Topline
Major League Baseball has denied the Tampa Bay Rays’ request to split time between the Tampa area and Montreal, Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said Thursday, which would have made the Rays the first split-city American professional sports franchise.
Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said Thursday that the team’s proposal to move part-time to … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key Facts
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told Sternberg on Tuesday that the league’s executive council rejected the Rays’ proposal, which came as a major surprise to Rays officials, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
In a Thursday press conference, Sternberg called the decision “deflating” and that he felt betrayed by his fellow MLB owners for the decision, adding that he believes dual-city franchises are the “future” of professional sports.
The Rays mulled the idea beginning in June 2019 and formally pitched MLB owners in November on a plan to spend the first half of the season in a new stadium in the Tampa area before moving to Montreal for the remainder of the season.
The Rays’ lease at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, its oft-criticized home stadium since 1998, expires in 2027 and Sternberg said the team will look into new stadium options in the Tampa Bay area.
Subpar financial performance has long plagued the Rays, who ranked 28th out of 30 MLB teams in terms of attendance in 2021 and booked a $23 million operating loss in the 2020 season.
Big Number
$1.055 billion. That’s how much the Rays are worth according to Forbes’ latest valuation of the team, making the Rays the second-least valuable MLB franchise.
Key Background
The Buffalo Bills of the National Football League toyed with the split-city idea previously, playing six regular season home games in Toronto between 2008 and 2013. The Bills’ Toronto experiment was generally considered a failure, with low attendance and negative fan response. Montreal hasn’t had an MLB team since the Expos left the city for Washington, D.C., in 2005, but Manfred said previously that Montreal is one of the league’s top targets for an expansion franchise.
Further Reading
MLB kills Rays’ split-city plan with Montreal (Tampa Bay Times)
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