Rays have explored becoming 2 city team (with Montreal) (upd: rejected by MLB)

Will Tampa move to Montreal within the next 2 years?


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J T Money

Biggest Bozo
Jan 21, 2016
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2,779
Since nobody mentioned it, the Rays threatened to take the city/county to court after the lease it up - purely to delay the development of the land where the stadium is located.

Gonna get ugly
 

Bjorn Le

Hobocop
May 17, 2010
19,592
609
Martinaise, Revachol
MLB and the Rays don't believe St Petersburg can support 81 openings a year and frankly have doubts on Tampa Bay itself.

Come 2028 baseball is gone from St Pete - that is a given but I suspect the end will come no later than 2024. When/IF Montreal puts a solid stadium plan on the table things will start to move.

The Bronfman group has a stadium plan (and I'd argue a good one, but publicly all we have to rely on is the location and concept art). The hang-up is the negotiations between the group, other investors, the city, the province, and the federal government. There's a lot of moving parts, so hopefully something will go public this year but it's going to take awhile. Quebec politicians are allergic to public spending on sports facilities so they'll have to come to a creative solution. To me that's a when not an if but anything can happen with Quebec.

This is going nowhere fast. The Rays are stuck in a lease for 8 more seasons. The City isn't interested in a buyout.

Yes they can look beyond 2028 but that is still far enough away that there won't be any serious stadium talks anywhere. Folks in Montreal (or anywhere else) still have time on their side.

I don't think the logjam clears until after the next election fall 2021. Understand Mayor Kriseman is termed out and there will be a new mayor and council. I see Sternberg waiting out to speak to the new regime.
Any public comments about the city not being interested in a buyout should be taken with a grain of salt. If relocation is inevitable, a buyout is better than the alternative, which will include a costly legal battle.
 

Mightygoose

Registered User
Nov 5, 2012
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Ajax, ON
Manfred: Rays Montreal plan legitimate, gaining momentum

I expect this to be resolved in 2 years or less and Montreal will get the team fulltime.

What jumps out to me is Manfred says Montreal can be a stand alone market, yet he says the 2 city plan is the only way to preserve baseball in Tampa Bay.

I don't see anything changing until there is a new mayor who can be open to negotiate a buyout. That's a long little under 2 years away.

A wildcard is the city of Tampa and Hillsborough county. Are they really willing to help fund a stadium for a part time team after they failed with a full time proposal earlier?
 

Fenway

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Sep 26, 2007
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What jumps out to me is Manfred says Montreal can be a stand alone market, yet he says the 2 city plan is the only way to preserve baseball in Tampa Bay.

I don't see anything changing until there is a new mayor who can be open to negotiate a buyout. That's a long little under 2 years away.

A wildcard is the city of Tampa and Hillsborough county. Are they really willing to help fund a stadium for a part time team after they failed with a full time proposal earlier?

The problem with the Tampa Bay market is no matter where you put the ballpark it still would have the lowest population within 30 miles of the park of any other market. Attendance would increase a little in Tampa as fans to the south around Sarasota might make the drive - many fans south of St Petersburg will NOT drive over this bridge especially in a t-storm which in the summer is almost a daily occurrence in the late afternoon.

BRD_tt_skyway_1
 

Fenway

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Sep 26, 2007
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Assuming they keep the al/nl intact in the next CBA.Do you think they will continue to schedule Marlins/Expos Inter league games every year.If the rays move full time or do you suspect their will be some minor realignment.

I expect when the DH becomes universal the AL will vanish completely. Many of the owners want a geographical realignment but I doubt that will happen until they expand to 32.
 
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Scandale du Jour

JordanStaal#1Fan
Mar 11, 2002
62,003
28,720
Asbestos, Qc
www.angelfire.com
Manfred: Rays Montreal plan legitimate, gaining momentum

I expect this to be resolved in 2 years or less and Montreal will get the team fulltime.

Bronfman said the "plan" was not for the team to be full-time in Montreal. At least, that was not the "goal" of the split-city deal.

It is definitely a PR spin and, like you, I expect the team to move full time to Montreal sooner rather than later.
 

J T Money

Biggest Bozo
Jan 21, 2016
2,740
2,779
What jumps out to me is Manfred says Montreal can be a stand alone market, yet he says the 2 city plan is the only way to preserve baseball in Tampa Bay.

I don't see anything changing until there is a new mayor who can be open to negotiate a buyout. That's a long little under 2 years away.

A wildcard is the city of Tampa and Hillsborough county. Are they really willing to help fund a stadium for a part time team after they failed with a full time proposal earlier?

The city / county will not fund an insane amount like they asked for the first time. People like baseball, they just don’t like the Rays organization.

