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I’m a Rays fan. Florida is a baseball state, but the Rays ownership doesn’t win them any favors. Stu earns all of the condescension and disrespect. If the Rays want to speed the process up, start today.
"won't be able to build it in time" This is the same sudden excuse John Fisher and Dave Kaval used when they suddenly walked out of negotiations with Oakland. They're using the A's playbook to get out of the deal.
Stu has always been a millionaire crybaby, it's honestly shameful, after the county is working on clean up and recovery efforts after the hurricane he's begging for more handouts because he's always unwilling to invest in the team he owns. I'm really tired of these owners playing the poor me card, if they are unable to afford investing in a major league team, they never should have been allowed to purchase the darn thing in the first place.
If the county is too cheap and stingy to pay for the stadium, he should find another that will (and there are others that are). He should bring it to places that are actually interested in having them and are willing to pay for it. There are a lot more counties and cities that want and are willing to subsidize pro sports teams than they are pro sports teams, so it's in his favor as he has a limited and valuable asset.
@kicapanmanis1060 Ummm... but the city and county already did pass bonds to fund the stadium... it's all on Stu now to finish the job and now he's crying that he doesn't have enough money... If that's the case he needs to sell the team
sorry people, billionaires rule the USA. Stu holds all the cards. He has places to move. If he moves the Rays they are gone forever. Unfair? Yes. Looks like Stu has made up his mind to move, and the politicians are postering to avoid being blamed. Yeah, it’s unfair. Tough shit. Wake up and grow up.
@@scottstark2286 - You, defending the Brian Thompson types is reason enough you too Diane-Edgar-Sara-Evelyn-Ron-Valerie-Eddie to be a Britney-Rhea-Angela-Ingrid-Noelle-Leslie-Ethyl-Sam-Sally Carl-Otto-Rosemary-Pam-Simon-Evan!
Hey Brodie! Small thing but as a news reporter in my first market (Tallahassee), your conversational style of speaking is a huge inspiration for me. You definitely have a broadcaster voice as well! I do my best to emulate it and not sound so reporter-like in my packages. (my reel is on my channel, I always appreciate feedback 😁) p.s. I’m also a Tampa Bay boy, this coverage is how I found you! and yes covering hurricanes (Helene especially here in north FL) are exactly as stressful as you think!
Jeff Vinik would turn the Rays into a contender. The lightning were almost relocated and he turned them into a Dynasty. It takes time and patience. The Bolts started in 2009 and only won in 2020. Ten years. I think Rays and A's fan would be up for that with proper ownership.
@robertbrezinski9348 Yeah but they almost relocated in 2009 and won a cup in 2020. Got new owners and stuff changes. that was my point. Buddy I'm a Sens fan I know when the Bolts got into the NHL.
@@timmanto1022 Yep. The Bolts had some dark years after their 2004 cup. They needed a complete rebuild from ownership, players, and facilities. Vinik did that. Vinik also is getting out of the sports business. He sold the Lightning but will remain managing partner for three years to ensure the new owners have a good handle on the team before he steps away.
The Haslams have seen the Crew win the MLS Cup, but can't make the Browns win their division. Methinks past performance doesn't indicate potential results in ownership.
Hey Brodie, I need to point out from Seattle that we went through this crap too. Also, T-Mobile Park (nee Safeco Field) opened in July - mid season. SSDD - with billions involved for all parties.
We wouldn’t be in this position if the city of St. Pete didn’t change the insurance coverage of Tropicana Field back in March. That decision lowered the maximum amount of money an insurance company would pay for a claim from $100 million to $25 million for wind and flood damage.
The Blue Jays didn’t move into SkyDome until June 1989. There is ZERO excuse for a 1-2 month delay in construction funding to cause the move in date to be pushed back a full year.
Here is one piece of this soon to be stadium fiasco that NO-ONE is looking at. When the deal was made back in July, the expectation was that Tropicana Field would be the playing home of the Tampa Bay Rays until the new stadium opened in 3 years. Now the Trop is gone - it's not available for the Rays to play in. Does anyone realize just how much of the Rays income disappeared with the Trop? When the deal was made in July, I'm sure the Rays were counting on 3 years of revenue coming from the use of Tropicana Field - normal ticket sales, food sales, sales of anything and everything with a Rays logo on it. They now have to rent Steinbrenner Field from the Yankees. The non-food sales isn't going to match since there aren't near as many outlets in a minor league stadium. The Rays income is not likely to come anywhere close at Steinbrenner than it would at the Trop. I'm not a big fan of the Rays and how they are handling this. BUT the city/county doesn't seem to be aware of this point, either.
This is all true but the point still stands that none of that is the county’s concern nor responsibility. The county also has larger expenses due to the hurricane (and future storms) and any issues that the county encounters will not allow them to get out of the deal. If the Rays expect to lose more than $50 million because they will be displaced from the Trop then they have only themselves to blame for not spending that amount of money on a new roof for the Trop and moving forward with the new stadium project with modifications due to a smaller pool of funds to draw from.
Agree with Bruiser Brodie re. the Pinellas county rep's statement "pretty close to nil". Manfred is an MLB employee hired by the owners to work for them. Sternberg is one of those owners. As long as Sternberg continues to meet all his obligations as an MLB owner, no one can force him to sell the team. Also, I suspect a rather large portion of other owners are probably silently with Sternberg since, should the Rays move, they can point to it as a warning re. future asks of their own.
In my opinion, MLB can step in when it wants to keep the Tampa/St. Pete TV market. And when I say step in, that means they have the means now to say that since the Rays worker dall these deals and actually got the local community to pony up $600M, that the Rays have to do their part. If not then the Rays ownership is a drag on what good owners are for the entirety of the league. If the city/county backed out in any way then that wouldnt' be on the Rays and Manfred would side with the team, but now since the city/county all did their part to offer $600M, and as to what the Rays said would be enough, then the Rays have to do their part too. I suspect that if that happens then the MLB will get involved painting the Rays as bad ownership members for the league and are bringing all the other owners down with their antics. Then with enough momentum, a (whatever percentage, 2/3 or 3/4) vote would be enough to force the Rays to sell. So yes, MLB can force the owners to sell if conditions are right. See the Clippers recent situation forcing the previous owner to sell the team to Steve Ballmer. There is precedent for this among the four big leagues of this happening.
Bottom line. St. Pete does NOT support the Rays. They drew only 19,000 a game to 2 PLAYOFF games. I have lived in Pinellas County for over 45 years. This Chris Latvala is nothing more than a postering son of a political power couple Jack and Susan Latvala. Don’t be fooled people. The Rays are leaving and should leave. Whether it should be Hillsborough County or somewhere else is the only question.
Fans in the stand do not represent TV ratings. The Rays are a top 10 team when it comes to TV market and revenue. The optics of a lack of fans is what's so easy for everyone to always say nobody cares about the Rays when in fact many do.
FYI, the A's set a wild card game record crowd of over 54k back in 2019 but Oakland gets no support according to Fisher and MLB. With a new ballpark and decent ownership, they would draw well.
My hunches: Only way the Rays stay in St. Pete is if Sternberg sells the team and the new owner commits to keeping the Rays there long-term and fulfills the team's end of the existing new ballpark agreement (perhaps with a few minor tweaks). If Sternberg doesn't sell the team, I suspect he'll take another crack at a new stadium agreement with the city of Tampa / Hillsborough County first. Alternatively, though the Orlando group currently doesn't have full financing in place for their new MLB ballpark proposal, they are much further along in the process than any other group/city outside SLC and may end up with the team if they can get a new stadium deal done (I think Manfred would prefer to keep the Rays in Florida). The only currently available option is of course SLC if Sternberg agrees to sell the team to the Miller group and MLB approves the relocation.
These people are kidding themselves if they think there’s zero chance of moving the Rays, wake up and look at what they did to me and everyone in Oakland
Single owners selling shares of a team to finance their stadium is scarcely a new idea. Charles Ebbets did so to acquire partial financing to build Ebbets Field.
The Seattle Mariners play in the Kingdom until Safeco Field now known as T-Mobile Park was ready for them to move over so why the hell can a team do that play in a Minor League then partway through the season like the Seattle Mariners moved into their new home
Brodie, The way things stand, I think the Rays spend another season at Steinbrenner Field. Which looks **bad** for MLB to have two teams playing full seasons at minor league parks.
