The Rays will play their 2025 home games at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field — the Yankees’ spring training home — in the wake of damage wreaked on Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton. There’s been an ongoing debate about whether “the Trop” will be repaired in the interim, as the current site was planned to be the site of a new Rays stadium set to open in 2028. Recent events have put that 2028 deal in jeopardy, John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times reports, and Rays owner Stu Sternberg is again referencing relocation as a possible outcome.
As Romano outlines, Hurricane Milton and the ensuing damage prompted the city council and county commission to postpone scheduled bond votes that were key to securing financing for the redevelopment plan. Those delays pushed the vote back by one month, but in doing so pushed them back beyond the November election, meaning the very composition of the boards who are voting on the requisite bonds has changed. Romano adds that the timeline to break ground in 2025 was already “tight” and carried “very little wiggle room.”
“Last month, the County Commission upended our ballpark agreement by not approving their bonds, as they promised to do,” Sternberg told the Times. “That action sent a clear message that we had lost the county as a partner. The future of baseball in Tampa Bay became less certain after that vote.”
Sternberg pledged to “exhaust all [options]” to keep the Rays in the area but eventually conceded that relocation is “not an unlikely conclusion.” Pinellas County commissioner Chris Latvala, per ABC Action News’ Chad Mills, recently blasted the team for committing to play the 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field rather than a facility located within Pinellas County, such as Clearwater’s BayCare Ballpark (the spring home of the Phillies). Clearwater mayor Bruce Rector offered similar criticism to Romano.
Romano points out that Steinbrenner Field has a larger capacity and much more recently upgraded facilities, setting the stage for a smoother transition and lesser revenue losses. Latvala and Rector contend that Pinellas County taxpayers are committing $1 billion in public funding, and thus the Rays should have felt obligated to play their games at a stadium within Pinellas County, rather than nearby Hillsborough County, where Steinbrenner Field is located.
There’s no indication that the Pinellas County Commission will now vote against the previously approved bonds, but Latvala didn’t sound particularly motivated to speed the process along, regardless of the redevelopment’s tight timeline: “If we want to take our time, we can take our time,” he told Romano. “…I don’t think we should be rushed. And if the bonds fall through, so be it.”
It’s possible the delays could already be enough to push back breaking of ground and delay the stadium’s readiness into 2029. That could come with increased construction costs, which Romano speculates could put the Rays on the hook for more than $100MM in additional expenses — all at a time when they’ll be taking in reduced revenues from 2025-28 due to playing games at a smaller site. That will also play a major role in the team’s decision on whether to remain in Florida or more aggressively pursue a relocation bid.
Just do whatever it takes to get out of St Pete at this point
Nashville is waiting
Two teams now playing in minor league parks with cheap owners refusing to foot the bill for building their ballpark.
Wild.
The two situations are nothing alike. The A’s and Fisher are a total clown show. The Rays might be cheap but if they had $10 billion of their own money they were willing to invest in a stadium, it couldn’t be ready this year and likely not ready next year.
Thank you for clarifying.
I think ‘…if they had $10 billion (of someone else’s) money they were willing to invest in a stadium,…’
Very few owners are willing to spend any of their own money on a stadium that’ll be considered obsolete for some reason in 25 years.
Bart my point was that money has nothing to do with the Rays having to play in a minor league park this year and most likely next as well. It’s just an unfortunate situation and there’s no good solution. Now in regards to 2028, that’s a whole different story.
Its amazing how much power this private entertainment has over the public. Moving on would be better for citizens because the franchise produces a lackluster product and cares little for fan satisfaction. There is a much better way to spend $1B.
Just don’t play at the Trop at this point. Steinbrenner Field feels and looks nicer. (Although the lack of a roof will make games feel terrible).
Clo – Take a look at how many Tarpons games, despite a much shorter schedule, were disrupted by weather. We are talking 19 days of weather disruptions this year (home & away) not counting rain delays.
milb.com/tampa/schedule/2024-04
Not to mention, if the other team is schedule for a home game — which almost certainly will be the case — when the heck do you play the re-scheduled game?
