According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Chandler Rome, the Rays would have multiple potential buyers if the club decided to sell, as groups both local to the Tampa Bay area and outside buyers looking to relocate the franchise to one of the cities that could be a potential candidate for league expansion. Rosenthal and Rome note one specific suitor: Dan Doyle Jr., CEO of local company DEX Imaging. Despite the interest, the Rays are still primarily focused on a new ballpark in the Tampa Bay area, per the duo.
As Rosenthal and Rome note, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has previously indicated that expansion wouldn’t be considered until the A’s and Rays have resolved their ongoing stadium issues and that fees could end up well above $2 billion. Given these factors, it’s understandable why groups with interest in ownership of a hypothetical expansion team would also look into purchasing the Rays, which Rosenthal and Rome notes would be expected to sell for less than the expected expansion fee.
The interest gives Rays ownership plenty of options as they attempt to secure a ballpark in either Tampa or St. Petersburg prior to the expiration of their lease at Tropicana Field, which will occur following the 2027 season. If the Rays were to relocate out of Tampa, Rosenthal and Rome note that the locality would likely become an immediate contender for expansion.
Of course, the Rays currently seem to be making good progress on plans for a new ballpark in the area, including support from St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch. While the progress in recent months is surely encouraging for Rays fans, Rosenthal and Rome still indicate that the Rays will keep their options open if they’re unable to securing funding for a ballpark in the Tampa Bay area, up to and including the possibility of a sale.
Man, did I interpreted this post wrong.
My thought as I clicked on the headline; “maybe the M’s can get Yandy Diaz!”
Lol
*interpret
You aren’t the only one
Me, too. They do have a lot of depth, so it wasn’t entirely crazy…
No kidding. They are deep with versatility, as well. How’d you like to have Harold Ramirez Yandy Diaz and Isaac Paredes to play with on any given day? Ridiculous
I did as well. My first thought was why would a first place team sell?
Expansion and getting a team’s leftovers via expansion draft or the best record in MLB — — hmm, it’s definitely understandable why there’s interest. lol
Building the off-field part of the organization seems like the heavy lift to me. There are hundreds of people required to run an organization – from both the baseball and business side. Getting an existing business that is seemingly well-run seems a lot better than trying to build one from scratch.
The fact that this is happening to the best team in the sport (save ATL HOU and LAD) says something. What it is, I’m not entirely sure. What a world. There are cities with fans who would pump tons of money into a team this consistently good and playoff bound.
Sfes – Best team? They have never won a World Series and made it only once in 24 non-covid seasons. And they have consistently one of the worst attendances in MLB.
Yes they have had regular season success with low payrolls, but IMO that alone doesn’t make them one of the best.
Name more than 3 teams better than the Rays the last 5 years. I’ll wait.
I don’t think that he can.
There isn’t but they have 0 World Series to back it up
It’s almost like winning a championship is hard. I mean, it’s already been established a 3rd place team can get hot and nearly win a World Series.
The baseball world is much different from the pre-1969 divisional split which was the era of End-of-season winner to go directly to the World Series. Each league with 2 divisions kept more teams in the race to the end , helped bump up attendance, gave a team just 3 games over .500 ( the 1973 Mets) a chance to get to a World Series over a 99 win team ( the 1973 Reds) and that cemented the thoughts around all the cities in baseball that you just have to be the hot team at the end.
Keep the excitement up, make the games count, and baseball thrives.
Tampa Bay’s facility is ugly and now decrepid. Give them a great facility and maybe that attendance figure would rise with the fortunes of the club. Lord knows their current front office and the legacy of that front office left behind from Andrew Friedman’s days have shown they are holding up their end giving the fans some on-field excitement.
And i would be first to admit my initial judgments about the Kevin Cash hiring was way off base. He has far surpassed expectations.
Been there twice since 2008. Some teams take their 3rd or more time to win it all.