Despite all the howling and finger-pointing, keep in mind the long-term consequences of a relocation, and not just for Rays fans. It's a blow to the city's credibility, livability index, and economy.
The Rays should just assert that the costs will be the same as originally assumed, get the money from the sale of the bonds and start the project. If there are cost overruns in 2 or 3 years, they can figure out that problem then.
18:40 could St Pete eminent domain the Rays? (Probably not) Though, if Stu can't come up with the funding, either by selling part of the team or getting loans, maybe he and the Rays shouldn't have agreed to a deal where they take all the risk of overruns, because everyone and their mother knew that, even if the hurricane hadn't happened, there are going to be overruns. Every stadium costs more than it was originally budgeted for. Period. Full stop.
As a Montreal Expos baseball fan and season ticket holder for their last 5 years in Montreal I would say... Do whatever it takes to keep Baseball because once they leave they may never come back. I'm living that reality and it's pretty dismall. Go Rays!
Also notice the similarities with the Arizona Coyotes situation. Now that the mention of "finding a new owner" has occurred, would MLB take the same measures that the NHL took? And, are we facing critical mass with regards to new stadium projects?
IDo you think that the contractor is is waiting around for this? The contractor may have to postpone the start of the project to work on something else first. Also cost of materials and labor go up all the time! Just a thought.
I don't see why they bother with building stadiums anymore; people are just going to go online and watch holograms dancing around and hitting balls, much like they no longer answer doorbells or telephones, or go to the mall.
The best offer they’re getting is from Saint Petersburg unfortunately I live in Pinellas County. I would much rather see them move out of Pinellas county .I pay thousands and thousands of dollars in property taxes with my different properties to Stu . municipality should never be paying for stadiums. Tech data is based here they’re $35-$40 billion company we’re not building their facility..
MLB needs to consider that moving to a community like St. Pete in 1998 which has as its residents people who migrated there during their life will likely not support the hometown team if initial Ownership going back to 1995 before the first pitch was thrown on March 31, 1998 --Vince Naimoli and current owner Stuart Sternberg are cheap and could care less about the local fans. I have been saying that Stu must go as he famously stated after the epic 2008 season "it wasn't the best year to win....because of the current state of the economy he couldn't add to payroll". WHAT? In 2009 the Rays finish in 3rd place when they should have been a playoff team but Stu backed all the revenue. After 30 years the Tampa Bay area has morphed into another strata of city but the Rays ownership appears bankrupt and the failure to replace the Trop room after it aged out in 2016 is unacceptable by Rays ownership. At this point in time just move the Team to Tampa only if there is new ownership or keep the team in St. Pete and have Cathie Wood buy the team with her ARK Investment Management LLC HQ in downtown St. Pete.
I'm a native of the Tampa Bay Area, I've followed this team since the day they announced MLB would be expanding to the Bay Area in March, 1995. I stood in line with my parents for hours at University Mall in Temple Terrace outside Sears to get merchandise when it first came out. Without going into massive details about how MLB waited too long to expand to Florida, how the populace of Florida went through massive change in the 1990's, and how MLB screwed both teams over by putting them into divisions with the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Phillies, there is a LOT of history and information surrounding changes in the state starting in the 70's and completely bottoming out in the 90's changed how Florida as a whole became what it is now, but I digress. A lot of people put Naimoli and Stu in the same camp and call both cheap, but both were completely polar opposite. Naimoli spent money, he didn't spend Yankee money, but he DID go out and initially get Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff, and Wilson Alvarez. He DID go out a few years later and spend big money to bring in Jose Canseco, Vinny Castilla, and Greg Vaughn. If you're from the Tampa Bay Area and you've been around the Rays for awhile, surely you remember the "Hit Show" aptly nicknamed the "$hit Show." Naimoli made two huge manager hires with Rothschild and Piniella, but his front office was terrible and he lost. Stu on the other hand, has been the epitome of cheap but he surrounded himself with excellent personnel and not only wins, but wins often. I no longer live in the Bay Area, but I have a subscription to the Times, I'm still very active in Rays news and social media. I think it's incredible how misinformed and ignorant a lot of people in the Bay Area have been throughout this whole process. Stu owns the team, he bought the team 20 years ago. Just as was the case in Oakland, you can't just tell someone to sell the team and expect them to do so. The Rays are an ATM to Stu and despite his consistently putting some of the cheapest payrolls in history on the field, he WINS. Sure, Stu makes a lot of stupid comments and he doesn't make moves that you'd want an owner in your town to make, BUT he's not a Floridian. Stu is a wealthy New Yorker and despite the dumb things he says and his playing hardball over a new stadium, HE WINS. A few things to chew on... When Hugh Culverhouse died and the Bucs were put on the auction block, NO ONE local stepped up to buy them. Malcolm Glazer from New York stepped up and bought the team. Less than a year later, he gave an ultimatum, build a new stadium or I'm moving the team to Baltimore. The stadium vote passed but it barely passed. Likewise, when the Lightning went up for sale, NO ONE local stepped up to buy them, Jeff Vinik (New Jersey) bought them. Billionaires aren't growing on trees in the Tampa Bay Area. I don't have the exact number on hand, but I believe the Bay Area has like 9 billionaires and 8 of them are over the age of 70. The Baltimore Orioles were the last team to sell and they sold for about $1.75 billion. IF Stu were to sell the team, first off, he's not going to just sell the team to a local, he's going to sell to the highest bidder. In an area where there's a lack of billionaires and the overwhelming majority of them are over 70, who's going to outbid someone from Nashville, Portland, or hell, even the San Francisco Bay Area that might want to bring MLB back? What billionaire in the Tampa Bay Area is going to spend close to $2 billion dollars for the Rays, then turn around and put another billion into a stadium? Oh yeah, everyone demanding for Stu to sell the stadium seems to forget that he's also putting tons of his own cash into this deal. I hate to defend Stu Sternberg, but he's only trying to get what his team deserves. People demanding that he sells the team aren't thinking clearly. There's a chance, as slim as it may be, that someone from Florida could buy the team but NO ONE is going to buy the team with the intent of keeping them in St. Petersburg. As for Tampa, the Rays have been talking to Tampa and Hillsborough County since 2018 and nothing has materialized. Pinellas County granted them permission to explore opportunities in Tampa during a one year window and in their initial talks, the sides were so far apart that they went close to 9 months without any talks happening. Tampa is broke and is on the verge of having to deal with new facilities for the Bucs and possibly the Lightning. Unless Tampa finds a way to add a new tax to build a stadium, that's not going to happen. There doesn't seem to be an appetite in Hillsborough County for MORE taxes, especially to house a billionaires play toy, BUT if there's anything that will rally taxpayers in Hillsborough County, it's giving the finger the Pinellas County, so who knows?
@@trclark7689 The billionaire buyer doesn't have to live here to keep the team here you know. You ignore that the Tampa market is bigger than any market that doesn't already have an MLB franchise. Of all the places that people keep bringing up, Orlando and Charlotte are closest in size but are both still 500,000 smaller than the Tampa metro area. The Rays were being unreasonable in their dealings with Hillsborough and maybe a different owner would have a different result and move the team to the other side of the bay where they belong.
