(The Center Square) – For the Tampa Bay Rays, the team’s decision to pull out of a deal to build a $1.3 billion stadium raises a question on where it will call home in the future.
The team said Thursday, just a few weeks ahead of a self-imposed March 31 deadline, that it wouldn’t be able to continue with the plan due to cost overruns.
The Rays’ existing stadium, Tropicana Field, had its roof shredded by the Category 3 winds of Hurricane Milton and repairs will likely take until the 2026 season. The City Council will vote on March 27 on whether to repair the roof.
Under the existing stadium agreement between the Rays and the city, each year Tropicana Field remains unusable adds another year to the agreement that was originally to sunset in 2027. Now it’s been pushed out to 2028.
The Rays have gone through four unrealized stadium plans and will play ball at George Steinbrenner Field this season in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees, the Rays’ American League East rival.
The team will be one of two Major League clubs playing at minor league facilities. The Athletics are in Sacramento during a transition from Oakland to Las Vegas.
“Major League Baseball remains committed to finding a permanent home for the club in the Tampa Bay region for their fans and the local community,” MLB officials said in a statement from Commissioner Ray Manfred’s offices. “Commissioner Manfred understands the disappointment of the St. Petersburg community from today’s announcement, but he will continue to work with elected officials, community leaders, and Rays officials to secure the club’s future in the Tampa Bay region.”
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said in a statement that new ownership would be needed for the city to consider another stadium deal. He was angered at the Rays and their owner, Stuart Sternberg, at a news conference after the announcement.
“I have no interest in working with this ownership group,” Welch said. “That bridge has been burned.”
It is a stunning turn from only two years ago, when Welch used his annual State of the City address to announce the now-defunct $6.5 billion plan to redevelop the Historic Gas Plant District in a mixed-use development anchored by a $1.3 billion retractable roof stadium.
The city and the Pinellas County Commission were to pick up $700 million of the stadium’s cost.
“The city intends to honor our current commitment to repair Tropicana Field in accordance with the current use agreement,” Welch said. “As for the future of baseball in our city – if in the coming months a new owner, who demonstrates a commitment to honoring their agreements and our community priorities, emerges – we will consider a partnership to keep baseball in St. Pete. But we will not put our city’s progress on hold as we await a collaborative and community-focused baseball partner.”
Welch also said the city would move forward with the “equitable economic development” of the Historic Gas Plant District without the Rays.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said during an event Thursday in Manatee that he hopes the stadium issues are worked for the people of the Tampa Bay area.
“Certainly, from a Florida perspective, we need to have a Major League Baseball franchise in this part of the state,” DeSantis said. “This is one of the fastest growing markets in the country, it’s already massive and there’s no way it won’t be successful.”
The team could move elsewhere in Florida, but a proposal to build a new stadium in the Ybor City neighborhood in 2018 didn’t materialize.
A group based in Orlando, the Dreamers led by former Major League Baseball player Barry Larkin, want Orange County to build a stadium for the team. The group suggested that the Rays could play their games at the Wide World of Sports Stadium at Disney World while a new home is under construction.
The issue with that would be the capacity of Disney’s baseball park, which was once the spring training home of the Atlanta Braves. It only has a capacity of 7,500 fans, which compares poorly with Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, which has a capacity of 11,026.
