Thursday, Jan 20, 2022. 12:33 PM
(Update : Thursday, Jan 20, 2022. 1:30 PM)
MONTREAL – According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Tampa Bay Rays’ sister city project between St. Petersburg and Montreal has been abandoned by MLB.
The Florida Daily quotes a Major League Baseball source. Rays majority shareholder Stuart Sternberg is scheduled to meet the media at 1 p.m.
This project had however received the approval of the Executive Committee of Major League Baseball. In December 2020, Sternberg mentioned that the sister cities project was “the only option” the organization was considering to keep MLB in the Tampa/St. petersburg. For it to work, it involves the construction of two stadiums, one in the Tampa Bay region, the other in Montreal, to accommodate the club there for half a season each.
This decision will therefore force the leaders of the Rays to look for a full-time home, which they have already tried in vain in the past, especially in 2008 and 2018.
There is currently no support, private or public, for the construction of a stadium in Florida, where the Rays have a lease with Tropicana Field until the conclusion of 2027. In Montreal, the project of the Groupe Baseball Montréal (GBM) must first acquire land located in Peel Basin, belonging to the Canada Lands Company, which it would develop with the real estate developer Devimco.
Last December, Stephen Bronfman, spearhead of the WBG, met the newly re-elected team of Valérie Plante at the mayor of Montreal to present the progress of his group in its file and its vision regarding the development of the basin. Peel. He was accompanied by Claridge President Pierre Boivin, William Jegher, Leader, Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction, Eastern Region for EY and a close associate of Bronfman on the baseball comeback file, as well as the architect- urban planner Clément Demers.
Bronfman then promised that this project would be “more than a stadium” and that it would include a strong community component.
“It won’t just be a baseball stadium: it will be a community center for Montreal, which will operate 12 months a year,” he said. It’s missing in Montreal. It’s a way to give back to our city that we love so much. (…) We are talking about a neighborhood, about reviving a part of Montreal where there is not much going on. It’s not just a sports project, it’s a community project.
He had promised to present this project to the public at the beginning of 2022.
The Montreal Baseball Group had not responded to requests for comment from The Canadian Press at the beginning of the afternoon.