@@acebragg5559 Every single person that I've seen mention that "Stu sell the team" said that he needs to sell to a "local buyer." Every single person that says that is under the assumption that Stu is going to take less than market value just so the team can stay in the Bay Area and that's just NOT the case. No one is going to pay market value for this team only to turn around and have to spend another billion to build a stadium, especially in a city that historically doesn't support the team. It's also a bit of a reach to assume that the next owner is going to be on board with the development plan in St. Pete and be willing to invest in an African-American museum and affordable housing. It's a weird ask and no one's going to do it. That said, people put too much stock into "market size." MLB just approved a relocation from the 10th largest market to the 40th largest market with the A's relocation to Las Vegas. When MLB approved the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington DC, they left the 2nd largest market in Canada for what's now the 9th largest market in the U.S. Since the Raiders relocated to Los Angeles in 1982, the only times the NFL has left a smaller market for a larger one has ALL included Los Angeles. The Colts left Baltimore for Indianapolis in 84. The Cardinals left St. Louis for Phoenix, which was much smaller in 1987. The Rams left Los Angeles for St. Louis in 95. The Raiders left Los Angeles for Oakland in 95. The Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore in 96. The Oilers left Houston for Nashville in 97. The Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles in 16. The Chargers left San Diego for Los Angeles in 17. The Raiders left Oakland for Las Vegas in 20. Most relocations see a team leaving a larger market for a smaller market because the larger market is unwilling to build a stadium and the smaller market wants to become a "big league" city. For a league like MLB that's historically made its teams get their own television deal, market size doesn't matter. The A's played in the 10th largest market in the country and their television deal was terrible. People keep bringing up Orlando and Charlotte (and Nashville) because they're uneducated on what's actually going on in those cities. Orlando has tourism money that they need to spend, but they're not spending it on an MLB stadium, they're spending it on Camper World Stadium. Charlotte refused to give money to the Panthers for a new stadium and instead agreed to a renovation. They don't have any money for a new MLB stadium. Nashville just agreed to give $700 million that they didn't have to the Titans because they were contractually obligated to do so. They also have maintenance costs on like six other facilities. They have ZERO interest in spending on another stadium. The Rays weren't being unreasonable with Hillsborough County and Tampa. Everything that I've read about the situation including JP Peterson, Ken Hagan, and some media guests on the "Locked on Rays" podcast suggested that Tampa/Hillsborough were unwilling to issue bonds ahead of time to build a stadium, again, because the city and county are broke and don't want to build a stadium. Their plan was to have the Rays build the stadium with minimal money coming from Tampa/Hillsborough upfront, then the city/country essentially reimbursing the team through tax proceeds after the fact. The Rays are a poor team with one of the poorer owners in the league, that type of deal is unreasonable for the Rays. I swear, I wish people did their research on these issues before arguing over them. Final thought: The last time a team sold in MLB was the Orioles last year for $1.75 billion dollars. If Stu were going to sell the team, he's not going to sell it at a discount. Who in their right mind is going to pay $2 billion dollars for the Rays when they're going to have to turn around and spend another billion on a stadium? At this point, it's more likely that someone else is going to spend $2 billion dollars (which is the estimated expansion team cost) and move them to a city that either has a stadium plan put together already (Utah) or a location where they're a part of a group that's willing to spend private money to build a stadium (Nashville/Portland.) People that keep putting cities like Austin, Charlotte, Montreal, Orlando, etc into the equation are being lazy and just looking at open markets. None of those cities have viable options at this time to bring in an MLB franchise. Obviously, things can change, but as of right now, the only viable options for relocation is Salt Lake City (via relocation or expansion) and Nashville/Portland ONLY if a team is bought by the groups that are actively looking to buy a team and privately finance a stadium. As of right now, Tampa is NOT a viable option. Could that change between now and March? Sure. Is it likely? No.
*The Rays* . . . have a crucial bargaining chip that's not mentioned in this video: Tampa is contractually responsible for fixing Tropicana. Tampa needs to negotiate with the Rays about fixing (or not fixing) Tropicana -- they can't get out of that responsibility. The Rays have leverage there . . .
Word on the street is MLB and its owners are tired of Stu's antics and want to get rid of him (how I don't know). There is an ownership group from Tampa that wants to buy the team and build a stadium in Tampa or at very least in Pinellas closer to Tampa.
The chances of major cost overruns increases with the proposed tariffs the new federal administration is proposing. Lumber, metal and labor costs will rise.
Municipalities and states need to form some form of collective bargaining / united front to prevent sports owners from leveraging them against each other.
I 100% hope the Rays show their true colors and move to an entirely different market. Baseball needs a wake up call with all these owners acting like jilted children in a sandbox when they don't get their public money or enough public money. The Rays are bad faith actors here and, just like John Fisher, have no respect for their Tampa/St. Pete fan base. This is all transactional and they are merely in this for the sport of collecting money, not the sport of baseball. Let the team go to Omaha. Nashville. Salt Lake City. Who cares? The other 29 owners and Manfred don't
@@herotomillions4095For hockey there sure is. Lightning play in front of a sold-out Amalie arena almost every night. Of course that team plays to win the Stanley Cup and not just pad the bottom line of ownership.
Just a quick question. The Rays plan on building and a hurricane destroys dozens of structures in the city where you are building it. Now there is a large demand for building materials and construction labor in that city. Do you think your price goes up maybe 10% due to the basic laws of supply and demand? If you had been able to secure contracts before that hurricane would you have saved at least 10% due to the price being lower? That's $130 million dollars folks. Basic economics tells you all the costs changed since July. While the Rays did agree to cover cost overruns, do you really think it's fair for them to cover all the increases that resulted from a hurricane? I don't really think they were signing up for those numbers.
Nothing new, a greedy owner trying to squeeze more cash out of the city/state, then wail they're being ripped off. I know people who live there, who have said they've had enough and wish they'd just pack up and leave.
If Stu had done things right, they would have made a deal to move to Tampa years ago and we would be putting the finishing touches on a new stadium as we speak. I think their original deal with St Pete was supposed to run out in 2027. This is why people have lost patience with Stu. You would assume he wants to move to Tampa but Stu needs to close a land development deal and screw the city on his way out.
Back when Tampa was working to bring a team here back in the 90’s, MLB was very clear that they wanted a stadium in Tampa and NOT in St Petersburg, and yet here we are, AGAIN. The Rays will only succeed if two things happen, 1. Sternberg sells the team to a local investor, and a stadium is built in Tampa and not St Pete.
Seems like the site of the existing stadium is marginal at best re the fan base attending games. Developing the district will be millions and millions more.
New Stadiums are a wasted of resources. The fact that hurricanes can cause this much damage and confusion. They should just renovate the hell out of Tropicana and play in a minor league ballpark in the meantime.
Okay, look. St Petersburg is not Oakland. First of all, St Pete doesn't have a neighboring city with its own MLB team, limiting the options for in-market relocation, as Oakland has in the San Francisco Giants. So right there, any comparison between the Rays and the A's is going to come up short, because in theory the Rays have options (Tampa chief among them) that the A's didn't have in, say, San Jose. But even beyond that... the SOLE reason we're in this drama after the "done deal" this past summer, and the BIGGEST difference between St Pete and Oakland, is Hurricane Milton. MLB cannot afford to allow that to be the reason a team switches markets. Ask anyone who was in league leadership in the NFL or NBA around the time of Hurricane Katrina: Losing a team because of a hurricane is a PR nightmare that MLB isn't going to want to deal with. You say Manford works for the Rays, but that's only 1/30th true. Manford works for ALL the MLB teams. Even if Steinberg is itching to leave, the other 29 teams aren't going to want this headache. Worst case scenario for Tampa Bay fans, I see something like a Cleveland Browns-Baltimore Ravens deal getting worked out, where Steinberg is allowed what effectively would be an expansion team elsewhere, and the "new" Tampa Bay Rays take the field in either St Pete or Tampa once a new stadium is built to replace Tropicana Field. And I say that's the worst case, because I have the feeling St Pete is going to have some leverage here to negotiate something better.
Latvala's commrnt that the Rays ownership is only concerned about his "bottom line" illustrates the difference in viewpoint between a politician and a business owner.
If anyone is going to own a sports franchise, they should meet the payroll requirements instead of being cheap. Perhaps Sternberg should offer a share to the Glazer family who own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Or any local businessman.
Sternberg is dead wrong here. Absolutely... there will be costs associated with the county dragging their feet, but to Brodies point... 1) it's not hundreds of millions, 2) if there was no extra room in the budget, he could never have gotten this done anyways. That said, he's NOT Fisher. His teams are competitive. Where I caution everyone to be careful here, though, is that Sternberg has put MANY winning teams on the field despite low attendance. Be very cautious about what you wish for with a new owner.
The Rays have nowhere to go, but the parking lot of Tropicana Field. Neither Nashville or Charlotte or Raleigh can afford a new 1.8 billion baseball stadium. Austin has no real interest. Portland ain't happening. Orlando is fine with what teams and attractions they have. Tampa already called their bluff.
Not true. There are many in Orlando and central Florida who would gladly welcome an MLB team. There is a group working behind the scenes to get the Rays to relocate.
@BlackSaiyan24 Obviously, you didn't pay attention to the Orlando Magic's Amway Arena construction funding with the City of Orlando and Orange County, Florida governments, in the late 2000. Other than the Citrus Bowl renovation, currently, those governmental entities are done funding sports arenas for billionaires. Those entities are not even willing to increase hotel bed tax to pay for such projects. There's a reason a top 20 media market, like Orlando, has only one professional team.