WHY CANT YOU JUST BE NORMAL
WHY CANT YOU B**** BE NORMAL. ALWAYS GOTTA BE SO EXTRA
shrug emoji
Hello Nashville, Charlotte, Portland, or Montreal where fans will actually go to watch them
If the Pinellas County Commission wants them to play in Pinellas County so bad, they should have an MLB Caliber facility. Tropicana Field has been a dump since 2005. Hopefully they move out of St Pete but stay in the Bay Area
To be fair, Tropicana Field has been a dump since 1990…
I predict by 2029 they’re not playing in St. Pete anymore and relocate
We want a team in Charlotte and should not be held hostage by the Rays.
Now the A’s and Rays are holding up expansion…again.
If expansion ever actually happens.
It will happen. MLB is outpaced by the NFL, NHL, and possibly sooner than later the NBA in number of franchises. The only hold up has been the on-going soap opera between Fisher and Oakland (now Fisher and Vegas) and the Rays stadium situation. Both of those issues should have been resolved a decade ago, but here we are.
Assuming the Rays stay in Tampa Nashville probably gets a team and likely another western territory gets the other team, be it Salt Lake City, Portland, Oakland or Sacramento
We have too many teams, as it is.
Under this screwed up system, for sure.
MatthewStairs;
LOL
Although I believe MLB needs contraction and not expansion, it has occurred to me the past few months that while the Commissioner has targeted the A’s and Rays situation as being the top priorities to resolve for years, their proposed moves have created nothing but more chaos.
Thought should be given to contracting those 2 franchises and then
2 or 4 others. The players are so bad that most teams go through around 22-26 position players each year, and 28-32 pitchers. Fans that don’t live MLB each day of the season can’t keep up with who’s on their team from day-to-day. It’s ridiculous.
There are not enough pitchers to fill rotations of the existing teams.
Very little sympathy for anything happening in the state of Florida.
Weird comment.
Classy. Actually not at all, pretty disgusting and I know why you’re saying that. Typical.
always – Agreed!
Do we ever see anyone here saying they have “very little sympathy” for what’s going on in California with the wildfires?
Wildfires would be a cool name for an expansion team in California
Cleveland – With Pacific Gas & Electric as their major sponsor?
On the nose or just right, not sure? They would certainly have the most dangerous home-run fireworks celebrations with Fireball playing.
Who were the three of you who liked this comment?
Informed – I think Likes should be made public.
Let people get shamed, like the Scarlett Letter.
I live there and I agree.
Just because you think the governor is an idiot, and you could say the same in a lot of states, no reason to wish ill will on the residents.
Unfortunately, we live in a time where people have to inject politics into everything.
I have plenty of issues with Florida, probably a lot of the same ones as you, but no bruh. The everyday people who have been impacted by this disaster absolutely deserve sympathy and help.
That being said, it might be for the best if the rays do relocate. It’s kind of a folly to build a brand new ballpark right next to the old one and expect a better result. In general Florida is going to face a lot of severe challenges in the years to come given geography and vulnerability for climate impact. Making a big longterm capital investment like this in the Tampa Bay area is rather like buying a hilltop mansion in ancient Pompeii. What could possibly go wrong?
Hurricane Milton may have ended baseball in the Tampa/St. Pete area for good
I think you mean Hurricane Stu.
MatthewStairs;
The Rays have put out competitive teams for years on low budgets. Their FO people have been poached to such a point that this offseason it seems anyone that worked for them in any capacity is being hired away by franchises all around MLB….being paid more money and given promotions.
All this while for whatever reason the locals don’t show up.
It appears that most of their crowds are made of up people that moved to Florida from the area the Rays opposing teams represent.
With all the kvetching over the years about the difficulty so many of their fans encounter to get to their park – which
was the excuse for low attendance – that the actors involved elected to build a new park in the same area.
Who is in charge here?? Who waits til a month before breaking ground on major construction to get financing approval? Why does tampa hate the rays? Why dont they have fans? Why is this franchise cursed? Go to nashville, go to montreal, go to mexico city, ask elon for a rocket to mars. Go anywhere at this point
St Pete and Pinellas county. The Trop and the new stadium are not in Tampa.
In fairness, the schedule was more of breaking ground as soon as the last body signed off on the funding plan. The Rays, the city, and the county have been working on the plan all along. As soon as the Rays got final approvals, they were proceeding. The hurricane just threw a massive monkey wrench into it.
johncoltrane;
Elon has built one of the largest state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in the world in the Austin, Texas area. That market is booming with transplants from around the US and the world.
