Commissioner Says MLB's Focus Is on New Rays Stadium in St. Petersburg
The Rays are no longer planning on moving to Tampa. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Thursday that St. Petersburg remains a possibility for a new stadium location.
Manfred addressed the Rays' stadium issues at the quarterly owners meeting and said that he thinks "the focus is on St. Petersburg" for the league's officials and owners.
"We are still committed to the region and would like to see a solution,'' Manfred said, per the Tampa Bay Times' Marc Topkin. "Certainly St. Petersburg is an alternative. It may be that there's another opportunity on the Tampa side at some point in the process. We think the Tampa Bay region is a major-league market. And [Rays principal owner Stuart] Sternberg continues to devote a lot of time and effort to getting a positive result for the region.''
Last February, the Rays announced their plans to move across the bay from St. Petersburg to Tampa. The club released plans in July for their proposed stadium in the Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City, which was projected to cost $892 million and open in 2023. The renderings featured a fixed translucent roof with sliding glass walls that opened completely, as well as a field made of artificial turf.
However, Sternberg announced in December that the deal to move to Tampa would not be finalized and the Rays would likely stay at Tropicana Field through 2027.
When asked if MLB would be fine with the Rays building a new stadium at the site of the Trop, Manfred didn't give an opinion.
"I don't want to get into individual sites," he said. "I'm going to wait and kind of look at those before I say."
