Rays owner Stuart Sternberg spoke with Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday from this week’s owners meetings. He made clear that he is not having any conversations about selling the franchise amidst their stadium uncertainty.
“If it was (for sale), people would know it,” Sternberg said. “I’ve always been, and I will continue to be, pretty transparent about our intentions. And pretty — not pretty — but very honest about them. And I have been.”
The Rays need to decide in the coming weeks whether to move on plans to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg. Last summer, the Rays had reached a tentative agreement with the city and Pinellas County to construct a new $1.3 billion stadium by the 2028 season. That was delayed following the hurricanes in the Tampa area last fall. The County postponed approval on $312.5MM in public funding on the project. The County voted to approve the bonds in mid-December, but the Rays had already expressed frustration with the delay.
The agreement leaves the team responsible for cost overruns in construction. The Rays have claimed the delayed bond approval makes it impossible to have the stadium ready until 2029. A county official said in December that the Rays had put the estimated price hike around $200MM; Topkin wrote yesterday that the overruns are expected to be close to $150MM. In either case, the team said in December it “cannot absorb this increase alone” and wanted to renegotiate with the city and county to “solve this funding gap together.” Local officials have stated that they will not commit more public money.
The Rays have until March 31 to meet various construction benchmarks. If they have not done so, the agreement is nullified. Sternberg did not provide a specific timeline on when the team will make its final decision. “I’m not saying a decision or this or that, but I’ll be prepared coming out of this (meeting) and speaking to owners here,” he told Topkin. “There’s a lot that goes into it. … I don’t know what the rush is for anybody, or for us. If this is, in fact, a multi-generational decision, I don’t think anyone will care if it’s a date in January, February or March.”
Topkin spoke with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred about the situation on Thursday. As he has on multiple occasions, Manfred made clear that the league does not want to see the team relocate. “We’d like to keep the franchise in Tampa Bay. We think the market is big enough and that there is passion for the game. Having said that, it is challenging,” Manfred said.
Whether they move forward with their long-term stadium plans, the Rays also need to figure something out for the next few seasons. They’ll play at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field for the 2025 season because Hurricane Milton destroyed the Tropicana Field roof. The Rays’ lease at the Trop had run through 2027, but it’ll roll over through the ’28 campaign since it isn’t in use this year.
Responsibility for the Trop repairs falls on the City of St. Petersburg. That comes with an estimated $55.7MM cost. It’s unclear whether the stadium can be fixed in time for Opening Day 2026. Sternberg and Manfred each said there are no current plans for where the Rays would begin the ’26 season if the Trop is not done. “I remain committed to the idea (that) we’ve got to get the Trop fixed, because we have an interim period beyond 2025 that we have to cover no matter what,” Manfred said to Topkin. “I think Stu is on board with that idea that we need to get it fixed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we have a ton of uncertainty in terms of ’how fast can you get it fixed?’“
The team cannot absorb the costs? The taxpayers say the same thing. The owners are all billionaire con men.
They’re lucky to avoid a popular vote, even places like sports crazy KC are starting to reject the corporate welfare state.
I get the team.is losing a substantial amount of revenue by playing at a AAA facility. They don’t draw huge, but, they do typically exceed the capacity of steinbrenner and certainly do so for marquis matches with fanbases that travel well like NYY/BOS/Etc…
But you’d think either insurance would step in to help cover the costs for steinbrenner updates and lost revenues, or, some settlement could be arrived at with the municipality?
Except they have increased the price of each ticket. Low supply = high demand. It actually works out really well for the Rays and Sternberg. They will sell out with higher ticket prices (due to Yankees/Phillies/Red Sox fans crowding in, and make good bank. Even if they have to pay rent to the Yankees, they should be able to cover that and more.
Interesting… I would think he should want to sell if their profit margin is as nonexistent as he often claims. He must really, really love baseball.
Maybe for the Mets, but not for the Rays! I’ll give credit he finally spent money this year but that’s a rarity!
I hear Oakland has a new mayor who isn’t a functional polititard. They’ve got a stadium… Right?
The lady who got arrested?
Athletics left Oakland and will play in a triple A stadium in Sacramento. Some estimate because Sacramento will likely be sell outs for the size crowd Oakland routinely draws that Oakland will be fine this year in Sacramento.
Surprised because in the past the athletics and raiders shared a stadium that the athletics haven’t had more talk about going to Las Vegas early and sharing a stadium with the raiders for 3-4 seasons
According to Forbes the A’s were already a top 5 revenue team while playing in Oakland. Cutting nearly all payroll, selling off assets, and collecting tv contract and revenue sharing made them extremely profitable.
Revenue sharing is one of the reasons they supposedly moved to Las Vegas wasn’t it ? Market small enough to retain the highest level of profit sharing.
As Stu reminds us, he is an honest person. There probably hasn’t been a more truthful person in the history of the world than Stu. That’s what Stu is telling us.
If $tu were so honest, he would tell us he is in it for profit, and not to win a title. If the Rays somehow win a title during his tenure as owner, it will be because they got lucky during the playoffs as an 85-88 win wild card team.
The biggest mystery here is why and how Sternberg thinks he’s transparent. Probably the most secretive and conniving owner out there.