This is 99.9999% a hockey blog. But today, lets talk baseball. Specifically, Tampa Bay Rays baseball.
*** Disclaimer *** I am a steadfast fan of my sports teams. The Rays being one of my 4 teams.
After a decade-long saga that has seen roughly a bakers dozen stadium renderings and meetings between the Rays and St. Pete city council, Rays social media announced today that the most recent stadium deal has been shut off. Cancelled. Deleted. Fini.
In my opinion, the most recent stadium deal was – just like every proposal since the early 2010’s – a creative rouse by the Rays Organization. Most notably – Rays (cheap piece of expletive) owner Stu Sternberg.
The Rays devised a plan to reinvigorate the Gas Plant District of St. Pete – an ambitious project that was going to cost billions, with a new stadium front and centre. The Rays put together a “here to stay” narrative and sprinkled it all over the place, with sexy images of an intimate ballpark that could compete with nearby Tampa for concerts and major events.
People – such as myself – believed this narrative. Mainly because the deal was so lopsided in favour of the Rays organization. The city of St. Pete and Pinella’s County were willing to pony up hundreds of millions of dollars to build this ballpark adjacent to where the current Tropicana Field is located (er, parts of it. The roof is in shambles). Plus give the Rays residual benefits even when they aren’t playing in town.
The Rays pushed their chips into the centre and went all-in on this proposal. But they had a 4-10 off-suit and the flop came up face cards. The Rays were bluffing all along, and the city of St. Pete called them on it.
Then a hurricane happened. The Rays used this natural disaster as – in what I would call a total lack of respect to the town in which they call home – an excuse to delay the decision. The Rays claimed that the hurricane delayed the county and city votes, which would result in massive cost over-runs on the project. C’mon folks. The votes were delayed by a couple of months (at most). Which made total sense considering the city/county needed to decide how to allocate funds to repair a city that had just been hit by Hurricane Milton. I have read all the articles and watched all the videos regarding this stadium saga, and if I was the Mayor of St. Pete or on the city council, I would have done the exact same things. Reasonable human beings acting in good faith would allocate funds to parts of the city that needed them for homeostasis, not toward America’s past-time.
The back-and-forth between city/county and the Rays – from Hurricane Milton until now – has been tenuous at best. CSP was saying hey – we’re ready when you are while the Rays twiddled their thumbs, waiting for the “inflation costs” narrative to become more realistic to the naked eye.
In my opinion, this situation is like an average person going to buy a $30,000 car. The person buying the car wants the car, proposes buying the car, then finds out the car is now $32,000. If the person really want that car, logic would say that they’d pay the extra $2,000 especially if the car is going to give them royalties up the a$$ for all things Gas Plant District. With billionaires, thousands are like millions. So if the cost of the project gives from $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion because of a delayed vote, they’d quit haggling over the metaphorical $2,000 (or bring in private investors, especially with Stu’s connections on Wall Street).
The Rays are taking a page out of the “John Fisher relocate the Athletic’s” playbook. That playbook is as follows; buy a team in a town that isn’t ideal for pro sports (market/demographics/geography/competition). Create proposals and slogans that entice the fans to keep buying tickets and merchandise in your current town, while you look to move the team elsewhere. Propose an absurdly expensive stadium proposal to your current city; if and when the city says no dice, go to MLB for their relocation blessing and pull the rug out from under the town that believed your lies. The only part of the Fisher relocation playbook that blew up in the Rays collective faces was the city coming back with hundreds of millions for them. So they had to find a way to get out of it. So they used Hurricane Milton. What happened to “here to stay”? I guess in shifty Stu’s mind, “here to stay” is pretty ambiguous. Where is here? Tampa? The State of Florida? Planet Earth?
How gross does all of this sound to someone not familiar with this situation?
What’s even worse is the Rays announced on their social media today “our commitment to the vitality and success of the Rays organization is unwavering. We continue to focus on finding a ballpark solution that serves the best interest of our region, Major League Baseball, and our organization. The City of St. Pete is currently advancing plans to restore Tropicana Field for the 2026 season. We are thankful for their efforts and are excited to return to our home field next Spring”.
OK so.. who’s paying for the roof at the ‘Trop to be fixed? The cost of the roof renovation is around $60 million; I can almost guarantee that Stu Sternberg is not footing the bill. Will the city pony up the money knowing that the Rays pre-existing lease on the ‘Trop ends in 2027, plus the fact that they just terminated the new development and are in Tampa – of all places – in 2025? Is the ‘Trop’s inner workings a hazard now that its been exposed to the Florida elements for quite some time?
This is just another bull**** statement from a bull**** organization, led by a bull**** owner.
There is no possible way that the Rays stay in St. Pete long-term after today’s decision. The trust is most definitely broken between the Rays current ownership and the city of St. Pete.
So What’s Next?
In my opinion, the Rays will never play another game at the ‘Trop again. The Rays will either be a) sold during the 2025 season to a Tampa-based, St. Pete-based or Orlando-based group (a local group, not a principal owner who’s primary residence is in Rye, New York) or b) relocated to either Portland or Nashville. Because there is absolutely, positively no way the City of St. Pete puts a dime into a roof for Stu Sternberg unless he guarantees them a long-term stay.
I will admit that the Rays are not the Yankees, Cardinals or Red Sox; our fan base is quite small. But the small fanbase that we do have deserves better than Stu Sternberg. If you don’t believe me, check out the price of tickets at Steinbrenner Field this year. A stadium that will be so hot in July that you’ll be able to fry an egg out in the left field grandstand.
Until Next Time
AP