Stick a MLB team there.
@samuel
i was seriously thinking texas as well but there’s already 1 team in the dallas area and 1 in houston, the 2 major cities. i’ve been to austin a bunch of times. very cool place. great bbq. great music. but i never got the sports vibe from the city or its people. lots of artists, musicians, hippies, weirdos. fun city. may not be a baseball town tho
Wow, taxpayers don’t want to fund Stu’s business…. What a surprise.
Agreed: If Stu doesn’t want to fund Stu’s business, why should taxpayers do it for him?
Baseball in a mausoleum is more important than hurricane recovery and relief.
~Stu
Read the article by Romano. There are millions in tourism development dollars that cannot be spent on hurricane recovery and relief.
In fairness, many of us can’t read the article due to a pay wall.
Did the NYY not receive government help (which I fully endorsed)?
They did receive funding when they built a new stadium, but paid for a majority of it on their own.
But, right after going through a hurricane that demolished the area, after which people are trying to get their houses replaced, it doesn’t surprise me they don’t want to fund a multi-million-dollar stadium and the costs to replace the current one’s roof.
move the team already,
Got to be a new city that wants this team.
Better yet, Boston once sported two teams, so why not see if Boston can support a second team like NY does,
I mean the baseball fans of Boston got to be hungry for a winning team again…eh.
St. Louis had two teams once too. Same with Philly.
Chicago also used to have two major league baseball teams….
Captain, you may win the internet today.
@Yankeesforever: Very much doubt that MLB would be in favor of having 2 AL teams (and in the same Division as well) reside in the same city.
Jeff – Agreed! I could definitely see an NL team returning to Boston though.
They will not want to give up their monopoly.
Same thing with Philly, never agree to move A’s back.
All before the west coast became a commercial airline destination.
This is exactly what MLB and Rays owner were hoping would happen They never really wanted to stay in Tampa area but got trapped by county agreeing to new stadium. Now they are salivating over being able to blame a hurricane and the board for having to move to Charlotte
The hurricane did change the dynamics of this, and you’re right – this situation gives ownership the opportunity to relocate whether they’ll admit that or not. The city may have also gotten themselves off the hook because in the end everyone has to ask themselves how many fans are gonna show up in the new park?
Also factor in that the county could get out of repairing Tropicana Field at a cost of $30+ million if the team says they’ll try to leave sooner. At this point the county representatives should work to help MLB and the Rays permanently move from Tampa. The cost of repairs for temporary tenants in 2026 is not to be taken lightly.
To me, the most obvious destination for a Rays relocation is near Oakland, it’s a huge market. They need a park with ~35k capacity. Assuming they don’t have a new park until 2029 or 2030, they could play in the Oakland Coliseum until then. If I owned the Rays, I’d seek to end all activities in Florida, especially get out of that extremely dumb stadium deal in St. Pete and never look back.
An East Coast team playing on the West Coast. Not happening.
Dan – I kinda think that’s already happened once or twice ;O)
Yeah, basically impossible. Never been done
My prediction if this move happens is that the Rays would move to the AL West, Houston would move to the AL Central, and Cleveland would move to the AL East.
I highly doubt that, after years of the MLB arguing that the Oakland Coliseum is not fit for baseball, that they will approve a new team moving into the stadium. Just not feasible from their viewpoint.
I also suspect that the Rays are pretty well stuck for 2025 playing in Florida. At some point in 2025, if the County doesn’t back down and the City doesn’t uphold their contractual responsibility to provide a viable stadium (until 2028), I suspect the Rays will start legal proceedings. That’s step 1.
There has been a lot of talk about what the Rays legal options are and because it was an act of God that damaged the Trop, that Sternberg signed off on the city lowering the level of coverage and passed on covering that difference in cost himself because of the impending demolition, and the cost of repairs is far above the existing insurance coverage, the Rays don’t have much in the way of legal recourse. Its not like anyone expected a hurricane to hit the Tampa area head on since it hadn’t happened in over 100 years.
Maybe Tampa gets a second chance. That area where the Yankees minor league team trains off Dale Mabry, South of Steinbrenner Field would be great for a new ballpark.
DanM-9727;
Fair enough.
