The Tampa Bay Rays are set to return to their home of Tropicana Field next year after playing in Steinbrenner Field this season, but MLB commissioner Rob Manfred envisions a longer search for a new stadium once the team is sold.
“With new ownership, I think you have to assume it’s kind of a clean slate, that they’re going to decide about location, they’re going have to build and make relationships and contacts with people throughout the region to decide what’s the best place for the ballpark in order to make the Rays successful over the long haul,” Manfred said Tuesday at Front Office Sports’ “Tuned In” event, per Ronald Blum of the Associated Press.
Blum noted owner Stu Sternberg is negotiating to sell the team he has controlled since 2005 to a group led by Patrick Zalupski.
That will once again put a search for a new stadium under the spotlight after failed attempts to move to proposed ballpark sites in St. Petersburg in 2007 and 2023 and Tampa in 2018.
All that time, the Rays have remained in Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where they’ve played since their first year in 1998. Attendance has been an issue at times, and they are playing in the spring training home of the New York Yankees because of damage to their stadium caused by Hurricane Milton in October.
One thing Manfred did was advocate for the team to stay in Florida.
“I think Florida is the right place for that team,” the commissioner said. “I think that there are opportunities in the Tampa Bay region that can be exploited in order to get a new stadium and keep the team there. They’re going to have the same options that the prior owner had in terms of one side or the other.”
Tampa Bay has struggled with consistency this season with a 73-77 record, which is good enough for fourth place in the American League East. It is 38-37 at home in Steinbrenner Field after going 42-39 last year at Tropicana Field.
It will likely be years before the Rays are playing in a new ballpark, as the sale itself still has to be completed.
But it is on Manfred’s mind at this stage of the process.
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