Rays REVEAL 2025 Stadium details, while MLB visits Florida politicians

24 comments

1. One of the very few instances of me agreeing with Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor doesn't like public funding of sports arenas/stadiums, so I'm sure Manfred was stopping by to try to make his case. That being said, I think the Rays remain in Tampa (especially if the attendance numbers turn out to be fruitful capacity-wise) playing in Steinbrenner Field, but I don't see Pinellas County and Rays onwership coming to a proper agreement. Even if Pinellas County approves the funding, the Rays are going to demand more money because of the "one year delay," complicating matters.

2. He was probably scoping out the interest of the race staying in the state of Florida

3. Move the Rays to Orlando and see if they can play at Camping World Stadium (which we are spending nearly a billion dollars to upgrade once again with no permanent resident) while a ball park is being built. Crazy this has been going on for more than a decade and for most of that time we've known the team will eventually end up in Orlando. It's a perfect fit.

4. The Marlins played in Joe Robbie Stadium for about 20 years, how many rainouts did they have per year?

5. The 1986 Cubs, if they had won the division, would have played their postseason games at Busch Stadium in St Louis.

6. Using public funding for billionaire stadiums is welfare for a billionaires screw them

7. at 15M a year in 4 years they will spend 60M to play at a sub-par ballpark. Throw the 60M at the Trop.

8. It seems Manfred’s objective was to hear first hand the realities that are facing the State and these counties as they plan to rebuild infrastructure from the storm damage. As much as we love sports, tax dollars need to factor in what the public needs now and what improvements are needed for future weather events. So if the Rays weren’t at this meeting, the topics were probably bigger than just baseball.

9. Local government could provide the land and street improvement but the MLB owners can finance and build their own stadiums.

10. In Florida the minor league parks and spring training got a lot of tax breaks, since the rays are playing at Steinbrenner might have State issues that haven't been addressed

11. One day I want someone to show me the numbers that justify the tax payers paying for any part of a stadium for any sport. If the taxpayers are putting up $300 MILLION by backing municipal bonds (paying them back WITH INTEREST when they come due), just how much tax revenue does the stadium actually bring in over the first 5 – 10 years? When is the break even point, if one even exists? Does that revenue account for the increased traffic, road maintenance, police and fire/rescue presence ongoing stadium maintenance, etc.? If you are wealthy enough to own a professional sports team you should be wealthy enough to build the stadium they play in and benefit from all of the revenue made at the stadium and it's surroundings. My biggest issue is how much time all of these venues sit idle, generating no money at all. Is one or two days a week for 9 months or fewer a year, depending on the sport, enough to offset all of the costs? Let's say the team plays one game and generates, on average, $2 million a game on ticket sales & concessions (BEING REALLY GENEROUS), if the county/city sales tax is 0.5% that is $10,000 / game plus whatever the property tax is on the area, (assuming the county commissioners or city council did not forgo or discount the property taxes as a lure to bring the team to the city). That $10k does not even include the cost of police and rescue services and all the other impacts. So it will take 30,000 games to just get back the money the government pissed away, before you even begin to pay the interest on the bonds. Yes, there will be some impact to the surrounding businesses, but that needs to be a HUGE impact to really make up the money they flushed down the toilet.

12. As far as I'm concerned, Ron DeSantis should no longer be running Florida.

13. They should make the yankees move out of tampa to begin with smh

14. And honestly Brodie, I think the Rays will be fine as far as the Yankees making sure they're taking care of while still in Tampa. It also won't affect MLB regarding the Rays either.

15. Go Rays!! They can do anything they want to the stadium except for touching the GB statue. The NYY stadium locker rooms are new and a lot better than the Rays at the Trop.

16. Rob Manchild has been the worst commissioner of baseball ever!

17. A couple of thoughts on Manfred‘s visit to DeSantis:
    1. DeSantis was a ball player in college, and is still a baseball fan. Could be a simple as hoping that a fan of the game might try and lean on the local politicians.
    2. Baseball is important to the Florida economy, multiple counties could be negatively impacted by a bad relationship with MLB. Florida has already lost half of the league to Arizona.

18. I bet Tampa is thinking Orlando is looking a lot better than Steinbrenner Field

19. Not right trying to hold the Rays hostage on the stadium deal, let them relocate. These decisions should have been made shortly after the hurricane destroyed Trop ballpark. Manfred is a poor excuse for a MLB commissioner. Florida is only good for exhibition games not major league teams. Also, if the A's can get a stadium in Sacramento, go for it. All the A's will get in Vegas is a tiny lot for a baseball stadium.

20. see shea stadium in 74 and 75

21. My tax dollars are NOT going toward a damn stadium; groceries and rent are INSANE.

22. This whole ordeal with the hurricane is unfortunate and very awkward as far as Rays moving into Yankees digs. Yankees and Rays have been fierce rival for years. Yankees are so mad that a $75 million payroll team dominated them ($200 mil payroll) the past several years (this year excluded) I guess MLB forced Yankees to do this. I'm starting to think Manfred talked to Gov. to push for a new Tampa stadium with a new ownership group. Who knows the whole thing is a mess.

23. Captain Ron gets business done. Grease that sailor!

24. I suspect Manfred met with DeSantis looking for state money to help fund the new ballpark. Utah's $900M for a new ballpark in SLC was passed at the state level (money from state sales taxes within the proposed entertainment district).