Discussing the Tampa Bay Rays current stadium saga
38 comments
Olympic Stadium is under big renovations until 2028. It can't host a team now. I want my Expos back!!
I hope the Rays leave Florida, they were in a very bad stadium situation since entering MLB in 1998. Montral & Nashville are much better alternatives than Tampa Bay for baseball relocation.
@DepressedGinger i don't know if you saw but rose bowl released new renderings
Reconfigure the Alamo Dome so it can host baseball
Off to Nashville
I was born and raised in St Petersburg. It's already unlivable there due to cost of living. I had to leave after almost 30 years. St Petersburg needs more housing, not a new stadium that taxpayers will have to pay for.
I need to move to Tampa not St Pete
This just seems like an incredible waste of money. Who's going to fund this? The taxpayers? Really? For reckless government spending?
I don't see the Rays playing at First Horizon Ballpark in Nashville. It would be a huge scheduling conflict with the Sounds.
I say Raleigh…take the new stadium concept meant for St. Pete and bring it there, but make it with a retractable roof and try to get it opened by 2029. Their AAA team plays in nearby Durham and those two teams can share the Durham park for three seasons (2026-28) with a big sendoff at the end hosted by Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, considering 2028 will be the 40th anniversary of the release of the Bull Durham movie. The Raleigh ballpark should be located on the west side of town near both the recently re-named Lenovo Center (home ot the Hurricanes) and Carter-Finley Stadium (home of NC State football). This would even things out as well between Raleigh and Charlotte as each city would now have two major sports teams. This would also be convenient for Yankees and Red Sox fans living in the Raleigh-Durham area. As for the team name, the Carolina Rays would work best, but Mudcats could be considered.
Expos Toujours.
Get a battery for your smoke detector…
They have to fix Tropicana they don't have a choice they can't just leave a rundown stadium with no roof sitting there they have insurance money and they'll get more funding. This is all just BS drama
Building a new stadium in Tampa makes a lot more sense. If that's what the leaders of Tampa want to do, that's where they should build it.
Rays are getting rid of all their players anyway
If I was a City taking on a relocation of any MLB team I am requiring a minimum payroll to be spent on the team to win.
Trump tariffs on chinese steel glass and concrete will make Fisher's Vegas stadium too expensive. He'll have to sell the team to finish it and then can lease it to the Rays.
Move to Charlotte.
Go to Montreal and bring back the expos
The most depressing sports venue I’ve ever been in. Shit hole.
watch Oakland get the Rays because they at least have a MLB stadium ready…
It’s crazy to me that no one wants to move to Orlando, feel like they’ll have a better chance of having decent crowds compared to Miami or Tampa
If they came to Tampa it would work. They have a huge fan base. Look at their TV markets for reference. South St. Pete sucks to get to 81 times a year.
Nashville… when is the new football stdium done? Can the old football stadium be converted to baseball as a temporary solution?
At this point MLB shouldn’t have had more than one franchise in Florida. Should’ve left it with the Florida Marlins. It’s strange why Tampa wanted MLB so badly for years before they got the rays in 1998. And as a Yankees fan I mostly go to marlins games when my Yankees are playing em. It’s sad that Florida has so many Carribbean transplants (mainly Cubans) living mostly in the Miami area and baseball has been their top beloved sport.
The only way Orlando gets an MLB team is if the Rays leave FL all together and the Marlins move there once their lease is up after the 2047 season. Then the Florida Marlins will be a destination opponent team like the Raiders in Vegas.
At this point who cares ? Tell Stu Sternberg to take his ball and go elsewhere.
The rays should be busting their ass to get a deal done with the city of Orlando. Every opposing home team would have fans coming in because of the Disney world draw. This seems like a no-brainer.
Watch the MLB just say first city to get a stadium approval and shovels in ground get the rays
The long term prospects for the Rays staying in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area look very doubtful.
Hope you’re wrong
I hear there's a vacant MLB stadium out in Oakland.
Let them play in OKC like the hornets did that way OKC can get another team due to a hurricane destroying a teams stadium
They probably couldn't even fill Steinbrenner Stadium for regular season games.
This is a blessing. Putting a new stadium in that same place is insane. Tampa or move it out of the area.
In a surprise move, the St. Petersburg City Council will meet Thursday for a potentially sooner-than-expected vote on the bonds required to fund the stadium deal at the center of the Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment project.
The change was added to the city council agenda Wednesday.
It gives Chris Steinocher, the president and CEO of the St. Pete Chamber of Commerce, more than a glimmer of hope that the Tampa Bay Rays will ultimately stay in St. Pete.
“I’m a lot more hopeful than I was two weeks ago,” he said. “The change in schedule for us signifies a determination from our city to lead this effort and ensure that Tampa Bay has Major League Baseball for years to come.”
The future of the Tampa Bay Rays has been in doubt for weeks.
First, the Pinellas County Commission voted twice to delay a vote on the county’s portion of the funding for the stadium deal.
Then, the Rays announced that the deal was dead. Given the upheaval and the Rays’ announcement, the St. Pete City Council delayed its vote on the bonds during a Nov. 21 meeting.
In a letter earlier this week, the Rays sent local leaders a somewhat different message. Rays Co-President Matt Silverman wrote the deal is still “in effect,” and the team is now waiting on the city and county to act.
“I would definitely say the deal is still alive,” Steinocher said Wednesday. “For sure.”
Steinocher believes there is a path forward with both the city and Pinellas County.
Tampa is too valuable a market so the Rays aren't going anywhere. They'll play at Steinbrenner field for 2025 then back to the Trop for 2-3 years. Eventually St. Pete will approve a new stadium.