@@supremeb3563 the reason Orlando has one pro team is much simpler: Tampa. The proximity to Tampa cancels each other out when it comes to sports and other things like concerts.
@BlackSaiyan24 Just 15 years ago, Las Vegas was a no-go for professional sports because of gambling. Washington, DC was too close to Baltimore to have an MLB baseball team. Look what happened. Those two cities have what they didn't have 20 years ago because of public funding. Orlando is only about funding MLS and barely NBA. Orlando could have easily taken the Jaguars away from Jacksonville, but Orlando will not spend over a billion to build an NFL stadium. Please review the negotiations for the Magic's current NBA arena. Also, and unfortunately, Pat Williamsthe, founder of the Orlando Magic and head of the group to bring MLB to Orlando, recently passed away.
That's going to be a waist on millions and millions dollars Just take the team to Orlando Disney Would be more than Happy and is a better market for tourism
Why wouldn’t you fix the Trop if you’ll be paying the Yankees the same amount of money to rent Steinbrenner field? Because you have no intention to stay.
I like the fact that St. Pete is playing hardball with this greedy owner. Sternberg would leave the Tampa area if it were just that easy but it ain't. Remember MLB gave Tampa Bay a team because of what George Steinbrenner(a Tampa resident) did for baseball.
If Stu tries to takes the team anywhere else it will be out of spite because he's not going to get a better deal anywhere other than what the current development plan is offering. He'd be a complete fool not to just get some other investors involved because the potential future earnings in this development is off the charts, the area is exploding in development and value. If he's that stubborn not to get more owners/investors involved then he's stubborn enough to try to move the team out of spite in which case MLB needs to step in. The MLB wants to keep the team in Tampa, the owners still have to approve any move, and from what I understand after the Oakland debacle they are apprehensive to do that again. And if that happens, Stu will then sell the team if he can't get his way, so in essence MLB will have forced him to sell the team that is my prediction!
The city and county have done what they agreed to do and will not do more. If the Rays don't like that then they can walk away, but they lose all development rights to the land.
Unfortunately the cost of building new stadiums is about to go up yet again as the cost of construction materials go up especially due to Trumps new Tariffs. At some point watch team ownership completely walk away and negotiate a move to SLT. Thus triggering the city of St. Pete and or the County to sue the team.
If I'm Manfred I would move Tampa Bay Rays to the Alamodome and have them become the San Antonio Rays and they then play in the National League West. This would be made possible by swapping the leagues of the Colorado Rockies and the Rays so in the end the Rockies would play in the American League West.
The Rockies simply don't stand a chance being competitive at that altitude while they are in the same division as San Francisco and Los Angeles and San Diego.
Austin is a faster growing, wealthier alternative. Team would need to be in same division with Astros & Rangers. They would need the attendance while they establish their own fanbase
Sounds like the a’s and the coyotes no one likes the owner or sell some of the land and Brodie Brazil I don’t think Utah would not any thing To do with the current owner
The big mistake was to locate an MLB team in a city that does not really care about the team and is not large enough to economically support the team. Rays know this and should have just decided to move and not put on this charade to appear like their care about St. Pete and want to stay. (I reach this opinion having lived in St. Pete for 13 months in 2014-5.)
There are over a million people that live within a 30 minute drive of the stadium site. The populations of St Pete, Large, Clearwater, Pinellas Park, Pasadena, and surrounding beach communities are larger than Tampa's entire population by over 200K while taking up less space than Tampa. There are more people near the stadium than there are for the Reds, Pirates, Rangers, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Brewers, and Twins. The biggest issue in the area is people in Hillsborough whining about crossing bridges - but that had changed since you lived here for 13 months. St Pete is now a hot spot and people come over all the time. The issue with the current stadium is it has the aesthetics of a Costco. Give people something that feels unique and exiting and the attendance won't be an issue.
Unfortunately the cost of building new stadiums is about to go up yet again as the cost of construction materials go up especially due to Trumps new Tariffs.
You don’t trust the owner but trust the commissioner,wow…..does baseball seem fair to you,if the rich teams are aloud to get the best free agents then they shouldn’t be aloud to pick the young talent in the draft after they acquire a top FA or Asian player..You want to live with free agents then go ahead,while the lesser teams feast on the young talent…
ppl need to realize not a single person in the state of florida wants the rays in st pete. nobody, they need to move the team to tampa or relocate elsewhere it is embarrassing
@ my point has nothing to do with money, nobody in florida wants the team in a small ritzy expensive hard to get to part of the county. It make access for games terrible. Avg attendance for Rays games the last 15 years is around 1/20th of its capacity they are a joke. st pete holds them hostage there to the detriment of the team and fans
@@panowa8319 I’m from seattle so I have a lot of experience w the sodo district and it is awesome imo. Yes there are parking garages etc but the best way to experience games is to walk from downtown or take the light rail etc. the accessibility is not bad and being that close to downtown is a huge plus
Where are they going to build by Raymond James? The old Tampa Stadium site that’s a parking lot cause they got the Tampa Yankees facility across the street on one side the other side they got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice field and offices and home.
Rays like the A’s ~ pathetic ownership! Rays rebuild in the same area ~ stupid! Rays need to move ~ ORLANDO ~ YES! Orlando will bring success & make $$$
We always knew we would get to this part of your unrealistic reporting. The rays always had the burden to cover cost overruns. The only plausible remaining negotiation is whether the city should give up on their Tropicana field repairs and send those funds towards the overruns.
WHEN will we have some resolution on the Rays?
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Middle of 2025... we need to see the attendance in Tampa and see if Hillsborough County is willing to spend money on a stadium.
Like the A’s situation, “resolved” in my mind is defined as “heavy construction gets underway.” 2031 at the earliest.
You are covering this better than anyone in Tampa
I truly appreciate you covering this.
I’m a Rays fan. Florida is a baseball state, but the Rays ownership doesn’t win them any favors.
Stu earns all of the condescension and disrespect. If the Rays want to speed the process up, start today.
Florida is a baseball state. But it’s full of other teams fans
"won't be able to build it in time"
This is the same sudden excuse John Fisher and Dave Kaval used when they suddenly walked out of negotiations with Oakland.
They're using the A's playbook to get out of the deal.
right, and they want to keep the land too
@@brodiebrazil they're not keeping the land. They don't even own the land NOW; the Rays have a lease with St Petersburg.
The day is coming where municipalities will no longer fund sports facilities. Why? The cost involved.
Stu has always been a millionaire crybaby, it's honestly shameful, after the county is working on clean up and recovery efforts after the hurricane he's begging for more handouts because he's always unwilling to invest in the team he owns. I'm really tired of these owners playing the poor me card, if they are unable to afford investing in a major league team, they never should have been allowed to purchase the darn thing in the first place.
If the county is too cheap and stingy to pay for the stadium, he should find another that will (and there are others that are). He should bring it to places that are actually interested in having them and are willing to pay for it. There are a lot more counties and cities that want and are willing to subsidize pro sports teams than they are pro sports teams, so it's in his favor as he has a limited and valuable asset.
@kicapanmanis1060
Ummm... but the city and county already did pass bonds to fund the stadium... it's all on Stu now to finish the job and now he's crying that he doesn't have enough money...
If that's the case he needs to sell the team
sorry people, billionaires rule the USA. Stu holds all the cards. He has places to move. If he moves the Rays they are gone forever. Unfair? Yes. Looks like Stu has made up his mind to move, and the politicians are postering to avoid being blamed. Yeah, it’s unfair. Tough shit. Wake up and grow up.
@@scottstark2286 - You, defending the Brian Thompson types is reason enough you too
Diane-Edgar-Sara-Evelyn-Ron-Valerie-Eddie
to be a
Britney-Rhea-Angela-Ingrid-Noelle-Leslie-Ethyl-Sam-Sally
Carl-Otto-Rosemary-Pam-Simon-Evan!
Said it best
Great episode Brodie!! I’ve enjoyed your reporting on ALL these stadium issues….
Hey Brodie! Small thing but as a news reporter in my first market (Tallahassee), your conversational style of speaking is a huge inspiration for me. You definitely have a broadcaster voice as well! I do my best to emulate it and not sound so reporter-like in my packages. (my reel is on my channel, I always appreciate feedback 😁)
p.s. I’m also a Tampa Bay boy, this coverage is how I found you!
and yes covering hurricanes (Helene especially here in north FL) are exactly as stressful as you think!
