Jump Ball

Openly flirting with a lovelorn fan base in Montreal, the Tampa Bay Rays have a clear message as they pursue the possibility of playing home games in both Montreal and their current home in St. Petersburg, Fla.:
We’re going to have an open marriage, or we’re getting a divorce.
“Unless they agree to allow (the Rays) to look into this … the team is gone,” a person with knowledge of the club’s plan said.
Contractually obligated, for now, to play their home games at Tropicana Field through 2027, the Rays are suggesting the only way to save baseball in the market is to stay half the time.


At meetings in New York this week, Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg received permission from fellow Major League Baseball owners to explore a plan that would have the Rays play roughly their first 40 home games in Florida to start the season before wrapping up the rest of the home schedule in Montreal.
Government officials in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area now must determine whether the Rays are bluffing and whether potentially building a reduced-cost stadium for a team playing just 40 games a season is any more appealing than the other proposed stadium deals for the Rays that have failed for a standard 81-game season over the last decade.

Potentially, the Rays could play in new stadiums in both markets, but numerous hurdles would need to be cleared, including getting permission from the players union, which would have to consider the strain on players calling two different countries home.
The Players Association had no comment on Thursday.

“The news definitely surprised me, waking up to that text,” Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier said in Oakland. “We were talking on the bus today — it’s weird to think about splitting games.
“Once spring training ends, I know I’m staying in a house and many hotels throughout the year. Now to sit here and think about living in a place for the first part of the season and then moving everything for the second half, it’s wild. … If this were to happen, you’re asking a lot of guys to get a lease for three months then go find a new one.”
Taxes would rise considerably from what players pay in Florida, Rays player rep Tyler Glasnow pointed out.
At least in spirit, the timeshare idea gives hope to many baseball fans in Montreal, which lost the Expos to Washington D.C. after the 2004 season. But the Rays are not sold on Montreal as a viable option beyond a half-time arrangement — creating a situation where the whole of the two-city plan is greater than the sum of its parts. Part of the impetus here for the Rays is a sense they need an answer sooner rather than later on where their home(s) will be beyond 2027. Nashville, Tenn., Portland, Ore., Las Vegas and San Antonio are prospective destinations.
Funding will probably determine everything, and the Rays could be asking for something that the people of the greater Tampa area won’t go for.
The Rays hope that a schedule where they play games in Florida early in the regular season, when the weather isn’t as hot as July and beyond, could mean that a roofless stadium could be built in Florida at a cost of around $600 million, a source with knowledge of their thinking said. That’s a reduction in cost of roughly $300 million to $400 million from the initial estimate for a domed park. The stadium, which could be in St. Petersburg or Tampa, would be proposed as a small (likely to seat around 27,000 people), multi-purpose park. Other attractions would be part of the selling point.


So, do the Rays mean it? Or is this just a ploy?
Sternberg is scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
“Love it. Yeah, wouldn’t it be kind of cool?” former Rays manager Joe Maddon said of the split-season idea. “Let’s do a little ‘European Vacation’ in the middle of the summer, head north of the border. It sounds really groovy, actually. I’ve never been to Montreal, but I’ve heard so many wonderful things about it. Um, I don’t see it ever happening.”
The language in the Rays’ lease at The Trop is firm: Permission to play home games elsewhere would have to be granted by the City of St. Petersburg. So the city has legal grounds to stand in the way of the Rays exploring another home until the current lease expires. The team is preparing a lobbying effort.
The Rays, too, understand they’re at the city’s mercy. What the club is banking on, though, is a realization from the city that if it plays hardball, the team is out the door.
The city has concerns the Rays may be gone anyway.
In a market that hasn’t looked viable for two decades, the Rays entered Thursday with an average of 14,545 tickets sold at home games in 2019, worse than every team but the Marlins. The Rays receive a huge amount of revenue-sharing dollars, affecting ownership across the league. After years of wrangling, MLB and the Rays seem to have reached a point where they’re wondering what they have to lose. A few more fans?
The Rays realize that Florida officials likely would not grant permission to play home games in Montreal if there is no renewed commitment to stay in Florida. Allowing the Rays to play elsewhere, only to leave at the earliest point they could, wouldn’t help the Tampa area, where the Rays remain bound.

The mayor of St. Pete, Rick Kriseman, indicated on Thursday that he’ll do everything in his power to keep the Rays through 2027.
“I want to be crystal clear: The Rays cannot explore playing any Major League Baseball games in Montreal or anywhere else for that matter prior to 2028,” Kriseman said, “without reaching a formal memorandum of understanding with the City of St. Petersburg.
“Ultimately, such a decision is up to me. And I have no intention of bringing this latest idea to our city council to consider. In fact, I believe this is getting a bit silly.”
Kriseman is scheduled to speak to media again on Friday.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred noted that anything could happen once the respective parties engage. But whether the city is open to talking at all under these circumstances — which include a public overture to another city and a suggestion that half of the baseball schedule in St. Petersburg is already out the window — remains to be seen.
The language from the 1995 deal that the Rays are working against:
“Neither the club nor any of its respective parties, principals, directors, officers, employees, owners, or agents will enter into, initiate or conduct any agreement or negotiations (directly or indirectly) for the use of any facility other than the Dome for the Home Games of the Franchise.”
There are some limited exceptions, including for a major disaster, which the Rays do not yet qualify as.
Well, there it is , the city of Tampa making it quite clear it's intentions.

What will become of the franchise ? Who wants this team ? Who deserves this team ?