The Rays need to move to Tampa or else leave Florida.
38 comments
Olympic Stadium is under big renovations until 2028. It can't host a team now. I want my Expos back!!
I hope the Rays leave Florida, they were in a very bad stadium situation since entering MLB in 1998. Montral & Nashville are much better alternatives than Tampa Bay for baseball relocation.
@DepressedGinger i don't know if you saw but rose bowl released new renderings
Reconfigure the Alamo Dome so it can host baseball
Off to Nashville
I was born and raised in St Petersburg. It's already unlivable there due to cost of living. I had to leave after almost 30 years. St Petersburg needs more housing, not a new stadium that taxpayers will have to pay for.
I need to move to Tampa not St Pete
This just seems like an incredible waste of money.
Who's going to fund this? The taxpayers? Really?
For reckless government spending?
I don't see the Rays playing at First Horizon Ballpark in Nashville. It would be a huge scheduling conflict with the Sounds.
I say Raleigh…take the new stadium concept meant for St. Pete and bring it there, but make it with a retractable roof and try to get it opened by 2029. Their AAA team plays in nearby Durham and those two teams can share the Durham park for three seasons (2026-28) with a big sendoff at the end hosted by Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, considering 2028 will be the 40th anniversary of the release of the Bull Durham movie. The Raleigh ballpark should be located on the west side of town near both the recently re-named Lenovo Center (home ot the Hurricanes) and Carter-Finley Stadium (home of NC State football). This would even things out as well between Raleigh and Charlotte as each city would now have two major sports teams. This would also be convenient for Yankees and Red Sox fans living in the Raleigh-Durham area. As for the team name, the Carolina Rays would work best, but Mudcats could be considered.
Expos Toujours.
Get a battery for your smoke detector…
They have to fix Tropicana they don't have a choice they can't just leave a rundown stadium with no roof sitting there they have insurance money and they'll get more funding. This is all just BS drama
Building a new stadium in Tampa makes a lot more sense. If that's what the leaders of Tampa want to do, that's where they should build it.
Rays are getting rid of all their players anyway
If I was a City taking on a relocation of any MLB team I am requiring a minimum payroll to be spent on the team to win.
Trump tariffs on chinese steel glass and concrete will make Fisher's Vegas stadium too expensive. He'll have to sell the team to finish it and then can lease it to the Rays.
Move to Charlotte.
Go to Montreal and bring back the expos
The most depressing sports venue I’ve ever been in. Shit hole.
watch Oakland get the Rays because they at least have a MLB stadium ready…
It’s crazy to me that no one wants to move to Orlando, feel like they’ll have a better chance of having decent crowds compared to Miami or Tampa
If they came to Tampa it would work. They have a huge fan base. Look at their TV markets for reference. South St. Pete sucks to get to 81 times a year.
Nashville… when is the new football stdium done? Can the old football stadium be converted to baseball as a temporary solution?
At this point MLB shouldn’t have had more than one franchise in Florida. Should’ve left it with the Florida Marlins. It’s strange why Tampa wanted MLB so badly for years before they got the rays in 1998. And as a Yankees fan I mostly go to marlins games when my Yankees are playing em. It’s sad that Florida has so many Carribbean transplants (mainly Cubans) living mostly in the Miami area and baseball has been their top beloved sport.
The only way Orlando gets an MLB team is if the Rays leave FL all together and the Marlins move there once their lease is up after the 2047 season. Then the Florida Marlins will be a destination opponent team like the Raiders in Vegas.
At this point who cares ? Tell Stu Sternberg to take his ball and go elsewhere.
The rays should be busting their ass to get a deal done with the city of Orlando. Every opposing home team would have fans coming in because of the Disney world draw. This seems like a no-brainer.
Watch the MLB just say first city to get a stadium approval and shovels in ground get the rays
The long term prospects for the Rays staying in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area look very doubtful.
Hope you’re wrong
I hear there's a vacant MLB stadium out in Oakland.
Let them play in OKC like the hornets did that way OKC can get another team due to a hurricane destroying a teams stadium
They probably couldn't even fill Steinbrenner Stadium for regular season games.
This is a blessing. Putting a new stadium in that same place is insane. Tampa or move it out of the area.
In a surprise move, the St. Petersburg City Council will meet Thursday for a potentially sooner-than-expected vote on the bonds required to fund the stadium deal at the center of the Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment project.
The change was added to the city council agenda Wednesday.
It gives Chris Steinocher, the president and CEO of the St. Pete Chamber of Commerce, more than a glimmer of hope that the Tampa Bay Rays will ultimately stay in St. Pete.
“I’m a lot more hopeful than I was two weeks ago,” he said. “The change in schedule for us signifies a determination from our city to lead this effort and ensure that Tampa Bay has Major League Baseball for years to come.”
The future of the Tampa Bay Rays has been in doubt for weeks.
First, the Pinellas County Commission voted twice to delay a vote on the county’s portion of the funding for the stadium deal.
Then, the Rays announced that the deal was dead. Given the upheaval and the Rays’ announcement, the St. Pete City Council delayed its vote on the bonds during a Nov. 21 meeting.
In a letter earlier this week, the Rays sent local leaders a somewhat different message. Rays Co-President Matt Silverman wrote the deal is still “in effect,” and the team is now waiting on the city and county to act.
“I would definitely say the deal is still alive,” Steinocher said Wednesday. “For sure.”
Steinocher believes there is a path forward with both the city and Pinellas County.
Tampa is too valuable a market so the Rays aren't going anywhere. They'll play at Steinbrenner field for 2025 then back to the Trop for 2-3 years. Eventually St. Pete will approve a new stadium.
The Rays need to move to Tampa or else leave Florida.