Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg recently spoke to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times regarding the club’s progress in its search for a new stadium and rumors earlier in the year of bids from outside investors to buy the team, with Sternberg providing clarity regarding both matters.
Perhaps most importantly, Sternberg noted that the Rays are willing to cover the costs of more than half of a proposed domed stadium in St. Petersburg, with the project estimated to cost $1.2 billion in total. The comments give fans a window into what the Rays’ total commitment might look like if a deal is worked out for the first time while providing an update on the negotiations, which Sternberg says he is “highly optimistic” about. Topkin notes that a deal could get done before the end of the year.
Such a deal would seemingly leave the Rays owing over $600MM for the stadium, which Topkin notes would open in 2028, the year following the expiration of Tampa’s lease at Tropicana Field. Sternberg says that the club has been seeking investors to raise the necessary funds in exchange for a stake in the team. Topkin adds that those discussions have been the catalyst for inquiries regarding the possibility of a sale of th entire team, and Sternberg has not shut those offers down entirely.
Regarding the possibility of selling the team, Sternberg told Topkin that he doesn’t intend on selling and expects to remain the club’s principal owner. That said, Sternberg expressed a willingness to listen to offers, saying that “when you’re talking about people raising potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, they’re going, ‘Well, maybe we can buy the whole damn thing.’ So they take a run at you.” Sternberg likened his approach to inquiries regarding the team to that of his front office regarding the club’s players, saying that “if you want to make an offer, I always listen” but adding that no deal is in the works despite the club receiving plenty of offers over the years.
Sternberg added that he has no intentions of moving the team, though he did simultaneously indicate that without a new stadium agreement the Rays would likely be on the move, explaining that he would sell the team if the club fails to reach a new stadium agreement in the Tampa Bay area and that he would expect a hypothetical new owner to explore relocation for the team following the expiration of the club’s current lease in 2027. Fortunately for Rays fans, that eventuality seems unlikely to come to fruition as things stand. Sternberg describes the negotiations with St. Petersburg as “moving along at a very nice pace” and says that he “feel[s] pretty good” about where the talks are at with just under four months left in the year.
Along with the A’s, who seem all but certain to relocate to Las Vegas in the coming years, the Rays’ stadium situation has been perhaps the biggest roadblock to an expansion effort by MLB. Commissioner Rob Manfred indicated as recently as last year that he would “love” to see the league expand to 32 teams, though he’s previously noted that the league won’t considering expanding beyond its current 30 teams until stadium issues in both Oakland and Tampa are resolved.
With the timeline for expansion uncertain and fees exceeding $2 billion being floated as a possibility, it’s hardly a surprise that potential ownership groups would also have interest in purchasing and relocating the Rays. Topkin notes that a Nashville-based investor explored buying the Rays this past summer with a potential price tag of $1.85 billion. Massive as that figure is, it would still be less expensive than the aforementioned rumored expansion fees, lending credence to Sternberg’s suggestion that potential buyers have interest in exploring relocation for the franchise.
Hard to believe that the stadium will get built there but hope the city gets to keep its team
The ROI for TB just seems hard to justify.
$600m is the public outlay. Let’s say local tax rates can generously see a 10% levy per dollar spent if you mix regular sales tax, hotel fees, rental car fees, increased fuel taxes for the highway funds, really its a number for sake of argument.
That means you need $6b in money flowing related to the rays to see that come back.
Let’s say they will average 20,000 fans a game over the year, and, I think that’s being generous. Stadiums aren’t lasting 50 or even 30 years anymore without massive spending recapitalization if not starting over outright after 20-25 years of late.
So, figure, you go 81 games, for 25 years. That’d be just over 2000 contests, excluding the handful of playoff games you hope they average a season. So, 2k games at 20k fans a game, thats 40,000,000 fans. For 40m fans to generate $6b in revenue, you’re saying each of those fans needs to bring $150 in fresh spending per person on a trip to the park. Family of four? Spend $600 to go to Tampa for mom, dad, and their 8 and 6 year old kid.