Why didn’t they look to move there in the first place?
Ah, the Hobson’s choice between using 1B in taxpayer money for the economic benefit of a private individual…..or asking that private individual to contribute something beyond criticism…..grapple grapple
I can see eventually sports franchises not wanting to operate in coastal cities period. Won’t be next week, next month, or next year, but as these extreme weather issues keep happening, they will look at the bottom line.
Hmmmmm? Politics. Greed. Entitlement. And a bad place for a baseball team.
What could possibly go wrong?
@Lindor’s: “Politics. Greed. Entitlement.” Seems to work just fine for NY teams, Chicago teams, California teams, etc., etc., etc. Same everywhere people live.
How many more times do the local municipalities where the Rays want to be have to tell them the team is not welcome. There have been a number of times now where either financing, construction plans or both have been rejected by the county. When Tampa shows you who they are, accept it and plan to move.
Fold that team
My only comment is this: if you are lucky enough to live in reasonable proximity to a major league team, i am not, support it. Help it thrive. Make it successful. Or you too might one day wonder where the team went while sitting in a cow pasture watching a single a game.
I’ll add to that, support your local minor league team too. They need it a lot more.
I still want to see how many people ACTUALLY show up to watch a baseball game in Florida in July when the humidity is like 150%. Minor League park or not. I’m thinking they’re going to be terribly disappointed. Night, Day makes no real difference. It’ll be the same.
People mention other cities which will all be MLB welfare cities that won’t be able to compete with the Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox etc and have to rely on revenue sharing.
May draw better than Tampa initially but the honeymoon won’t last forever.
Stick the Rays with the Yankees and Mets. The region can support another team, especially a small market one like the Rays. It’s not called the Tri-state area for nothing
As a former San Diego Charger fan, this is looking a lot like the endgame to the Bolts leaving.
This allowing for the fact the Rays and Tampa have come much closer to agreeing on a stadium deal than the Chargers and San Diego ever did.
Godspeed, Rays fans. I hope it works out.
Really tone deaf comments by Sternberg. The region is devastated by a hurricane. A new ballpark is not and should not be a priority.
He’s damned no matter how he phrases it. He’s going to look bad at raising it, but at the same time this last approval is the only way they get the stadium built before the Tropicana Field lease runs out, especially if the Trop is a question mark in 26 and 27. How many posters here wanted them to break ground immediately? This is the fastest current way to do that.
Just one more turn in this $h!tshow. The problem in moving the Rays out of Tampa is the same as staying: What to do until a new stadium is built. None of the possible landing spots have a viable MLB sized stadium. So the Rays would be playing in a AAA park at best with about 10K capacity for even longer than next year.
FWIW, I think Sternberg is saber rattling, for now. If the bonds get rejected and the Trop not repaired then all bets are off.
St Pete doesn’t deserve the team and I live here. The fans don’t support the team even when winning. I see another Marlins situation where after the newnesses of the stadium wear off, it’s empty most non Yankees or Red Sox games. Plus the new commissioners are far left liberals that don’t see the value in sports teams. Another city will welcome the team and St Pete can go back to pushing their “diversity first” agenda as a 2nd class city without a major sports team.
MLB moved start times to 6:40 and made it impossible for working people outside of St Pete to get off work at 5 and get to a game by opening pitch. 7:05 was hard enough. 6:40 is impossible for 2/3 of the population of the Tampa Bay area. Even a new stadium won’t change that. A stadium in that location cuts off most of the fan base. Even Clearwater is an hour away at that time of day on a weekday. Its all about location. Put a new stadium in Tampa and they would draw.
Hillsborough county said no to funding as much of a new ballpark and flat out turned down giving Sternberg hundreds of millions in land for him to build on around the ballpark
Back in October, well before the election, the commission put off the bond vote. It had nothing to do with the new commissioners. It was because Chris Latvala and Dave Eggers, both Republicans, wanted to revisit the deal they had already voted in favor of.
You want to know something crazy? The Rays still get to buy all that land for pennies on the dollar and redevelop it. Sternberg and Hines Corporation will still make billions and the fans will lose their team.
Highly doubtful. I’m not convinced there are as many welcoming markets that can be profitable left in the nation.
Face it, neither Florida team has ever been able to draw. Lots of reasons but why waste a good opportunity to leave area.