14:36 Brodie goofs and says 2008. Got em! 😂
Jeff Vinik would turn the Rays into a contender. The lightning were almost relocated and he turned them into a Dynasty. It takes time and patience. The Bolts started in 2009 and only won in 2020. Ten years. I think Rays and A's fan would be up for that with proper ownership.
The Lightning started in 1992 and won a Stanley Cup in 2004.
@robertbrezinski9348 Yeah but they almost relocated in 2009 and won a cup in 2020. Got new owners and stuff changes. that was my point. Buddy I'm a Sens fan I know when the Bolts got into the NHL.
@@timmanto1022 Yep. The Bolts had some dark years after their 2004 cup. They needed a complete rebuild from ownership, players, and facilities. Vinik did that. Vinik also is getting out of the sports business. He sold the Lightning but will remain managing partner for three years to ensure the new owners have a good handle on the team before he steps away.
@@ArizonaHotSauce Good to know.
The Haslams have seen the Crew win the MLS Cup, but can't make the Browns win their division. Methinks past performance doesn't indicate potential results in ownership.
I'd love to hear Brodie interview these reporters!
Terrific coverage again! This is such a great way to give us insight we can’t get anywhere else. Thank you!
Hey Brodie, I need to point out from Seattle that we went through this crap too. Also, T-Mobile Park (nee Safeco Field) opened in July - mid season. SSDD - with billions involved for all parties.
Please move to Ybor City.
Terrific episode
Love all your insight!
This is a great video, Brodie. I'm now fully convinced that the rays are going to Utah
We wouldn’t be in this position if the city of St. Pete didn’t change the insurance coverage of Tropicana Field back in March.
That decision lowered the maximum amount of money an insurance company would pay for a claim from $100 million to $25 million for wind and flood damage.
St. Pete has a strong Mayor form of government. A decision to change the insurance coverage would have to go through the Mayor's office.
The local officials are sure acting like the Ray's don't have SLC in their back pocket just in case.
The Blue Jays didn’t move into SkyDome until June 1989. There is ZERO excuse for a 1-2 month delay in construction funding to cause the move in date to be pushed back a full year.
30 years ago
Here is one piece of this soon to be stadium fiasco that NO-ONE is looking at. When the deal was made back in July, the expectation was that Tropicana Field would be the playing home of the Tampa Bay Rays until the new stadium opened in 3 years.
Now the Trop is gone - it's not available for the Rays to play in. Does anyone realize just how much of the Rays income disappeared with the Trop?
When the deal was made in July, I'm sure the Rays were counting on 3 years of revenue coming from the use of Tropicana Field - normal ticket sales, food sales, sales of anything and everything with a Rays logo on it. They now have to rent Steinbrenner Field from the Yankees. The non-food sales isn't going to match since there aren't near as many outlets in a minor league stadium.
The Rays income is not likely to come anywhere close at Steinbrenner than it would at the Trop.
I'm not a big fan of the Rays and how they are handling this. BUT the city/county doesn't seem to be aware of this point, either.
This is all true but the point still stands that none of that is the county’s concern nor responsibility. The county also has larger expenses due to the hurricane (and future storms) and any issues that the county encounters will not allow them to get out of the deal. If the Rays expect to lose more than $50 million because they will be displaced from the Trop then they have only themselves to blame for not spending that amount of money on a new roof for the Trop and moving forward with the new stadium project with modifications due to a smaller pool of funds to draw from.
Doesn't make $$$ sense to replace the roof on the Trop just to play two or three seasons..... @@ericsundvold2190
Politicians pretend like the rays didn’t lose their home too
Brodie tapping his keyboard like Mozart playing his harpsichord
Thank you for the information. I hate seeing teams leave fans. The Spurs threaten to leave to Baltimore in the late 1990’s.
Agree with Bruiser Brodie re. the Pinellas county rep's statement "pretty close to nil". Manfred is an MLB employee hired by the owners to work for them. Sternberg is one of those owners. As long as Sternberg continues to meet all his obligations as an MLB owner, no one can force him to sell the team. Also, I suspect a rather large portion of other owners are probably silently with Sternberg since, should the Rays move, they can point to it as a warning re. future asks of their own.
In my opinion, MLB can step in when it wants to keep the Tampa/St. Pete TV market. And when I say step in, that means they have the means now to say that since the Rays worker dall these deals and actually got the local community to pony up $600M, that the Rays have to do their part. If not then the Rays ownership is a drag on what good owners are for the entirety of the league. If the city/county backed out in any way then that wouldnt' be on the Rays and Manfred would side with the team, but now since the city/county all did their part to offer $600M, and as to what the Rays said would be enough, then the Rays have to do their part too.
I suspect that if that happens then the MLB will get involved painting the Rays as bad ownership members for the league and are bringing all the other owners down with their antics. Then with enough momentum, a (whatever percentage, 2/3 or 3/4) vote would be enough to force the Rays to sell. So yes, MLB can force the owners to sell if conditions are right. See the Clippers recent situation forcing the previous owner to sell the team to Steve Ballmer. There is precedent for this among the four big leagues of this happening.
Good video Brodie! I think you should talk to David Samson…he helped build Marlin’s Park. He might have some other answers to this as well!
Bottom line. St. Pete does NOT support the Rays. They drew only 19,000 a game to 2 PLAYOFF games. I have lived in Pinellas County for over 45 years. This Chris Latvala is nothing more than a postering son of a political power couple Jack and Susan Latvala. Don’t be fooled people. The Rays are leaving and should leave. Whether it should be Hillsborough County or somewhere else is the only question.
Fans in the stand do not represent TV ratings. The Rays are a top 10 team when it comes to TV market and revenue. The optics of a lack of fans is what's so easy for everyone to always say nobody cares about the Rays when in fact many do.
In fairness, the 2 playoff games were in the middle the day during the week when people have to work.
FYI, the A's set a wild card game record crowd of over 54k back in 2019 but Oakland gets no support according to Fisher and MLB. With a new ballpark and decent ownership, they would draw well.
My hunches: Only way the Rays stay in St. Pete is if Sternberg sells the team and the new owner commits to keeping the Rays there long-term and fulfills the team's end of the existing new ballpark agreement (perhaps with a few minor tweaks). If Sternberg doesn't sell the team, I suspect he'll take another crack at a new stadium agreement with the city of Tampa / Hillsborough County first. Alternatively, though the Orlando group currently doesn't have full financing in place for their new MLB ballpark proposal, they are much further along in the process than any other group/city outside SLC and may end up with the team if they can get a new stadium deal done (I think Manfred would prefer to keep the Rays in Florida). The only currently available option is of course SLC if Sternberg agrees to sell the team to the Miller group and MLB approves the relocation.
These people are kidding themselves if they think there’s zero chance of moving the Rays, wake up and look at what they did to me and everyone in Oakland
New Rays slogan: "Here To Stray".
Single owners selling shares of a team to finance their stadium is scarcely a new idea. Charles Ebbets did so to acquire partial financing to build Ebbets Field.
The Seattle Mariners play in the Kingdom until Safeco Field now known as T-Mobile Park was ready for them to move over so why the hell can a team do that play in a Minor League then partway through the season like the Seattle Mariners moved into their new home
I agree that you can't force someone to sell their property. Unfortunately, Roman Abramovich was forced to sell and received no money from the sale.
That's a tennis analogy.
Brodie,
The way things stand, I think the Rays spend another season at Steinbrenner Field. Which looks **bad** for MLB to have two teams playing full seasons at minor league parks.
The actual shocked expression I made when I saw the news of my favorite sports team's stadium ripped apart by a hurricane
Despite all the howling and finger-pointing, keep in mind the long-term consequences of a relocation, and not just for Rays fans. It's a blow to the city's credibility, livability index, and economy.
The Rays should just assert that the costs will be the same as originally assumed, get the money from the sale of the bonds and start the project. If there are cost overruns in 2 or 3 years, they can figure out that problem then.
18:40 could St Pete eminent domain the Rays? (Probably not)
Though, if Stu can't come up with the funding, either by selling part of the team or getting loans, maybe he and the Rays shouldn't have agreed to a deal where they take all the risk of overruns, because everyone and their mother knew that, even if the hurricane hadn't happened, there are going to be overruns. Every stadium costs more than it was originally budgeted for. Period. Full stop.