I find that a tough sell. And that’s excluding upkeep, maintenance, renovations, wear and tear repairs, storm damage, etc. And then add to that you ask, how else can the area put $600 million in spending to work, you know, infrastructure improvements, water supply hardening against seawater intrusion, fund a captive that can use interest returns to offset the property insurance crisis, pick a better project.
All this, for a team owner who is among the stingiest in MLB when it comes to investing in payroll.
A $1.2b stadium is aspirational, but, it’s a poor choice of expense for that market. Let the team raise funds from its fans rather than the public coffers if it wants that shiny new toy. Oh… wait. They won’t spend the money because it’s inconvenient to drive to where the stadium is. Ask other ballclubs how long their fans drive to go to a game without having poor attendance.
The math is vastly more complex than that. If the new stadium brings a lot of high paying jobs to the area than those salaries are mostly dispersed throughout the local economy (unless the jobs are extremely high paying, in which case the money is usually shuffled between various non-local investments and offshore tax shelters).
In the case of a stadium, I’m not sure what they’re paying the ticket takers and hot dog vendors but I don’t think it’s gonna cover even a fraction of what the new infrastructure will cost to maintain, let alone build.
Florida doesn’t have income tax so… that’s one strike. I also just can’t see it bringing high paying jobs into the region – The team is already there. Given how shoestring the organization is, I find it hard to imagine much money trickles down – a fancy way to say even if the team left, I dont think it would lose that much localized spending.
Idk man I’m not the best with numbers but somethings telling me these billion dollar companies have some people crunching numbers that make it all work… probably a little more detailed than your MLBTR comment…
Yep kc – it’s called greased palms, political donations, and screwing over the average citizen.
There it is. THE BIG CONSPIRACY. Your initial “analysis” post was an interesting if amusing read. Now it’s just amusing.
Stadiums have a negative ROI. They bring in additional revenue to the stadium district which they pull from surrounding areas.
The area they are proposing to built the ballpark in is hard to get to for the majority of the population of the Tampa Bay area. It needs to be in Tampa to succeed.
The real money is corporate not so much the fans
Exactly. As a Tampa resident, no one wants to drive to St Pete. I believe he really does want to relocate the team or sell it. I don’t believe his negotiating a good faith.
If he wanted to sell the team, he’d sell it. He wants to continue to rake in massive profits by living off revenue sharing.
what no one, including the article writer, doesnt mention is that Stu gets 1/2 of the development proceeds for the ENTIRE St Petersburg project. That will be at least $1 billion. He’s not going anywhere with that kind of cash on the hook. He may sell a portion of his interest to raise funds up front for the stadium, but no way he’s walking away now. Tampa folks hust gotta wake up
they are averaging 19,000 fans this year and they probably have the worst stadium in the league. a new stadium will easily get that to 25,000. I think it’s going to be difficult for them to find investors to shell out a hundred million or more for a minority share. they need an owner with deeper pockets.
Location is everything. If built in Tampa, almost any new stadium will be a success at least initially. But closed dome will be long term successful. There’s only a few games per year where the outside air temp and humidity would be suitable. Open air = 30-40 rains outs per season.
The stadium will not create any long term jobs. Construction companies which specialize in these types of projects are usually based outside of the project. Employees temporarily relocate to build the facilities and then move on with the construction jobs being broken into smaller increments requiring specialty contractors. Pouring foundations, steel structure, electrical and other jobs are handled largely at different stages. The Rays already have an existing stadium with vendors, etc. Those jobs just transfer, and they’re generally very poor paying, if not staffed largely by volunteers.
The problem with the Trop is largely access and population related. St. Petersburg is largely non-viable for an MLB stadium. If the stadium was in Tampa with higher localized populations and better access, it’s a totally different story.
Still unhelpful from a revenue standpoint since people will find ways to spend their money without an MLB team, but at least there’s a greater viability.
Depends on the historical attitudes of the region. In some places it’s impossible to get taxpayers to voluntarily give hundreds of millions of dollars to a privately owned company, in others it’s quite easy. The Marlins got their funding but the area is much wealthier.