I’ll take move the rays to New Orleans for $1 billion, Alex
New Orleans is not happening. The current estimate is that New Orleans has less than a million people in the metro area, as compared with 3.3 million in Tampa/St. Pete, 2.8 million people in Charlotte, and 2.1 million in Nashville. Raleigh, at 1.5 million, is much more likely than NOLA.
Plus, hurricane prone.
Just disband the team and start over again when they can get their garbage sorted.
I remember listening to the sports radio callers when Miami got the expansion team over Tampa. Never heard such crying and crabbing about how they deserved a team, how baseball was in the towns blood etc etc. A few years down the road you get a team, said team is battling it out for the 1st place just about every year, and all we hear is crying again. Make up your minds, either you want a team or you don’t. And to the Goobers talking about expansion. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS? There’s already a shortage of pitchers, where do you propose to get all these new pitchers? There’s not enough talent to field any more teams, and until there’s a HARD salary cap the large market teams will just keep buying the great ones. So much for baseball in Charlotte, Portland, or Nashville.
Man What Runs With the Football;
Florida got 2 expansion teams due to lobbying of the Florida delegations of Congress at the time. I was aware of it 2 years before expansion was announced. They picked up Congresspeople from Colorado and Arizona that joined in threatening to overturn MLB’s anti-trust exemption.
This was not the fault of MLB owners. They knew full well that Florida would not support baseball in the summer and that the high-altitude thin air in Denver would make for too much hitting and not enough pitching; thereby undermining anyone that tried to put a competitive team playing their home games in that area.
This is what happens when (paid off) politicians ramrod their agendas down the throat of private citizens.
Not true. Where do you come up with this stuff? Denver and Miami were the obvious picks of the five finalist cities for the 1993 expansion teams and that’s why they got the teams. There was nothing sinister about it. According to your claim, CongressPeople from any city could always make the same threat. Denver has been a strong franchise, the best of the four newest teams..
I got my information for a newsletter out of DC that I read regularly 2 YEARS before the expansion occurred. I showed it to numerous people at the time.
Did I say Denver was not a “strong” franchise? Do you have any reading comprehension? The Rockies attract more fans that moved to the area who show up to see their hometown team play. Same as the Rays, Marlins, and Angels.
The teams were picked two years before they started play. Like I said, not true and where do you come up with this stuff? My reading comprehension is just fine. You seem to have a deficit with logical thinking.
My greatest passion back then was a team for DC, where I lived at the time, The DC ownership group was underfunded (Lerner not involved), plus the Baltimore problem, Buffalo too small a media market, Orlando didn’t have a temporary stadium, Phoenix was not a finalist city back then (not sure why), and Miami beat out Tampa. There were six finalist cities, I meant, not five. Denver is a large city with lots of yuppies, they could use the football stadium for baseball, and there was a void between KC and California. That’s why Denver got a team. There are always conspiracy theorists for everything.
The idea that they were going to put a new ballpark in the same place they already had trouble getting people to travel to seemed insane to me. This is a blessing in disguise. Move to Nashville or something.
If they lose the stadium deal, they should count their blessings and get out of Florida.
If they find a taker fast enough, maybe they can still complete the move by 2028, and then we can finally get new expansion teams by 2030.
Relocate the team. It’s not supported by the local population. I’d love to see the team go to Charlotte NC.
Rays in FL are cooked. There is literally nothing to indicate otherwise.
Rays & the local politicians are that endlessly bickering couple we all know. Exhausting. “I think we should see other people.” Or, “it’s not you, it’s me.” It’s time.
Merge the White Sox and the Rays together, making a better team on the South Side of Chicago.
I may have to change my username pretty soon.
Corrupt politicians + Cheap uncommitted owners = this.
Manfred should have forced Fisher and Sternberg to sell the teams a long time ago. While the cities share some blame, the owners have never been committed to the regions they were playing in. They should have sold to locally-based companies who have motivation to make a good team. Unfortunately it seems too late.
People championing relocation have a mindset stuck 20 years ago. I think most markets these days aren’t really excited to get a baseball team and pay for billionaires to make profits in a stadium with limited usage. I think this situation happens wherever they go if these owners are still at the helm of negotiations and discussions.
