Baseball in Florida really hasn’t worked. The Marlins are going through a terrible rebuild and can’t even manage their internal finances. Hell, the Marlins even fired their mascot! The Rays aren’t much better off and have ranked last in attendance for an eternity. In an effort to improve the organization, Rays owner Stuart Sternberg wants to build a new stadium. His preference is to keep the team in Tampa.
Recently per a report from Steve Contorno, Zack Sampson and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times:
“I’m hopeful this will continue to build momentum on our effort to bring the Tampa Bay Rays to Ybor, Hagan says, adding that an announcement on the design of a new ballpark could follow in the near future. Generally speaking, the proposed new site would seemingly be more accessible to fans in Tampa (which has a larger population than St. Petersburg) as well as those in surrounding suburbs and cities, given its proximity to public transportation and major highways, the Times trio notes.”
The rumored cost of the stadium is expected to be around $700 million for a stadium in the Tampa area. Luckily there is no state tax which should limit the cost for ownership. The project is expected to take place in 2020. Something has to be done. Tropicana field had a major league-low of 1.2 fans in attendance for the entire season. Things got so bad that on September 5th, the Rays drew only 6,509 fans against Minnesota Twins who even made the playoffs a year ago.
Tampa Bay is also in a weird spot with their roster. Tampa is sort of in the middle of the East winning 80 games. Will Chris Archer still be around by the time a new stadium is built? Evan Longoria proved that even the face of the franchise is tradable.