Tampa better be careful with Manfred at the helm, if the team doesn’t get their handout the league wont stop them from stripping the organization for parts and moving it elsewhere.
Case, the team strips its roster for parts regularly anyways on a constantly rolling basis.
Ironically, their big outlay, wander, got them burned bigtime given the extent they went to removing his name and likeness from advertising.
I don’t think anyone would notice anything out of the ordinary if the club DID sell off starters with an eye towards moving, it’d just be assumed to be business as usual.
These stadium deals never work out in the interest of the common citizen. I love how MLB talks about Atlanta serving as a great example of how baseball stadiums bring revenue etc. What a bunch of malarkey.
In fact I looked it up, Braves stadium costs taxpayers 15$mil a year. What a great deal MLB!
Dude, what are you blathering on about? This is about the stadium. Not their elite recruiting abilities and making top tier teams out of no name players. You’re so salty it’s painful. Find a new hobby, troll
Tampa is just as wealthy as Miami. But residents of Tampa don’t want to pay for a new stadium an hour away in deep St Pete. Just Google map search the distance from the Bucs stadium to Tropicana Field.
Clowns like you comment on these topics and have no understanding of the geotag play.
Lol, much like Miami, Tampa is often listed as a one of the great cities of the world, full of wealth and culture. Florida’s education system hard at work.
An HOUR……you must live in Lakeland. Taking the Selmon to Gandy Bridge gets you from I-4 to downtown St Pete in 35 minutes. Stop the madness….
If he cannot bamboozle the local taxpayers into giving him $600 million, the area will keep its team and get rid of its owner from the sounds of what he said in that article.
The whole point of a new stadium is to get out of St. Pete! What a bunch of maroons, Ahahaha!!
domed glass stadium with solar panels designed to withstand category 5+ hurricanes and replica of ebbets field or old timer ballpark pls.
No building that big and heavy is in any danger from a hurricane. But I love the transparent solar panel idea!
The super dome took some pretty good roof damage during 100mph wind gusts when Katrina went through. I suspect TB area profiles to get 100mph winds as close to a sure thing during a stadium life as you’re likely to see.
Where did you read this? If so, terrific idea.
Build it in Tampa or don’t build it at all.
stupid provincial attitude. Guess we wont be seeing you at the new stadium in downtown St Pete….
You’re stupid if you think a new stadium in St Pete will help attendance. It will help for the first 1/4 of the first season it’s open, nothing more.
No team should be allowed to move, you don’t want it ? sell it to someone with deeper pockets
This team managed to draw 10k and less for this week’s Red Sox series, which translates to normal Sox fans staying at home in the TB area that normally inflate attendance to the 30k area and shows how small the Rays base is once again and how terrible St petersburg is for a location, not just that awful Thunderdome stadium.
Wasting 1b on a stadium in St pete is throwing good money after bad, unless the team is moved to Tampa proper. Taking the team out of the Tampa area is the only other rational choice.
Fools comment. The rays base is huge but shouldn’t have to drive over an hour each way to watch a game. Only ignorants with zero clue of the geography at play make comments like this. I got to 2-3 games a year and it’s a 6hour event. If the stadium was actually in Tampa I’d go to at least 20 games. 99% of rays fans feel the same as me.
Amd yet, fans of MOST teams drive over an hour each way to go to a game…
Guess that’s a degree of devotion that’s lacking
No most fans don’t do that. Most fan bases are within 10 square miles of the stadium. This has long been established. Draw a 10 mile radius around Tropicana field and it’s 75% water!
If your theory had a leg to stand on, the lightning and Bucs would have poor attendance too. But they have great attendance because those facilities are actually IN TAMPA! Doofus
You said two different things, and, both are wrong.
First, 10 Sq miles would be a block of land roughly 2 miles wide and 5 miles long. Or 3 miles wide and 3 1/3 long. Or any combination of multiples that result in a product of 10.
Second, even if you wanted a 10 mile radius from a stadium, you’d STILL be wrong.
Perhaps it’s true in the Tampa area where people are too lazy to drive, and, not as devoted to a team to travel.
