The Rays are in a precarious situation regarding both their long- and short-term future in the Tampa Bay area. Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof of Tropicana Field, leaving the club’s home ballpark unusable for at least the 2025 season. They’ve solved that obstacle by moving to nearby Steinbrenner Field, the Spring Training stadium of the Yankees, but that move helped to spur local officials to postpone the approval of bonds that would finance the development plan the Rays and Pinellas County had previously agreed upon that would construct a new stadium near the Trop in time for the 2028 season.
With the bond approval now postponed, the Rays’ long-term future in Tampa seems to be up in the air, with club owner Stu Sternberg having gone so far as to put the possibility of relocation back on the table. In addition to that renewed long-term instability, it now seems as though the club’s short-term future is even more up in the air than it was previously. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times reported recently that while the city council of St. Pete initially voted to approve spending $24MM on repairs to the Trop, they reversed course shortly thereafter. The reversal from local officials in St. Pete comes in part thanks to the uncertainty surrounding around the previously agreed-upon stadium deal, with city councilwoman Brandi Gabbard telling Topkin that she wasn’t prepared to put tens of millions toward funding a project for “an entity we may never have a deal with again.”
That change in plans seems to have created uncertainty regarding whether the Rays would ever play at the Trop again, as Topkin adds that club president Brian Auld suggested that the Rays may be better off negotiating a settlement with the city of St. Pete regarding the final years of their lease than having the city repair the stadium because of uncertainty regarding whether the Trop would be repaired in time for Opening Day 2026. Per Auld, creating a contingency plan for the 2026 season that would only be used in the event that the Trop isn’t ready would cause more trouble for the Rays than simply ruling out a return to their home ballpark entirely.
Whether repairs for Tropicana Field will ultimately be approved and set into motion or if the sides will instead pursue a settlement remains to be seen, but the latest setback casts further doubt on the city’s ability to repair the Trop in time for the 2026 season. As Auld alludes to, reaching a settlement with the city could ultimately behoove the Rays in more ways than one. In addition to avoiding the costs associated with balancing contingency plans based on the Trop’s 2026 availability, Topkin notes that Auld added that receiving a settlement check from the city would “obviously” provide the club a financial boost amid the loss of revenue associated with the club’s temporary displacement.
While the city deciding to abandon the Trop could come with some advantages for the Rays, Topkin notes it could further jeopardize the team’s long- and short-term future in the greater Tampa area. The club’s current deal with the Yankees allowing them to use Steinbrenner Field in 2025 is expected to last for only the upcoming season, and Topkin suggests that if the club has to find a new home for the 2026 campaign as well that destination will “almost certainly” be outside of Florida as MLB looks to avoid scheduling complications caused by rainouts. A temporary move outside of Florida for the 2026 and ’27 seasons would seemingly make the threat of relocation all the more real as the club’s lease in St. Pete expires ahead of the 2028 season, though Auld suggested that the club’s “preference” would still be to remain in the greater Tampa area in a new stadium rather than explore relocation even if they were to temporarily move out of market.
So if they decide not to repair the Trop, arent they breaking the lease, leaving the Rays to do and go wherever they choose?
Correct
Yes, but they’re still in a very bad spot because they’ll have to start over negotiating with another city and potentially wait until 2029 or 2030 to have a stadium built for them. They can go wherever, but it’ll be many years before they get a new stadium.
A 2029 opening would be ambitious if they relocate. Is Sternberg going to risk losing revenues for a few years?
I agree, 2029 is probably not going to happen if they relocate. Also, I wonder the same thing about loss of revenues, which is why I still think it is 50/50 that they relocate. Stu has to see that playing in minor league stadiums for the next half decade isn’t great for his bottom line.
The Trop is not going to be repaired. The Gas Plant Stadium would not be ready in 2028 even if they voted on the bonds today. Either way the Rays will not be in a new home until 2029 at the earliest.
Rays fan will also become dispassionate with them having one foot out the door. They may have trouble packing it in Steinbrenner Field playing against non-competitive teams.
Montreal is expected to have completed their deep renovation project on their stadium in time for 2028… for whatever that’s worth
Wouldn’t be the first time Stu tried moving them to Montreal.
That is not what I have read on the Field of Schemes website. The quote from the publically available agreement that Neils found is the city must “reasonably assist the club in finding a substitute location for playing Home Games,”
Here is the link, if MLBTR allows me to post: fieldofschemes.com/2024/11/04/22023/st-pete-could-…
Maybe the owner can use all the revenue sharing they’ve gotten. Noooo. Socialize the losses and privatize the profits.
Ok Karl Marx.
Just dreaming, I know, but let’s let them move to Montreal.
We don’t even know when Olympic stadium will be repaired and renovated in time
It needs another renovation to be mlb worthy probably
Move to Charlotte.
This is certainly escalating. I do hope they work something out for 2026.
I love that old place. I know, I know, it’s old and funky and that is part of the charm. It’s covered (was) and air conditioned and local foods are a treat. Hate the Tampa traffic (lived there for 40 years) and I hate the thought of going to games at Steinbrenner in the awful heat. Probably won’t go to many,but I will relish the time we had at the Trop. Goodbye old friend.
I feel the same way. Lots of people dumped on the Trop, but it was part of my childhood and contained many good memories with family both still living and ones that have passed on.
Rays ownership should be grateful they could get bigger crowds by 2026. I truly don’t understand the desire to stay in that area. Not trying to be offensive, but clearly the fans can’t get to the games at that location, and the area government and private economy struggles to get funds or any support for them.