Your team sucks go to the kiddie table and make comments
Dodgers,ATL, Yankees and Astros
Certainly not the overrated sux or their masshole fans
So the Royals won it all in ‘15. Does that make them the better team than the Rays over the last 10 years…? And yes I know they have low attendance. That was one of my points. Did you even read it? And what does that have to do with being one of the best teams?
What does attendance have to do with the Rays on field success? They’ve already proved that it doesn’t. What they routinely do with poor attendance and low payroll should be applauded, not denigrated. Your anti Rays bias is very apparent.
Exactly. A team that goes say 4-3 over every 7 games will win 93. A team that goes 3-4 will win 69. So theoretically the difference between the best and worst teams could be one game every 7. Now put those two teams in a 7 game series and it could go either way. Baseball teams and players’ greatness is measured over 162 games for multiple reasons. Hence the term “small sample size.”
If they draw 2-3 million it to have a higher payroll.
What they’ve actually proven is that it’s possible to overcome a lack of support and low revenue. This field management group with a top 10 revenue stream would dominate the league. I’d like to know why they aren’t able to sell the brand in such a large market and on field success.
@cardsfan57 imo it has to do with where the trop is located, i went out there once for a game and it was a pain to get to. iirc there are only a few bridges that take you into st. pete then after that traffic nightmare the area around is not set up for any type of sports event because the stadium is placed in an industrial/warehouse district. so i can see why fans would rather watch on tv then try and fight there way into st. pete. tbh if the rays can move into tampa or the burbs on the tampa side i can see attendance boom.
“Yes they have had regular season success with low payrolls, but IMO that alone doesn’t make them one of the best.”
Think about what you just said there. Do you see the irony or were you drinking bleach this morning?
TB has the best record in MLB so far, so they are objectively the best team currently, via win pct.
Well I mean one team a year wins a World Series so I guess nobody else is even any good if they don’t win the World Series. What a ridiculous statement, majority of games are regular season and to be a top 3-4 team over the last 5 years in the regular season…. Yes you are absolutely one of the best
18 teams have won zero non-COVID world series since 1998. That includes LAD, TOR, BAL, MIL, SEA, PIT, DET, SDP, COL and others. Lots of loser franchises.
4th best record in baseball since 2008, yeah that’s successful. Only one team can win world series each year. Just imagine if you were half as successful!
The only teams with more wins in the past 5 seasons are the Dodgers and Yankees. They consistently over perform and do it with less.
Fans don’t go because they’re too busy with their blinders on for the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Blue Jays, etc. all of which call Florida home and have called Florida home way before the Rays entered the league in 98.
You can’t pry these fans away from their teams, especially with the rampant incompetence the team had the first 10 years for existence.
This year, they are the best. Period.
Yes, the Rays are the best team currently according to just about any unbiased analyst. You sir, are surly not an unbiased source. The most you commented on was not “best team of all time” just the best team this season.
Come on Nashville. Now is the time to pounce.
Nashville, Memphis, Portland or Montreal imo. Pro sports teams tend to not draw well in Florida.
Montreal doesn’t have chance neither does Portland.
@winslow what do you think about vancouver as an expansion, it gives canada a second team and puts a team on both coasts. i agree about montreal and portland, with portland close to Seattle most of them are m’s fans so it’s going to be tough to draw fans. montreal that’s a tough one because i can see a lot of people not wanting to get invested because they had a team taken away before and very corrupt ownership that drove bb out of there in the first place. on the flip side when the fans up there weren’t being screwed over they did come out and support them, the real question is if you put a team in montreal can you establish trust with the fans if not then it’ll fail.
I know this is an MLB forum, but the Lightning have been selling out every game for nearly 10 years. The ownership and corporate support is unreal and they’ve invested so much into the community and the community has given back to the team.
Stick a stadium in that district and they’ll never have to look back.
@kier
lol i made that same point to cardsfan57 put the rays on the tampa side of the bay and more fans will come. as it stands now from what i remember it’s a traffic nightmare to get there, especially if your not from there
@brodie-bruce
It’s an absolute nightmare to get down there. However, I’ve been to 5 games this year so far and I live in Orlando, which if you’re familiar with I-4, is quite a task. A 2 and a half hour task.