I’d be happy and cheer for them if they remain in Florida… In Jacksonville or Orlando. If they leave the state though, I’ll no longer be watching baseball and that’s really unfortunate for me.
Sternberg has done everything he can to put together consistently winning teams on shoestring budgets. It’s not his fault Florida is a bad market for MLB or that they currently have no MLB sized stadium to play in. Why should he need to sell the team?
Meanwhile, as terrible an owner as Fisher has been, even he hasn’t done anything that MLB could use to force him to sell, not unless you count his breach of contract over maintaining the Oakland Colosseum as a big enough reason.
For the faith of the game. It’s clear that he and many other owners are simply not interested in spending money to build better teams.
I had to chuckle when you said he’s doing everything he can. He certainly is not. Before this year, he got enough money from TV deals and revenue sharing to sign at least 1-2 big free agents. But crickets. He doesn’t try beyond the bare minimum. Hop over to Tampa proper and witness what owners who are committed to winning do. They build the fanbase, hire smart guys, change things around (if needed), and aren’t afraid to dish out contracts without being scared of NTCs. The way the Rays do business is the complete opposite of doing everything they can.
I was being dramatic about forcing them to sell. I meant pressure then to step up their games or sell. Internal pressure by the league to spend more for the sake of competitiveness and long-term success.
Okay, everything short of putting his franchise in the red. Baseball is still a business, and hardly any owners ever allow themselves to lose money.
He doesn’t spend much money, because the Rays simply don’t have the revenue to do so, even with what they get from revenue sharing. Unlike a team like the Pirates, it makes sense why their payrolls are consistently as low as they are. That’s why they should get out of Florida now that they have a good excuse to do so, whether or not Sternburg sells the team.
The other Tampa teams can actually draw the Snowbirds, plus the NFL has an extensive revenue sharing system that just isn’t possible in MLB.
No team in MLB has revenue below $250 million per Manfred and the Rays are one of the two bottom feeders. I think Manfred may be lowballing that number to not provide the MLBPA ammunition in the next CBA negotiations, but lets go with that number. .
Every team should be spending about 50% of revenue on player salaries and benefits. In other words their CBT payroll should be 50% of revenue. For the Rays that means a $125 million CBT payroll. They got there in 2022 and 2023, but not in any other seasons.
The Montreal Expos will live again lol
I can’t believe ANYONE could be dumb enough to think Austin would ever support a baseball team! Lol!
You need to get out of the house more….. lol..
Go Longhorns!
Nolan Ryan and the Round Rock Express, say, ?”huh”?.
San Antonio / Austin is the potential market. Those city centers are 70 miles apart, but the sprawl of each brings them closer. Baseball has done well in Texas, and it’s a growing state.
San Antonio Missions
Round Rock Express
Texas Longhorns
We’ve got about 9 (7 milb) minor league teams and the Texas State Baseball League.
There’s a little more to it than just looking on a map.
Austin? Lol. Austin cares about nothing…it has no soul.
Austin is no longer about – hey let’s get together and jam. It will be fun. It’s more about, let me get up on stage with you because I’m so great, I can just blow you out of the water….
Nothing good will probably ever happen in Austin ever again.
I’m still trying to figure out the meaning of your replies…
It has no meaning (unless you know the secret code).
Mostly, I’m just angry my team didn’t win the World Series.
Completely understand the decision to hold back on bonds right now for a stadium with all the damage that was done around the TB area.
Never meant sense to me as to why they picked the same area in St. Pete’s again, and I’m sure ownership would be more than happy to leave town if the opportunity arises (as it seems to be).
My guess would be Nashville. The Sounds stadium is reasonable enough sized to be a temporary home while the club builds a new stadium.
I’m not at all convinced they need all that money to rehab tourist areas (that’s the only thing they can technically use the funds for). After that they will just put the remainder in a city vault or in their pockets… Or worse yet, upgrade spring facilities in the county for the Jays and Phillies.
There’s a vacant cool comfortable and mosquito (but not raccoon) free MLB stadium in Oakland, California. I can just scribble an R in front of my A’s caps and I’m good to go.
i think them playing in a minor league stadium is awesome
They should just make the Rays a “travel team” like little league. They can go across the country and play all their games “away”. It would be an interesting novelty. America’s Team lol….
If you want to come down to Lee County to play ball, that would be ok.