Show a comprehensive study covering all markets for major league sports teams listing each team and the percentage of its fan base within such a small area. All attendees, not season ticket holders.
Otherwise it’s bluster and made up
GASoxFan – Sorry, but it is well established most season ticket holders come from a 10 mile radius around the stadiums. Because of the seating capacity and number of games, baseball stadiums are almost required to be downtown where population density is maximized so the stadium can be consistently filled.
reddit.com/r/mlb/comments/10iktbw/location_of_mlb_…
Nice graphic for you. There’s a reason it’s rare for an MLB stadium to be more than 5 mi outside the city center. The Cubs, Mets and Yankees may be 5-10mi from their centers, but there’s still huge population and density in the immediate area.
You’re this stupid.. lmao. First of all, square miles can and are figured in a circle. It’s called math. Secondly, you should read the comments about this graphic. The stadium is in downtown St. Petersburg!!! You just validated my comment!! St. Pete is not TAMPA. Educate yourself on geography. There is no money in St Pete. The people who live near the stadium are old and low income.
Again, low IQ individual… if the stadium was within 5-10 miles of downtown TAMPA (and much bigger and wealthier city) the Rays would get WAAAAAAY more attendance.
It blows my mind that after all these years there are still fools like you who don’t know how far away the Rays play from Tampa.
You’re this stupid.. lmao. First of all, square miles can and are figured in a circle. It’s called math. Secondly, you should read the comments about this graphic. The stadium is in downtown St. Petersburg!!! You just validated my comment!! St. Pete is not TAMPA. Educate yourself on geography. There is no money in St Pete. The people who live near the stadium are old and low income.
Again, low IQ individual… if the stadium was within 5-10 miles of downtown TAMPA (and much bigger and wealthier city) the Rays would get WAAAAAAY more attendance.
It blows my mind that after all these years there are still fools like you who don’t know how far away the Rays play from Tampa.
The distance from city-center is less about season ticket holders, than it is that major city-centers are where there is a confluence of interstates allowing fans from the region to funnel into, and away from the destination point from outside areas.
That graphic had nothing to do with where fan bases were located just the siting of a stadium.
You need to read what a square mile is, and learn basic geometry there Chester.
A square mile is, literally, 27878400 square ft.
If you tried to do a radius of 10 miles from a point, you need to calculate it for area. In this case, you’re claiming an area of 314.16 Sq miles in a circle based on 10 miles from the stadium.
That is a far car from your claim of ’10 square miles’…
So, about saying who has the low IQ, find a mirror…
@GASoxFan – I mean, you’re really digging yourself a hole with the theory interstates and freeways don’t go outside the city, and yes, that’s what you’re actually claiming. If a stadium was located further out with a single freeway running through it (we’ll say Dade City, FL pop 7k just 45min from downtown Tampa) that single interstate would still allow for a confluence of fans because all fans would take I-75 to get to the game. It’s kinda like claiming pi(r^2) actually equals r on its own. I can’t imagine somebody ever doing that, but if they did, I’m sure you’d ridicule the ridiculousness of it.
Population density is king for MLB stadiums. Anybody who has researched the subject knows this.
community.fangraphs.com/the-importance-of-the-30-m…
Move the team to Nashville. Neither Florida team should remain where they are at.
YES! Nashville…you can rename them the Nashville Hot Chickens!
Good one! It’s gotta be that or the Nashville Puking Bachelorettes. You’d hope real cities like Portland or Montreal would get the first crack at having a team over that place, Nashville seems like an even worse idea that Las Vegas. But money talks…
Good thing you aren’t in charge. Spouting the same old line.
Nashville does seem pretty down with corporate welfare, probably not difficult to secure stadium funds.
and you think MLB will waive a relocation fee or throw away the $2 billion or so they will get for an expansion franchise???? Aah, that would be no
The stadium need to be more centrally located. Specifically, in the greater Tampa area.
Fermier – As long as it’s nowhere near I-4. Perhaps closer to I-75 would be ideal.