So if I can make it to FIVE games just through May, there’s really no excuse for others who live in the area.
@kiermayor
lol ironically when i went to catch a rays game i was working in orlando and had to stay the weekend for a part to arrive monday. for those that live there i can see why most wouldn’t want to fight that nightmare. get off work rush home to get ready for the game (especially if you’re like me and work construction your going home first to shower) rush out there hoping you get there before 6 then repeat it around 9-10ish to get home wind down just to get up early to get ready for work. just because you live close doesn’t make it easier per say but i get your point and it’s very valid.
They need to stay in the East. MLB doesn’t need to expand for at least 10-15 years.
Nashville please.
Billionaires interested in buying sports team.
Yet some MLB owners say teams don’t make money. If they didn’t, successful business people wouldn’t be interested in buying them.
Who bought the Angels recently?
Moreno took the team off the market. Are you trying to use one data point to counter several decades of teams selling for continually skyrocketing prices?
Housing prices skyrocketed too but not recently.
Why did Moreno take them off the market? Could it be no good offers?
It is easier to get high prices on large markets than small ones like Tampa where they are behind the eight ball as far as revenues.
I’m trying to understand your point. Are you trying to say no one is interested in buying baseball teams?
Angels owner Art Moreno said he received three bids from MLB-vetted potential buyers this past winter, and all of those bids were at least $2.62 billion in price. This would have been a new record high for a Major League franchise, topping the $2.42 billion that Steve Cohen spent to buy the Mets in 2020.
In about 20 markets, it would be a hard sell under the current CBA.
In fact, I would say expansion will not happen until the next CBA or until the revenue disparity problem is dealt with. Maybe that expansion money is what it takes to get the large markets to give up their advantage for the good of the game finally.
“Said”.
I can say I got three six figure job offers that week too, that doesn’t mean it is true.
Even if true, it would only be because of the large LA market.
The CBA already dictates that MLB is allowed to expand by up to 2 teams. Not that it matters, MLB has been steadfast that they won’t expand before OAK and TBR stadium situations are solved. The expansion fees will be split to the current 30 owners, they don’t have to solve any revenue inefficiencies to expand.
It was reported at the time on here as well as elsewhere. You don’t have to believe me.
mrkinsm,
Some people just want to believe what they want to believe.
True. Large market apologists believe what they want to believe while the game is dying in all but the large markets.
What evidence is there that “the game is dying in all but the large markets?”
No more expansion please
There’s nothing wrong with expansion, there’s certainly enough talent around the world to add another two teams.
And then we have fans complain about parity. With two more teams, we’re going to see .500 teams make expanded playoffs.
Tell that to pitt, colorado,kc, w sox, tigers,reds, ect
Enough talent around the world. Is that why the current 30 can’t find enough GOOD pitching?
So to purchase rights to one of the smaller MLB markets, the cost would be $2 BILLION! Talk about an uneven playing field. This, of course, will include competitive balance payments, due to the disadvantage the franchise will automatically be in. It will also include an unknown TV Market contract, as cable is no longer paying the big bucks.
And they won’t expand into the huge markets that are already parceled out, which is terrible. NYC should have more than two teams. SF bay area should have more than one team (if A’s move) and the entire state of Texas could host a third team as well.. This is doubly true with cable TV contracts becoming less central to revenue, and triply so since it’s been a while since attendance drove income. You want $2bn to join the game then make room in a market with that kind of population and money to pay it back. Brooklyn or NJ will be far more likely to recover the investment before Portland or Montreal.
Soon the large markets will be the only teams left anyway if they keep the current system.
If they moved to a new city outside of Florida I could see attendance going up significantly.
So, if the Rays moved out of Tampa Bay, exactly how does Rosenthal think that the Tampa Bay Area would be at the top of the list for expansion…..if the franchise has issues with attendance due to location today, might they not have the same issues, albeit with new owners, in the future?
