For Quebec baseball fans, the year 2022 began with a very predictable announcement. Last January, the leaders of the MLB announced that they were definitively abandoning the incredible project which was supposed, according to its promoters, to provide Montreal and Saint Petersburg with a baseball team in shared custody.
According to Rays owner Stuart Sternberg, this wacky sister-town project was the last chance to maintain a major league baseball team in this region of Florida.
On June 25, 2019, during a major press conference held in Saint Petersburg, Stuart Sternberg officially announced his alliance with a group of Quebec businessmen led by Stephen Bronfman. Above all, Sternberg took the opportunity to explain that it was impossible to maintain a full-time MLB team in the Tampa area.
I don’t think Saint Petersburg can sustain a team 81 games a season. And from what I know, I highly doubt the Tampa area can do it.
argued Sternberg, pointing out that the local economy was mainly made up of SMEs and that it was heavily dependent on tourism.
baseball, la communauté et la MLB courraient le risque de subir de sérieux dommages (économiques)","text":"Nous sommes parmi les derniers ou carrément les derniers dans toutes les catégories économiques à travers la MLB. (…) En forçant les choses, en construisant un vrai stade des majeures et en se comportant comme si Tampa allait finir par devenir un véritable marché de baseball, la communauté et la MLB courraient le risque de subir de sérieux dommages (économiques)"}}">We are bottom to bottom in every economic category across MLB. (…) By forcing things, building a real major stadium and behaving as if Tampa would eventually become a real baseball market, the community and MLB would run the risk of suffering serious (economic) damage.
had hammered Sternberg.
However, improbably, last Friday, the same man filed a new stadium project (most likely funded by taxpayers) aimed at keeping the Rays in Saint Petersburg in perpetuity!
The Rays are consistently among the bottom MLB organizations in attendance. And for more than 15 years, Sternberg has maintained that Tropicana Field (the team’s current stadium) is not very accessible and that, as a result, a new one must be built, elsewhere, so that the fans have the taste and the time to watch the games.
Over the past 15 years, the Rays have expressed a desire to have a new home built on the site of the small Al Lang Stadium (in Saint Petersburg) where the Rays once held their training camp. The Saint Petersburg city government also granted them permission to explore other sites in the greater Tampa Bay area.
During these steps, around 2015, the leaders of the Rays focused in particular on land in the Ybor district, in Tampa. Their enthusiasm was such that they produced spectacular sketches of a stadium worth some 900 million. However, they never found anyone to pay it for them. And the project died in the bud.
However, last Friday, the Rays found a way to reposition themselves behind square one. They presented a project for a new stadium that would be built… right next to their current stadium!
You can not make that up.
The new project proposed by the Tampa Bay Rays
Photo: Courtesy: MLB.com
It seems that after all, Stuart Sternberg is more interested in real estate development than baseball. A bit like the group of Quebec businessmen who wanted to set up half a baseball team in Montreal while leaving Sternberg to ensure its destiny.
The Rays have signed a lease that obliges them to play at Tropicana Field until the end of the 2027 season. However, Tropicana Field is located on an 86-acre site that the city of Saint Petersburg has undertaken to develop for revitalize its urban fabric. On the other hand, as long as their lease is not finished, the Rays are entitled to 50% of the income generated by the development of said site.
In recent years, the largest American developers have been invited by the City to propose a development plan for this vast space. We are talking here about a national call for tenders and a multi-billion dollar real estate project. The municipal administration is committed to choosing the most stimulating plan for the economy and the community. The deadline for submitting a project was last Friday.
Four serious developers had submitted proposals. And just in case the Rays decided to stay in Tampa, some of those proposals included building a new stadium.
We were almost about to officially begin the selection process when the Rays filed their own project at the very last minute. In this process, the Rays have partnered with the firm Hines, which is a real estate giant.
The City of Saint Petersburg wants to revitalize the neighborhood around the current home of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Photo: Courtesy: MLB.com
However, if we rely on the comments reported by the St. Pete Times, the Rays’ move has already thrown this great process into chaos. Rays president Brian Auld said baseball can only work in Saint Petersburg if the Rays project is accepted by the city administration.
The mayor of Saint Petersburg, Ken Welch, therefore finds himself in front of a dog in the middle of a bowling game. He now has quite a dilemma to solve.
If he does not resolve the situation to the satisfaction of Stuart Sternberg, the mayor will have to postpone for at least five years the start of construction on a mega real estate project that is important for his community.
Unless, perhaps, to financially compensate the Rays so that they move to another city before the end of their lease! Deep down, that may be what Sternberg wants.
It’s frankly far-fetched as a situation. But after the comical episode of sister cities, should we be surprised?
