Certainly an interesting development. I suppose Dundon could buy a TBD portion of the franchise and co-own with the existing ownership and relocate them here? Doesn’t appear existing ownership is looking to sell, but maybe some minority partners would cash out to let Dundon acquire enough interest for him to go for it. Wonder how far along he really is on a possible stadium location? Would be exciting to see this get some legs!
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That’s not what it seemed like in July.
The St. Pete meeting is ongoing, but it looks like they’re going to kick the can for another month. EDIT: The final vote was 6-1 to continue the matter to the Dec. 17 meeting.
The Fox 13 reporter reporting on the meeting has done an outstanding job covering the Rays’ stadium situation for many years, by the way. (Full disclosure: He’s a long-time friend of mine IRL.)
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Rays co-President Matt Silverman stated on the record that the Post’s story was “untrue.” It’s also based entirely on anonymous sources, in a newspaper with a poor track record for accuracy that would have no good reason to get a scoop about a sports team in Tampa. Silverman put his own name out there in the local paper saying there was no truth to the unsourced story.
Silverman said, “I know there were no serious conversations leading up to the (July 30) stadium vote. And I know that [owner Stuart Sternberg] does not want to sell the team right now and I know there are no conversations about selling the team right now.”
Amen to that. It’s very much like an abusive relationship. Elected officials in St. Pete are sick of Stu Sternberg. One commissioner even said as much in the public hearing today. I can’t imagine why any other city would want to deal with him when all he ever does is demand more and more money and make more threats if he doesn’t get it.
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Possible for relocation here, it happened before
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The Rays deal is falling apart in St. Pete at both the city and county level. Rays say they need a better deal now based on delays and overruns. Government of St. Pete says the initial deal needs to be more in their favor, absolutely no interest in giving the Rays a better deal.
It’s going so bad that they city voted to fix the Tropicana Field roof, then when Rays were meeting with the media in the same room after the vote, the co-president of the team said the deal as it was is dead.
City council asked if they heard that right and asked for Rays to state that in front of the podium. They did. Council asked “Then why did we just vote to fix your stadium roof?” Rays said they aren’t sure why they’d do that if there is no guarantee on a long term deal. Council takes ANOTHER vote and votes AGAINST fixing the current stadium’s roof.
The Rays will play at Yankees Spring Training stadium in 2025 and now have no place to play in 2026 and beyond.
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Here is the article reporting on all of this…
At this point, from watching all of these meetings live, I’d say there is little to no chance the Rays stay in St. Pete. Council members would need to change their votes and rework a deal that’s even more in the Rays favor.
Now there will be talk of trying to revive the Ybor City (Tampa) deal, but reports from TB media are that it’s very unlikely. Orlando may try to revive their now nearly dead plan to get an ownership group together, secure land and build a stadium so they could be an option.
If none of those options come to fruition, then the Rays will be looking to move out of Florida, and based on the fact that they have no home in 2026 and beyond, they’ll need to find a market that has a willing and capable billionaire owner, government support, ability to secure land and community support ready to go.
This could get interesting fast.
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I’ll say one more thing…
The kneejerk reaction is to blame the Rays and their ownership, who, in my opinion, have not handled this situation well. However, put yourself in their shoes…
They have put together a very good product on the field. AL Pennants in 2008 and 2020. AL East Titles in 2008, 2010, 2020, and 2021. Wild Card playoff berths in 2011, 2013, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Yet, no matter how much on-field success they find, they end up near the bottom of the league in attendance. This year they averaged 16,500 per game (and that’s being generous), despite being in a large market.
I think they really want to move to the Tampa side of the bridge, but that deal fell apart. So they argue that if they are going to stay in St. Pete, there is no true assurance that a new stadium is really going to move the needle. Becasue of this, they want to be partners in the overall district development so they have an opportunity to have a say in the overall gameday experience.
That seems like overreach to some, but if they don’t get to have a say in the development around their ballpark, they feel they don’t have the assurance that it will be done correctly, if at all, putting them right back in the situation they are in now.
The county and city are in a stalemate with them because they feel as if they are giving them a sweetheart deal and will have part ownership of an entire swath of the city.
I see both sides on this, however, neither seems willing to budge.
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This is all very exiting and seems they need to have a solid decision soon, unless there’s a ready to move in stadium laying around. Deal talks, construction, etc.
#RaleighOnDeck
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There is one in Oakland, but if the Rays move it will almost certainly be mandated that they keep them on the East Coast.
So you can likely rule out Portland, Oakland, Salt Lake City.
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Maybe I’m wrong? You have a great pulse on the situation, feel free to correct me. But I feel like this is unfortunately happening 1-2 years too soon for it to fall into Raleigh’s lap. While we have the ownership in place, we’ve got nothing else lined up yet to really say “we’re ready”. We don’t own any land, there’s no stadium plans, there’s no financing plans yet, no city proposals, we don’t have a temporary home for them that I know of? I do think Raleigh will get there in 1-2 years, as being a viable city ready to make a bid for an MLB team. But feels like there’s probably a better short term option out there for the Rays while looking at what’s out there today?
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So hypothetically, if they were to team up with Dundon to move the team to Raleigh, and some kind of Stadium deal is worked out with the city / county, it will years take fund, plan and build a stadium that is ready to play in.
That still leaves them with no place to play after 2025 until whenever the new stadium is ready. This would apply not just to Raleigh, but pretty much any city they may pick.
If they move to Raleigh, I wouldn’t even be against keeping the name- “Raleigh Rays” or, if we must, “Carolina Rays” still flows off the tongue and the meaning can change from stingrays to, like, rays of sunshine or whatever. But they can change the name if they want.
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It’s already a ray of sunshine - look in the R. The joyless owner thought stingrays were silly.
They have started bringing back some Devil Rays logos because the fans like them a lot more than the boring Yankees-Lite look.
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Yeah seems like in a best case even if everything went on fast track we would be 3 -4 years from having a stadium. Don’t see how that gets it done.
They play in Charlotte or Durham’s stadium while we build ours. Problem solved. At least in Durham they’d be in a minor league park in their own farm system.
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And where will the Bulls/Knights play during this time?
Monarchs were moved back in the 90s. Need not be permanent, but you make it work if need be.
Exactly. It can certainly be worked out, especially with the Bulls already being a feeder team to the Rays.