St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has no intention of letting the Tampa Bay Rays explore or entertain a two-city solution to the ongoing stadium saga.
On Thursday, news broke that the Rays had received permission from Major League Baseball to explore a Two-City stadium idea. This idea would have the Rays play the first half of the season in the Tampa Bay area and the second half of the season in Montreal. New stadiums would be built in both cities, with the thought that the early season games would avoid the heat in Florida and allow for a roofless stadium which would reduce stadium costs.
This idea is not without obstacles. 1) Lease. The lease runs through 2027, which would require the City of St. Petersburg’s approval (Denied). 2)Cost. Two stadiums would need to be built and with funding a big source of contention in past negotiations where would the funding come from for two stadiums? 3)Media. Media Rights and Coverage, Rights would have to be secured north of the border. 4) Organizational Challenges. How would the team go about staffing and day to day operations with two sites 5) The Players Association. Tax issues, family separation, immigration. The Players Association would need significant input and likely concessions to go along with such an arrangement. 6) Fans. The Rays average attendance is 14,546 is the second lowest in the league and ranked last in average attendance between 2012-2017 (They ranked second last in 2018).
All of this is moot, however, because the Mayor Kriseman squashed this idea in spectacular fashion at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. Mayor Kriseman stated in a demonstrative fashion that
“…I want to be crystal clear. The Ray’s cannot explore playing any Major League Baseball games in Montreal, or anywhere else for that matter prior to 2028 without reaching a formal memorandum of understanding with the City of St. Petersburg.”
Kriseman would then go on to describe the situation as “a bit silly” noting that nothing has been accomplished after 12 years of negotiations and stating he was tired of the “games”.
Flip the page to see the Mayor’s response.