As a Tampa resident, I hope they just leave.

As Fenway stated above, the bridges are atrocious and highly doubt people will cross them consistently if they moved to Tampa.
 

SupremeNachos

Registered User
Dec 6, 2011
3,130
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Minnesota
The problem with the Tampa Bay market is no matter where you put the ballpark it still would have the lowest population within 30 miles of the park of any other market. Attendance would increase a little in Tampa as fans to the south around Sarasota might make the drive - many fans south of St Petersburg will NOT drive over this bridge especially in a t-storm which in the summer is almost a daily occurrence in the late afternoon.

BRD_tt_skyway_1
How bad does it get during a storm? I'm picturing some Day After Tomorrow mini hurricane.
 

Fenway

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I think once we return to normal the Rays and St Petersburg will start exploring a buyout so the Rays could move by 2024. The lease in St Pete is now team friendly but everyone knows the team is gone after 2027.

BUT - Sternberg might angle to move the team to Nashville where he remains an owner and Montreal is awarded an expansion franchise with Bronfman in charge. MLB might actually give Montreal a discount on an expansion fee given the history.


Jack Todd: Don't bet on split Tampa-Montreal ballparks for revived Expos | Montreal Gazette

The wild card in all this is the “sister cities” concept that has Montreal and Tampa sharing a team, likely called the “Ex-Rays.” On the surface of things, that plan has more holes than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at third base.

First, you have hard-headed businessmen at both ends (Bronfman in Montreal, Stuart Sternberg in Tampa-St. Pete) building very expensive stadiums to host half a team. Those ballparks may be less expensive because they won’t require protection from the Tampa heat in the summer or the Montreal cold in spring and fall, but they’re still going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The thornier issue may be with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Players would have to agree to split their season (and their taxes) not only between two cities but between two countries.

None of which means the repatriation of the Expos is impossible — but I’m convinced if it happens, it will be the Rays moving to Montreal lock stock and fungo bats in time for the 2028 season, after their lease at Tropicana Stadium expires.

Bronfman might be able to get a stadium built here. I simply don’t believe Sternberg will succeed in Tampa — in part, ironically, because Jeffrey Loria and David Samson poisoned the well for further ballpark projects in the Sunshine State.

No fewer than eight different development plans for the stadium area in St. Petersburg were tabled in January. All would be considerably more expensive with a new ballpark, and all will face considerable opposition if a ballpark is part of the deal. I don’t know the local politics in Tampa-St. Pete, but if I were a betting man, I’d have to bet against it.

Whether you support the ballpark project or not, the best approach now is to wait until Bronfman is ready to get down to specifics — then we’ll at least know what we’re arguing about.
 
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Centrum Hockey

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Aug 2, 2018
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It seems unlikely that Olympic Stadium could handle a full season of games. If the rays where to buyout their lease and move to MTL before a ballpark is built.
 
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Quid Pro Clowe

Registered User
Dec 28, 2008
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I like those quirks in stadiums. Like the huge ladder in Fenway still attached to the monstah despite no need for it anymore.

Plus, Montreal fans had a chance with a team. They didn’t show up at all for their last 20 seasons.
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
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I like those quirks in stadiums. Like the huge ladder in Fenway still attached to the monstah despite no need for it anymore.

Plus, Montreal fans had a chance with a team. They didn’t show up at all for their last 20 seasons.

Quirks with dimensions and the outfield walls are fine, but this cat walk shit is a joke.

The Trop is also a dump in other ways too.
 

Reality Check

Registered User
May 28, 2008
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Unlikely to happen but I feel that would be neat to see Tampa Bay relocate to Hartford and rebrand as the Whalers in MLB.

Would easily fit into the AL East picture as well.
 
Mar 1, 2002
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The suit, which also alleges side deals, falsifying records and secret transactions, asks the court to strip Sternberg of his general partnership and to appoint a receiver to review the partnership’s finances.

“Sternberg, since becoming the managing partner in 2005, had never held a partner's meeting, nor had he ever made distributions to partners,” the lawsuit alleges. “In early 2020, the Plaintiffs demanded a meeting with Sternberg to discuss taxes and distributions due to the fact that they had been allocated more than $150 million in taxable income in 2017-2019 and no distribution had been made.”
 

CHRDANHUTCH

Registered User
Mar 4, 2002
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Auburn, Maine
Unlikely to happen but I feel that would be neat to see Tampa Bay relocate to Hartford and rebrand as the Whalers in MLB.

Would easily fit into the AL East picture as well.
Hartford's not set up for MLB.....and with the recent realignment of 40 clubs at the minor league level, where does that place the Yard Goats?
 

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