As a Montreal Expos baseball fan and season ticket holder for their last 5 years in Montreal I would say... Do whatever it takes to keep Baseball because once they leave they may never come back. I'm living that reality and it's pretty dismall. Go Rays!
Do you have any idea what the inflation rate is for construction materials and labor? Try 20%. Rays need to move to Hillsborough County.
They need to sell at least 40 to 50% of the team to actually build the stadium they want
Also notice the similarities with the Arizona Coyotes situation. Now that the mention of "finding a new owner" has occurred, would MLB take the same measures that the NHL took? And, are we facing critical mass with regards to new stadium projects?
IDo you think that the contractor is is waiting around for this? The contractor may have to postpone the start of the project to work on something else first.
Also cost of materials and labor go up all the time! Just a thought.
I don't see why they bother with building stadiums anymore; people are just going to go online and watch holograms dancing around and hitting balls, much like they no longer answer doorbells or telephones, or go to the mall.
I just don't see some other region giving any more than the record $600+ million for a stadium. Stu needs to put up or shut up.
The best offer they’re getting is from Saint Petersburg unfortunately I live in Pinellas County. I would much rather see them move out of Pinellas county .I pay thousands and thousands of dollars in property taxes with my different properties to Stu . municipality should never be paying for stadiums. Tech data is based here they’re $35-$40 billion company we’re not building their facility..
MLB needs to consider that moving to a community like St. Pete in 1998 which has as its residents people who migrated there during their life will likely not support the hometown team if initial Ownership going back to 1995 before the first pitch was thrown on March 31, 1998 --Vince Naimoli and current owner Stuart Sternberg are cheap and could care less about the local fans. I have been saying that Stu must go as he famously stated after the epic 2008 season "it wasn't the best year to win....because of the current state of the economy he couldn't add to payroll". WHAT? In 2009 the Rays finish in 3rd place when they should have been a playoff team but Stu backed all the revenue.
After 30 years the Tampa Bay area has morphed into another strata of city but the Rays ownership appears bankrupt and the failure to replace the Trop room after it aged out in 2016 is unacceptable by Rays ownership.
At this point in time just move the Team to Tampa only if there is new ownership or keep the team in St. Pete and have Cathie Wood buy the team with her ARK Investment Management LLC HQ in downtown St. Pete.
I'm a native of the Tampa Bay Area, I've followed this team since the day they announced MLB would be expanding to the Bay Area in March, 1995. I stood in line with my parents for hours at University Mall in Temple Terrace outside Sears to get merchandise when it first came out.
Without going into massive details about how MLB waited too long to expand to Florida, how the populace of Florida went through massive change in the 1990's, and how MLB screwed both teams over by putting them into divisions with the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Phillies, there is a LOT of history and information surrounding changes in the state starting in the 70's and completely bottoming out in the 90's changed how Florida as a whole became what it is now, but I digress.
A lot of people put Naimoli and Stu in the same camp and call both cheap, but both were completely polar opposite. Naimoli spent money, he didn't spend Yankee money, but he DID go out and initially get Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff, and Wilson Alvarez. He DID go out a few years later and spend big money to bring in Jose Canseco, Vinny Castilla, and Greg Vaughn. If you're from the Tampa Bay Area and you've been around the Rays for awhile, surely you remember the "Hit Show" aptly nicknamed the "$hit Show."
Naimoli made two huge manager hires with Rothschild and Piniella, but his front office was terrible and he lost.
Stu on the other hand, has been the epitome of cheap but he surrounded himself with excellent personnel and not only wins, but wins often.
I no longer live in the Bay Area, but I have a subscription to the Times, I'm still very active in Rays news and social media. I think it's incredible how misinformed and ignorant a lot of people in the Bay Area have been throughout this whole process.
Stu owns the team, he bought the team 20 years ago. Just as was the case in Oakland, you can't just tell someone to sell the team and expect them to do so. The Rays are an ATM to Stu and despite his consistently putting some of the cheapest payrolls in history on the field, he WINS.
Sure, Stu makes a lot of stupid comments and he doesn't make moves that you'd want an owner in your town to make, BUT he's not a Floridian. Stu is a wealthy New Yorker and despite the dumb things he says and his playing hardball over a new stadium, HE WINS.
A few things to chew on... When Hugh Culverhouse died and the Bucs were put on the auction block, NO ONE local stepped up to buy them. Malcolm Glazer from New York stepped up and bought the team. Less than a year later, he gave an ultimatum, build a new stadium or I'm moving the team to Baltimore. The stadium vote passed but it barely passed.
Likewise, when the Lightning went up for sale, NO ONE local stepped up to buy them, Jeff Vinik (New Jersey) bought them.
Billionaires aren't growing on trees in the Tampa Bay Area. I don't have the exact number on hand, but I believe the Bay Area has like 9 billionaires and 8 of them are over the age of 70.
The Baltimore Orioles were the last team to sell and they sold for about $1.75 billion. IF Stu were to sell the team, first off, he's not going to just sell the team to a local, he's going to sell to the highest bidder. In an area where there's a lack of billionaires and the overwhelming majority of them are over 70, who's going to outbid someone from Nashville, Portland, or hell, even the San Francisco Bay Area that might want to bring MLB back?
What billionaire in the Tampa Bay Area is going to spend close to $2 billion dollars for the Rays, then turn around and put another billion into a stadium? Oh yeah, everyone demanding for Stu to sell the stadium seems to forget that he's also putting tons of his own cash into this deal.
I hate to defend Stu Sternberg, but he's only trying to get what his team deserves.
People demanding that he sells the team aren't thinking clearly. There's a chance, as slim as it may be, that someone from Florida could buy the team but NO ONE is going to buy the team with the intent of keeping them in St. Petersburg.
As for Tampa, the Rays have been talking to Tampa and Hillsborough County since 2018 and nothing has materialized. Pinellas County granted them permission to explore opportunities in Tampa during a one year window and in their initial talks, the sides were so far apart that they went close to 9 months without any talks happening. Tampa is broke and is on the verge of having to deal with new facilities for the Bucs and possibly the Lightning.
Unless Tampa finds a way to add a new tax to build a stadium, that's not going to happen. There doesn't seem to be an appetite in Hillsborough County for MORE taxes, especially to house a billionaires play toy, BUT if there's anything that will rally taxpayers in Hillsborough County, it's giving the finger the Pinellas County, so who knows?
@@trclark7689 The billionaire buyer doesn't have to live here to keep the team here you know. You ignore that the Tampa market is bigger than any market that doesn't already have an MLB franchise. Of all the places that people keep bringing up, Orlando and Charlotte are closest in size but are both still 500,000 smaller than the Tampa metro area. The Rays were being unreasonable in their dealings with Hillsborough and maybe a different owner would have a different result and move the team to the other side of the bay where they belong.
@@acebragg5559 Every single person that I've seen mention that "Stu sell the team" said that he needs to sell to a "local buyer." Every single person that says that is under the assumption that Stu is going to take less than market value just so the team can stay in the Bay Area and that's just NOT the case. No one is going to pay market value for this team only to turn around and have to spend another billion to build a stadium, especially in a city that historically doesn't support the team.
It's also a bit of a reach to assume that the next owner is going to be on board with the development plan in St. Pete and be willing to invest in an African-American museum and affordable housing. It's a weird ask and no one's going to do it.
That said, people put too much stock into "market size." MLB just approved a relocation from the 10th largest market to the 40th largest market with the A's relocation to Las Vegas. When MLB approved the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington DC, they left the 2nd largest market in Canada for what's now the 9th largest market in the U.S.
Since the Raiders relocated to Los Angeles in 1982, the only times the NFL has left a smaller market for a larger one has ALL included Los Angeles.
The Colts left Baltimore for Indianapolis in 84.
The Cardinals left St. Louis for Phoenix, which was much smaller in 1987.
The Rams left Los Angeles for St. Louis in 95.
The Raiders left Los Angeles for Oakland in 95.
The Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore in 96.
The Oilers left Houston for Nashville in 97.
The Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles in 16.
The Chargers left San Diego for Los Angeles in 17.
The Raiders left Oakland for Las Vegas in 20.
Most relocations see a team leaving a larger market for a smaller market because the larger market is unwilling to build a stadium and the smaller market wants to become a "big league" city.
For a league like MLB that's historically made its teams get their own television deal, market size doesn't matter. The A's played in the 10th largest market in the country and their television deal was terrible.