The old fairgrounds area would have been ideal years back, but way too much has been built there now for it to be feasible now and I’m not entirely sold on that near waterfron area they were last talking about either because of traffic, it’s a nightmare already in that part of downtown Tampa at times.
Down south on 275.. Say south of Bears ave.. like u mentioned Fever.. some place on 275, if a large enough spot can be found is about it.
Ummm it can go near Raymond James easily.
I’m sure they’ll get a great rate insuring the stadium, too!
This talk is about motivating the Tampa side of the bay to get things moving along. Putting the stadium in St Pete is not solving the main issue, accessibility to a wider area. A stadium in St Pete isn’t going to happen.
The Tampa St.Pete area don’t care for baseball it would seem. The proof is in the attendance last few years while the Rays been competitive they’re always in the bottom half in attendance. Go somewhere where a city would actually attend games.
Weird… hockey team that’s right in the middle of a young popular city seems to do just fine.
Location, location, location.
St Pete is a terrible place to have the stadium at. Hard to get to. Takes an hour to get there on game nights. Terrible stadium.
Build it in Tampa like the Lightning or .Bucs and they would draw.
You are correct. The Tropicanadump is hard to get to, and it was outdated 30 years ago when it was first built. To be surrounded by natural sunshine and play indoors, it feels like being in a mausoleum! What a terrible dump of a venue to watch a MLB game.
A brand new $1.2 billion stadium is on the way in the middle of a huge new entertainment development in downtown St Pete. See you there, right?
more like near the very bottom. 13th this year in the AL. that’s the highest it’s been since 2010. they’re always at the bottom or next to last. when fans don’t care it makes it tough to get pols to agree to give them money. they should move the team.
You’re an idiot if you believe this. Google search the locations of the lightning arena, Bucs stadium and where the rays stadium is in relation. It’s well over an hour away for people in tampa. 6 hour ordeal to go to a game bcuz of distance. If it was in tampa more people would go
You must be making the trip on a bicycle. 22 miles from downtown Tampa to downtown St Petersburg. I seem to make the drive to Tampa to support the Bucs and Bolts in 30 minutes tops. Lose the provincial Tampa attitude because a Tampa stadium aint happening
Stadium needs to be in Tampa.
The stadium needs to be in Tampa… I’ve lived there, and it’s so obvious!
wake up. That is not going to happen. Tampa cant raise money to fix the sidewalks and crappy roads. A Tampa stadium would have been fine, but time to quit dreaming. Stop whining and support your hometown team
He needs to SELL THE TEAM HE IS CHEAP
They don’t want to re-disperse the money to the minority populace of Hillsborough County by building in Ybor City. The roads in Hillsborough County are atrocious, despite championships from the Buccaneers and the Bolts. As a capital gains investor, this is classic economic gouging and it’s sad to see. Sternberg needs to sell.
Hmmmmm….I wonder if Stu is going to spend $600 million on a stadium that is going to draw 10,000-20,000, or take the $1 billion to sell the team? I hope they stay in the area, but I think if the right offer comes, Stu will withdraw his offer in a nano second.
All you guys talking about attendance are horribly uninformed on how revenues work for projects like this. The Rays stand to gain redevelopment rights for a large part of 89 acres in a key part of the Tampa Bay region. That will be worth billions over the years. Supposedly they are looking to build an intimate, Lower capacity Park built right into this huge redevelopment of hotels, housing, office space, restaurants, bars, music venue etc. This isn’t even talking about the TV money they are already banking on. Ticket sales are simply ancillary income in something like this.
Thank you….the voice of reason is still alive
It is time for the dreamers in Tampa to stop whining about the reality that the new stadium will be built in St Pete. Tampa has had years to try and get it done, but have not raised enough money to build a little league stadium. St Pete has the money, the land and the plan drawn up by the Rays for the stadium redevelopment. Stop whining about driving the 25 miles to downtown St Pete. Fans in most other cities would trade their commute to the ballpark in a heartbeat. Time to lose the provincial Tampa attitude and start supporting your “hometown” team in St Petersburg’s booming downtown entertainment district.