fans are tired of this pissing match between the team and cities! We want a final solution already!