People keep bringing up Orlando and Charlotte (and Nashville) because they're uneducated on what's actually going on in those cities. Orlando has tourism money that they need to spend, but they're not spending it on an MLB stadium, they're spending it on Camper World Stadium.
Charlotte refused to give money to the Panthers for a new stadium and instead agreed to a renovation. They don't have any money for a new MLB stadium.
Nashville just agreed to give $700 million that they didn't have to the Titans because they were contractually obligated to do so. They also have maintenance costs on like six other facilities. They have ZERO interest in spending on another stadium.
The Rays weren't being unreasonable with Hillsborough County and Tampa. Everything that I've read about the situation including JP Peterson, Ken Hagan, and some media guests on the "Locked on Rays" podcast suggested that Tampa/Hillsborough were unwilling to issue bonds ahead of time to build a stadium, again, because the city and county are broke and don't want to build a stadium. Their plan was to have the Rays build the stadium with minimal money coming from Tampa/Hillsborough upfront, then the city/country essentially reimbursing the team through tax proceeds after the fact.
The Rays are a poor team with one of the poorer owners in the league, that type of deal is unreasonable for the Rays.
I swear, I wish people did their research on these issues before arguing over them.
Final thought: The last time a team sold in MLB was the Orioles last year for $1.75 billion dollars. If Stu were going to sell the team, he's not going to sell it at a discount. Who in their right mind is going to pay $2 billion dollars for the Rays when they're going to have to turn around and spend another billion on a stadium?
At this point, it's more likely that someone else is going to spend $2 billion dollars (which is the estimated expansion team cost) and move them to a city that either has a stadium plan put together already (Utah) or a location where they're a part of a group that's willing to spend private money to build a stadium (Nashville/Portland.)
People that keep putting cities like Austin, Charlotte, Montreal, Orlando, etc into the equation are being lazy and just looking at open markets. None of those cities have viable options at this time to bring in an MLB franchise. Obviously, things can change, but as of right now, the only viable options for relocation is Salt Lake City (via relocation or expansion) and Nashville/Portland ONLY if a team is bought by the groups that are actively looking to buy a team and privately finance a stadium.
As of right now, Tampa is NOT a viable option.
Could that change between now and March? Sure.
Is it likely? No.
I think you mean "couldn't" care less
@@trclark7689The CIT tax that funded RayJay stadium was just renewed in the last election. So there is $$ available for a Rays stadium in Tampa.
Must current rumor is they might be moving to Austin TX if the stadium deal collapses
Source or you made it up!
The rays could move to Oakland 😂 now. There is a old stadium not being used...
MLB will never return to Oakland unfortunately
Glad someone in the comments finally suggested this 🙃
*The Rays* . . . have a crucial bargaining chip that's not mentioned in this video: Tampa is contractually responsible for fixing Tropicana. Tampa needs to negotiate with the Rays about fixing (or not fixing) Tropicana -- they can't get out of that responsibility. The Rays have leverage there . . .
Brodie, I swear your voice is not that far off from Mr Street Cred on the scene there. Really.
Agreed. I said that out loud when I heard him say that. Brodie's voice is spot on for that same type of TV/radio voice.
Word on the street is MLB and its owners are tired of Stu's antics and want to get rid of him (how I don't know). There is an ownership group from Tampa that wants to buy the team and build a stadium in Tampa or at very least in Pinellas closer to Tampa.
The chances of major cost overruns increases with the proposed tariffs the new federal administration is proposing. Lumber, metal and labor costs will rise.
Rays should partner with Disney and build a state of the art stadium at Wide World of Sports
That reporters you commented on. You’re seriously right there with him. I mean, you actually sound similar
haha, yeah, most everyone who spent time working long years in tv all sounds the same, if I'm being honest
Municipalities and states need to form some form of collective bargaining / united front to prevent sports owners from leveraging them against each other.
I 100% hope the Rays show their true colors and move to an entirely different market. Baseball needs a wake up call with all these owners acting like jilted children in a sandbox when they don't get their public money or enough public money. The Rays are bad faith actors here and, just like John Fisher, have no respect for their Tampa/St. Pete fan base. This is all transactional and they are merely in this for the sport of collecting money, not the sport of baseball.
Let the team go to Omaha. Nashville. Salt Lake City. Who cares? The other 29 owners and Manfred don't
I certainly hope that relocation history doesn't repeat itself, but nothing is looking promising again, here
There's a Tampa/St Pete fan base?
Agreed, they should go to somewhere they're more appreciated. The people here clearly don't.
@@herotomillions4095What a cheap joke , the TV ratings are up there.
@@herotomillions4095For hockey there sure is. Lightning play in front of a sold-out Amalie arena almost every night. Of course that team plays to win the Stanley Cup and not just pad the bottom line of ownership.
Just a quick question. The Rays plan on building and a hurricane destroys dozens of structures in the city where you are building it. Now there is a large demand for building materials and construction labor in that city. Do you think your price goes up maybe 10% due to the basic laws of supply and demand? If you had been able to secure contracts before that hurricane would you have saved at least 10% due to the price being lower? That's $130 million dollars folks. Basic economics tells you all the costs changed since July. While the Rays did agree to cover cost overruns, do you really think it's fair for them to cover all the increases that resulted from a hurricane? I don't really think they were signing up for those numbers.
Outdoor baseball in FL will NOT work. It is way too hot.
Nothing new, a greedy owner trying to squeeze more cash out of the city/state, then wail they're being ripped off. I know people who live there, who have said they've had enough and wish they'd just pack up and leave.
If Stu had done things right, they would have made a deal to move to Tampa years ago and we would be putting the finishing touches on a new stadium as we speak. I think their original deal with St Pete was supposed to run out in 2027. This is why people have lost patience with Stu. You would assume he wants to move to Tampa but Stu needs to close a land development deal and screw the city on his way out.
Back when Tampa was working to bring a team here back in the 90’s, MLB was very clear that they wanted a stadium in Tampa and NOT in St Petersburg, and yet here we are, AGAIN. The Rays will only succeed if two things happen, 1. Sternberg sells the team to a local investor, and a stadium is built in Tampa and not St Pete.
Seems like the site of the existing stadium is marginal at best re the fan base attending games. Developing the district will be millions and millions more.
New Stadiums are a wasted of resources. The fact that hurricanes can cause this much damage and confusion. They should just renovate the hell out of Tropicana and play in a minor league ballpark in the meantime.
Okay, look. St Petersburg is not Oakland. First of all, St Pete doesn't have a neighboring city with its own MLB team, limiting the options for in-market relocation, as Oakland has in the San Francisco Giants. So right there, any comparison between the Rays and the A's is going to come up short, because in theory the Rays have options (Tampa chief among them) that the A's didn't have in, say, San Jose.
But even beyond that... the SOLE reason we're in this drama after the "done deal" this past summer, and the BIGGEST difference between St Pete and Oakland, is Hurricane Milton. MLB cannot afford to allow that to be the reason a team switches markets. Ask anyone who was in league leadership in the NFL or NBA around the time of Hurricane Katrina: Losing a team because of a hurricane is a PR nightmare that MLB isn't going to want to deal with.
You say Manford works for the Rays, but that's only 1/30th true. Manford works for ALL the MLB teams. Even if Steinberg is itching to leave, the other 29 teams aren't going to want this headache. Worst case scenario for Tampa Bay fans, I see something like a Cleveland Browns-Baltimore Ravens deal getting worked out, where Steinberg is allowed what effectively would be an expansion team elsewhere, and the "new" Tampa Bay Rays take the field in either St Pete or Tampa once a new stadium is built to replace Tropicana Field. And I say that's the worst case, because I have the feeling St Pete is going to have some leverage here to negotiate something better.
Welcome to Orlando!
Latvala's commrnt that the Rays ownership is only concerned about his "bottom line" illustrates the difference in viewpoint between a politician and a business owner.
If anyone is going to own a sports franchise, they should meet the payroll requirements instead of being cheap. Perhaps Sternberg should offer a share to the Glazer family who own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Or any local businessman.
I don't blame the rays owner, and i don't blame the city either. They both have to look out for their own interest.
Sternberg is dead wrong here. Absolutely... there will be costs associated with the county dragging their feet, but to Brodies point... 1) it's not hundreds of millions, 2) if there was no extra room in the budget, he could never have gotten this done anyways.
That said, he's NOT Fisher. His teams are competitive.
