ORLANDO, Fla. — Rays officials still haven’t gotten any clarity from other major-league owners or top executives during their quarterly meetings about why the plan to split future seasons in Montreal was killed.
While clearly disappointed with the decision and confident the plan would have worked, they have moved on to focus on finding a new full-time stadium home in the Tampa Bay area and say meetings with officials on both sides of the bay have been “great” thus far.
“At the time I had asked (for reasons for the Montreal vote), it was, ‘just a decision by the executive council,’ and it remains the same,” principal owner Stuart Sternberg said Wednesday at the meetings hotel.
“To rehash it — there’s no value for me rehashing it at this point. But it’s been nice to be around the senior baseball community here from all the other teams, they’ve all been very complimentary. And, quite frankly, a bit surprised at what happened, as we were. But stuff happens.”
With the 2027 end of their lease at Tropicana Field getting closer, the Rays are back to exploring stadium options in the Tampa Bay area. Sternberg said recent talks with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, new St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and other area officials have gone well.
“It’s been great to meet with them,” Sternberg said. “I’m glad people are interested and excited. People want us in the area, which is the most important thing. We want to be in the area, which is the most important thing.
“And we have both Mayor Castor and her administration, and new Mayor Welch and his administration and the county people, who have been nothing but supportive and eager to engage with us.”
A summary report from the Tampa Sports Authority provided some details of a plan for a potential Ybor City stadium, but the Rays need to hear and see more, which at some point will include the cost breakdown.
“It’s an incomplete picture of the work that they’ve been doing, and we’re eager to see that full pitch once it’s ready,” team president Matt Silverman said. “Rather than react to a news report, we’re excited to sit down with the city and the county and the TSA. We know they’ve been working hard on the effort, and we’re excited to see what they put together. They want to put their best foot forward, and we’re eager to see it.”
Sternberg said the Rays are willing to wait for the best-efforts version. “Whether it takes days or weeks at this point, we’re fine with it,” he said. “We’re looking forward to engaging.”
White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, one of the eight owners on the executive council, said he remains convinced the Rays can be successful in the Tampa Bay area.
“It should work,” said Reinsdorf, who considered moving his team to St. Petersburg in the late 1980s and sat on the expansion committee that awarded the franchise in 1995. “Yeah, it should work.”
What it will take, Reinsdorf said — as have many others — is a new ballpark.
“I think Stu should do what I think he’s trying to do, (which) is get a stadium built in the Tampa area,” Reinsdorf said.
As for where?
“That’s up to Stu,” Reinsdorf said. “Whatever he thinks works, works. I’ll be supportive of anything that Stu wants to do.”
Reinsdorf and Red Sox principal owner John Henry, another council member, declined Wednesday to share details on the Montreal decision. “You can’t possibly think I’m going to answer that question,” Reinsdorf said. “I can’t talk about what went on in the executive council meeting.”
League officials gave no reasons at the time, which surprised the Rays as they had been given permission in June 2019 to explore the plan and expected the go-ahead to try to make it work. According to several executives, there was no singular issue, but a series from different league facets. The Tampa Bay Times reported at the time that those included:
Some owners only wanting the Rays to use the plan as leverage for negotiations for a new full-time stadium in the Tampa Bay market; hesitancy over the complexity of the plan on such topics as TV markets and territorial rights; concern that the Rays could benefit greatly financially if it worked, as well as the potential for it to fail and create issues in two markets with long-term leases; and questions over how a deal would be worked out with the players.
The decision was not made, officials said, as part of the ongoing negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (which commissioner Rob Manfred will address Thursday in a media conference).
Also not a factor was input from the Blue Jays, who would have had to share the Canadian market, at least part-time. Toronto president Mark Shapiro said the Jays, who said they were in favor of the Rays exploring the plan, were not consulted by the council and also were surprised by the decision.
Sternberg said the Rays are working to find that next solution.
“We’re going to try our best,’’ he said. “We go into something, we put our best foot forward, and we’ll see. Fortunately, it’s not our first rodeo. And unfortunately, it’s not our first rodeo.”