The new St. Pete/Tampa expansion team would have a new stadium at a new location as it will take years to build.
Other cities have gotten an expansion team after their old team left. Seattle (Pilots, Mariners) is an obvious example.
Montreal again hopefully.
NFL’s Cleveland Browns left for Baltimore to become the Ravens. Then, voila, Cleveland gets a team named the Browns in ’96.
@rundmc1981
i think cle got there team because they way the ravens moved was pretty dirty and the nfl didn’t want to go to court and have there dirty secrets aired out.
1 city? actually 2 Washington
I’ve always wondered why San Antonio and Austin don’t come up in conversations about baseball expansion. They’ve supported teams in other sports (Spurs and U of Tex). It is a growing area. Low state taxes. Probable support from government. I would much rather go there than any of other markets mentioned.
TV rights for the other 2 teams make it messy to bring in a new 3rd team in Texas. It would be a nationals-orioles situation but worse.
As the cable TV mother lode starts to wind down TV money will move towards a centralized contract model. That fight over local channel positions will be far less important as we come through the next set of broadcast contract renegotiations and the RSNs don’t have the money to repeat the huge contracts of the past 20 years.
Probably, but that has to actually happen first. No one is gonna pay the expansion fee and just hope for some future hypothetical to save them from a legal battle.
Dallas and Houston are nowhere near close enough to make a claim. 60 miles is the limit, I believe.
As of 2021 Forbes values Tampa Bay Rays at $1.25 Billion placing them in 26th position in MLB rankings. Their revenue is $248 Million with operating income listed at $9.5 Million
Seems like a conveniently leaked story as negotiations continue on a new stadium. Create the impression a new owner might come in and move the team, or want another location within the region.
Put the squeeze on like the A’s did on their first Vegas location interest. Rays will need their first buyer bid to get the ball rolling for their new stadium.
Golly, that sounds almost, well, cynical. I mean you just have to look at the history of the MLB to know that business is always conducted on the up and up. It was kind of disappointing when the Giants moved to Tampa that one time, and when Oakland fans had to start driving to Sacramento, and then to San Jose, and that time when the Twins went to North Carolina before they were contracted, Still, I always say it’s a steady march towards progress. High marks to the league for keeping taxpayers in the front of their minds!
You’re right! Scott Boras is somehow working behind the scenes here.
Open your eyes outside your little bubble.
Attendance is down in those areas compared to past years. The Indians long string of sellouts aren’t happening these days.
Young people aren’t interested as much, they prefer NFL, NBA, NHL or even soccer. Of course they have what baseball doesn’t, an even playing field.
You don’t see as many young people playing the game.
Did you ever think you would see ads on uniforms? How about gambling advertising during games when that is one of their sacred cow rules against it? Ever thought about why that is suddenly?
The clues are all around us.
Set aside the argument about the future of baseball.
When has the MLB ever passed up the opportunity to make more $? Both uniform ads and gambling ads bring in $. The moral arguments get weighed down by green in every case,
Meanwhile team valuations continue to increase and the luxury tax checks teams are cashing get larger.
There is perceived value and then what someone actually pays for it.
The most recent exsmple is the Mets, a large market. Get back to me when a team is flyover country sells for a crazy amount.
The expansion fee seems unfair. It should be the current average value of recent expansion teams. There’s no guarantee that a new expansion team would end being more profitable than any of the recent expansion teams. So why value it at the average value of the entire leave who have the benefits of being part of the longer history of baseball and as a result the fan base built over generations.
I’d love to see the Rays go to Charlotte. I know folks there would love an MLB team as the Knights draw well and there’s a lot of money there.
This all posturing – central Florida is a top 10 tv market and a top 3 growth market with current population trends. They are not going anywhere and tampabay elected officials know it. The rays owner has offers to get a stadium but they want more and more.
I’m sure others have already said it but from what I remember the problem is they are the St. Pete. Rays, gotta get a stadium on the right side of the bridge.