Where I caution everyone to be careful here, though, is that Sternberg has put MANY winning teams on the field despite low attendance. Be very cautious about what you wish for with a new owner.
If they spent more than $1 to build that tilted Trop tower, they spent too much.
THAT SIGN WAS BUILT THAT WAY?????????????????
The Rays have nowhere to go, but the parking lot of Tropicana Field. Neither Nashville or Charlotte or Raleigh can afford a new 1.8 billion baseball stadium. Austin has no real interest. Portland ain't happening. Orlando is fine with what teams and attractions they have. Tampa already called their bluff.
Not true. There are many in Orlando and central Florida who would gladly welcome an MLB team. There is a group working behind the scenes to get the Rays to relocate.
@BlackSaiyan24 Obviously, you didn't pay attention to the Orlando Magic's Amway Arena construction funding with the City of Orlando and Orange County, Florida governments, in the late 2000. Other than the Citrus Bowl renovation, currently, those governmental entities are done funding sports arenas for billionaires. Those entities are not even willing to increase hotel bed tax to pay for such projects. There's a reason a top 20 media market, like Orlando, has only one professional team.
@@supremeb3563 the reason Orlando has one pro team is much simpler: Tampa. The proximity to Tampa cancels each other out when it comes to sports and other things like concerts.
@BlackSaiyan24 Just 15 years ago, Las Vegas was a no-go for professional sports because of gambling. Washington, DC was too close to Baltimore to have an MLB baseball team. Look what happened. Those two cities have what they didn't have 20 years ago because of public funding. Orlando is only about funding MLS and barely NBA. Orlando could have easily taken the Jaguars away from Jacksonville, but Orlando will not spend over a billion to build an NFL stadium. Please review the negotiations for the Magic's current NBA arena. Also, and unfortunately, Pat Williamsthe, founder of the Orlando Magic and head of the group to bring MLB to Orlando, recently passed away.
@@supremeb3563 I will do research actually (sincerely)
That's going to be a waist on millions and millions dollars
Just take the team to Orlando Disney Would be more than Happy and is a better market for tourism
When did “waste” become “waist”?
Why wouldn’t you fix the Trop if you’ll be paying the Yankees the same amount of money to rent Steinbrenner field? Because you have no intention to stay.
I like the fact that St. Pete is playing hardball with this greedy owner. Sternberg would leave the Tampa area if it were just that easy but it ain't.
Remember MLB gave Tampa Bay a team because of what George Steinbrenner(a Tampa resident) did for baseball.
The Rays will never play in St. Petersburg again.
Sternberg spends more time in Yankee Stadium than at the Trop. NYC carpetbagger.
If Stu tries to takes the team anywhere else it will be out of spite because he's not going to get a better deal anywhere other than what the current development plan is offering. He'd be a complete fool not to just get some other investors involved because the potential future earnings in this development is off the charts, the area is exploding in development and value. If he's that stubborn not to get more owners/investors involved then he's stubborn enough to try to move the team out of spite in which case MLB needs to step in. The MLB wants to keep the team in Tampa, the owners still have to approve any move, and from what I understand after the Oakland debacle they are apprehensive to do that again. And if that happens, Stu will then sell the team if he can't get his way, so in essence MLB will have forced him to sell the team that is my prediction!
The city and county have done what they agreed to do and will not do more. If the Rays don't like that then they can walk away, but they lose all development rights to the land.
Tampa to Austin. Plenty of billionaires in the Austin area.
Unfortunately the cost of building new stadiums is about to go up yet again as the cost of construction materials go up especially due to Trumps new Tariffs. At some point watch team ownership completely walk away and negotiate a move to SLT. Thus triggering the city of St. Pete and or the County to sue the team.
If I'm Manfred I would move Tampa Bay Rays to the Alamodome and have them become the San Antonio Rays and they then play in the National League West. This would be made possible by swapping the leagues of the Colorado Rockies and the Rays so in the end the Rockies would play in the American League West.
The Rockies to me scream a franchise in need of a fresh start
The Rockies simply don't stand a chance being competitive at that altitude while they are in the same division as San Francisco and Los Angeles and San Diego.
The Rockies have had incredibly good attendance despite their record. This would never happen.
It’s good you’re not Manfred 🙃
Austin is a faster growing, wealthier alternative. Team would need to be in same division with Astros & Rangers. They would need the attendance while they establish their own fanbase
An owner with just concerns for the bottom line and not baseball shouldn’t be in the game if you can’t figure out how to make money
Sounds like the a’s and the coyotes no one likes the owner or sell some of the land and Brodie Brazil I don’t think Utah would not any thing To do with the current owner
The big mistake was to locate an MLB team in a city that does not really care about the team and is not large enough to economically support the team. Rays know this and should have just decided to move and not put on this charade to appear like their care about St. Pete and want to stay. (I reach this opinion having lived in St. Pete for 13 months in 2014-5.)
There are over a million people that live within a 30 minute drive of the stadium site. The populations of St Pete, Large, Clearwater, Pinellas Park, Pasadena, and surrounding beach communities are larger than Tampa's entire population by over 200K while taking up less space than Tampa.
There are more people near the stadium than there are for the Reds, Pirates, Rangers, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Brewers, and Twins. The biggest issue in the area is people in Hillsborough whining about crossing bridges - but that had changed since you lived here for 13 months. St Pete is now a hot spot and people come over all the time. The issue with the current stadium is it has the aesthetics of a Costco. Give people something that feels unique and exiting and the attendance won't be an issue.
Unfortunately the cost of building new stadiums is about to go up yet again as the cost of construction materials go up especially due to Trumps new Tariffs.
Just move them to Albuquerque 🤙
These Tampa folks seem like amateurs. $300 million? of course the team isn't moving forward with that.
You don’t trust the owner but trust the commissioner,wow…..does baseball seem fair to you,if the rich teams are aloud to get the best free agents then they shouldn’t be aloud to pick the young talent in the draft after they acquire a top FA or Asian player..You want to live with free agents then go ahead,while the lesser teams feast on the young talent…
I liked the video, BUT... for the next video lets not show the same news clips over and over and over again in the same video... 🤷♂😏
Evan Axelbank sounds like a made up name 🤔
Stuart Sternberg is the worst owner in professional sports!!!!! The worst!!!!!!
ppl need to realize not a single person in the state of florida wants the rays in st pete. nobody, they need to move the team to tampa or relocate elsewhere it is embarrassing
Yes, he should bring it to places that are willing to pay to host a pro sports team, not these cheap-ass counties.
@ my point has nothing to do with money, nobody in florida wants the team in a small ritzy expensive hard to get to part of the county. It make access for games terrible. Avg attendance for Rays games the last 15 years is around 1/20th of its capacity they are a joke. st pete holds them hostage there to the detriment of the team and fans
It makes me wonder why not build it next Raymond James stadium? It seems to work well for the Seahawks and Mariners in Seattle's SoDo district.
@@panowa8319 I’m from seattle so I have a lot of experience w the sodo district and it is awesome imo. Yes there are parking garages etc but the best way to experience games is to walk from downtown or take the light rail etc. the accessibility is not bad and being that close to downtown is a huge plus
Where are they going to build by Raymond James? The old Tampa Stadium site that’s a parking lot cause they got the Tampa Yankees facility across the street on one side the other side they got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice field and offices and home.
San Antonio Rays
That guy must have never studied the cost overrun on Sofi because of a few weeks of rain. That overrun puts the ray's overrun to shame.
The timing of that rain aligned with ground digging work is what delayed SoFi. That does not apply here.
@@ArizonaHotSauce yeah. It does.
@@thepumpkinsatire There's always at least one clown in the comments...
Rays like the A’s ~ pathetic ownership!
Rays rebuild in the same area ~ stupid!
Rays need to move ~ ORLANDO ~ YES!
Orlando will bring success & make $$$
Hey dude I know you're from California the Shark suck
Eph you, troll.
@JonDoe-ln6nl I'll accept that because the Tampa Bay Lightning went up there and went before with them
We always knew we would get to this part of your unrealistic reporting. The rays always had the burden to cover cost overruns. The only plausible remaining negotiation is whether the city should give up on their Tropicana field repairs and send those funds towards the overruns.
MLB will never let them leave the Tampa market. The Bay Area is doing their part. The Rays will not be allowed to move far away.
Orlando isn’t far away :)
The Rays don’t want to be in St. Petersburg. Tampa maybe but not St. Pete.