Adieu St. Pete, bonjour Montréal?
A fresh wave of speculation over the future of the Tampa Bay Rays. The MLB team will certainly quit the St. Pete Tropicana stadium when the lease expires in 2027. Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg’s suggestion to split the playing season between Tampa Bay and Montreal from 2024 was poorly received by supporters. Tampa’s mayor Jane Castor hopes to entice the Rays to find an alternative home across the Bay.
Meanwhile the team plays on in the face of feeble spectator numbers, managing to achieve a good run in the 2019 play-offs.
As the debate rages, the City of St. Pete plans fresh uses for the Trop site. The stadium was built as a speculative venture some 30 years ago, for several years standing unused. It stands on reclaimed industrial land, with attendant issues of polluted soils. The promised economic transformation of the surrounding neighbourhood did not happen, and various bars and restaurants that hoped to capture the passing baseball fans’ custom mostly withered away.
The Tampa Bay baseball saga will undoubtedly have fresh plot twists in the years to come.
Adieu St. Pete, bonjour Montréal?
A fresh wave of speculation over the future of the Tampa Bay Rays. The MLB team will certainly quit the St. Pete Tropicana stadium when the lease expires in 2027. Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg’s suggestion to split the playing season between Tampa Bay and Montreal from 2024 was poorly received by supporters. Tampa’s mayor Jane Castor hopes to entice the Rays to find an alternative home across the Bay.
Meanwhile the team plays on in the face of feeble spectator numbers, managing to achieve a good run in the 2019 play-offs.
As the debate rages, the City of St. Pete plans fresh uses for the Trop site. The stadium was built as a speculative venture some 30 years ago, for several years standing unused. It stands on reclaimed industrial land, with attendant issues of polluted soils. The promised economic transformation of the surrounding neighbourhood did not happen, and various bars and restaurants that hoped to capture the passing baseball fans’ custom mostly withered away.
The Tampa Bay baseball saga will undoubtedly have fresh plot twists in the years to come.