Here’s some places that they could get a higher average attendance in probably year 1:
San Antonio
Charlotte
Durham
Montreal
Lincoln
Oklahoma
New Orleans
Oakland
Fort Wayne
Just throw a dart at a map really.
6 of those couldn’t hold Rays 17k average attendance in 2024. Olympic Stadium is under renovations that won’t be complete until 2028. It’s not an option at all.
Yeah I didn’t articulate that too well. I meant they could pull in a better attendance year 1 *after having a reasonable/new stadium*.
Still think my underlying point that you can get higher attendance in most other areas is valid.
Portland and Vancouver would do better than those cities. But if I were shooting for the biggest money, I’d move to Monterrey and have the whole country to myself. 13th largest metro area in all of North America.
Monterrey Mexico? Palacio sultan holds 22k and its ok for a series, but not a season. It is a beautiful city, but at 1.143 million in population its really small by MLb standards.
If you are talking about Montreal, Toronto is in Canada and has a MLB team.
Gotcha. You are probably right about that.
Imagine Oakland getting an mlb team right after losing their historic one
The Oakland rays sound similar enough to a’s
Trust me, when those fans realize that Stu has no intention to improve the team significantly, they will also get tired of the Rays real quick. The only bright future for the Rays is a complete selloff and restart, wherever they land.
But what they care about is having someone other than themselves build the stadium. They take all the profits, and the city maintains the structure and pays the taxes.
Gabbard is not very smart. Sternberg and Hines have a redevelopment deal for all the land in the Gaslight District that the city of St Pete is locked into regardless of the outcome of the new stadium. They will be dealing with that entity for 20 or more years.
Gas Plant. Autocorrect es no bueno.
I hear Oakland will have an open stadium soon.
There was an exploration group looking at Nashville, maybe they can relook that prospect?
Move to Durham where your triple AAA team is until they can build you an entertainment district in Charlotte or Raleigh.
I can’t believe a city can be so hostile to its mlb team
I get it the politicians vote for the people and no one goes to rays games for a bunch of reasons but the city just seems content for no new stadium and not even repairing the trop
It’s more nuanced than that. During the elections 2 of the team/stadium/development friendly counselors were replaced with a pair of anti-stadium skeptics.
It shifted the balance of power from being 5-2 pro-rays and pro-stadium to being 4-3 against.
The decision to delay the vote on the bonds happened in
October. Prior to the elections.
I don’t consider Saint Petersburg or Pinellas County as hostile to the Rays. The entire metropolitan area recently had widespread damage and destruction from 2 major hurricanes this autumn. Many who reside in the area have to rebuild, or at least perform major repairs to their property. The priorities suddenly changed last month to where constructing a new stadium or repairing damage to the existing stadium are no longer an important priority for the vast majority of the residents..
I’d hardly call the city hostile… the city has a real conundrum on their hands and it’s all directly related to contractual agreements and caveats in those contracts which allow the club some newfound flexibility. Only the dumbest fools would have believed building a new stadium next to the old one was going to work out well. There had to be many sleepless nights for the Rays owner over that decision, and then the door swings open to get out of it all and how could the city believe the club would not bail now that they can? Tampa Bay is as good as gone. I think ultimately they are going to wind up in Oakland, but we’ll see.
The Cardinals and Yankees did it in an offseason.
Huh? Before Milton, the city and county were to give the Rays more than a billion dollars in development and tax breaks.
This was a pissing contest. The county didn’t like that the deal was with Tampa (in a different county) and not with Clearwater, where the Phillies train, and which is in the same county as St. Pete.
The Phillies spring training facility is not as up to date as the Yankees facility, seats thousands less, and would have had to have $15-20 million in upgrades prior to the season that Pinellas county was unwilling to foot the bill for.
Does Vegas have odds on where the Rays will play baseball each of the next five seasons?
If I owned them, we’d be making a deal with Oakland, upgrade the Colosseum, back out of the deal with the Yankees, and start play there in 2025, and commit to 100% private funding to build a new 35k seat stadium in the Howard area. That’s a huge market sitting untapped.
The issue with your plan for the Rays playing home games in Oakland in 2025 is that the schedule has been made and the travel would be a nightmare for the Rays and every other team that is playing the Rays on the road next year.
Ending up in Oakland makes sense, (the A’s should have never left), but Rays homes games in Oakland in 2025 seems like something the MLBPA would fight big time.
It would be a fight worth having.
Looks like St Pete has taken itself out of the picture for the Rays new home. Sternberg still gets to buy the land the Trop sat on plus a huge tract around that location and redevelop those 86 acres.
It seems the shortest and most equitable solution to both sides (and the fans) includes moving forward with the 2028 stadium and playing two seasons someplace not called Florida while the new stadium gets built. Just get on with it.
The problem with that is the delay in the bond vote has made it impossible to have the stadium completed by opening day 2028.
Nashville Rays/Stars seems inevitable at this point
Mark my words, John Fisher will fail in Vegas and the Ray’s will start leveraging Vegas against Tampa/St.Pete
Is any insurance on the Trop tied to fixing it, or can they apply it to demolition? Frankly Oakland or Texas (Choctaw formerly Globe Life) make sense in a 2-3 year temporary plan if Tampa is done. But a cheap owner & suddenly empowered council make this an ugly drama for Rays fans…