Manfred says Rays should play in Tampa Bay “if we can manage it,” stop the presses!

It’s time again for everybody’s favorite game, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says things:

“We’re hopeful that we can figure out something in (the Tampa Bay area) for them and that the repairs can be done in a way that allows them to resume playing,” Manfred said during a state-of-the-game interview on The Varsity podcast.

“The one thing I can tell you for sure, they’re playing next year. We’re going to find them someplace to do it.”

Host John Ourand asked Manfred if the hope was for that interim site to be near their current home rather than leaving the area.

“Yeah … ” Manfred said. “The easiest thing is always to stay in the market where the clubs are anchored, if we can manage it.”

The headline the Tampa Bay Times put on this was “MLB ‘hopeful’ of Rays finding interim home in the Tampa Bay area,” which is accurate, but not really news, since obviously Manfred is going to say that he wants the Rays to stay where they are. Also the “hopeful” bit seems to have been in reference to repairing Tropicana Field’s roof in time for the start of the 2025 season; beyond that, Manfred didn’t really commit to having the Rays play in the Tampa Bay area beyond that he’ll try, “if we can manage it.”

ESPN, meanwhile, went with “MLB wants Rays near Tampa area even if damaged Trop unusable,” which is only accurate if by “wants” you mean “would prefer” and not “is demanding.”

These are standard Manfred mumbles™, and are as usual used as an excuse for major news articles, even if the commissioner doesn’t seem to have any better idea of what’s going to happen than anyone else. An insurance inspector has done an initial evaluation of the building, but construction manager Hennessy/AECOM Hunt is still working on a thorough study that will establish how much work is needed and when it can be completed.

Meanwhile, it turns out the city of St. Petersburg reduced one of its insurance policies on the dome last spring from $100 million to $25 million to save $275,000 in premium expenses, which was some incredibly bad timing — though also insurers might refuse to pay out regardless since the roof was past its expected lifespan.

Still nobody knows anything, in other words, so all the rest is guesswork. If Manfred really wants the Rays to stay put, the Yankees’ spring-training stadium in Tampa (capacity 11,000, with major-league quality facilities) seems like the most viable option; if he’s flexible about what the Tampa Bay “market” is, the Disney complex in Orlando (7,500 seats, 2,000 lawn spaces) is possible; if he doesn’t actually care so much so long as he doesn’t have to bail out the Rays financially at the same time as the Athletics are also playing in a minor-league stadium, then they could still go pretty much anywhere. (Well, not Montreal, since it has its own roof issues.) It’s gonna be a fun time this winter for both Rays ticket sales people and the team’s front office as they try to sign players for 2025 — though, come to think of it, “Do you have a favorite part of the country to play in? We can work with that” would be a novel negotiating strategy.

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13 comments on “Manfred says Rays should play in Tampa Bay “if we can manage it,” stop the presses!

  1. It does seem like the two most likely sights are the Yankee’s spring training stadium, because it’s major league caliber, and the Disney ESPN stadium, because it’s available. (but 90 miles away.) Steinbrenner has extra fields that could be upgraded for the minor league teams. But who knows, maybe they’ll build some kind of temporary stadium like Northwestern Football, or the Colt 45s.

  2. Rob, slow your roll a bit; let’s see you manage something like the night shift at a 7-11 first, clearly all this stadium management stuff is still a bit beyond your reach

    1. People keep saying that, but: 1) You would have to reimburse Rays season ticket holders for tickets that would now be for games across the country, and 2) the A’s and Giants still control TV rights for Northern California, and wouldn’t likely be happy to share, even if you could find an RSN eager to broadcast San Francisco Bay Rays games.

      1. It seems like in a lot of these possible outcomes you would need to reimburse season ticket holders. Even if they go to Orlando, that already seems pretty far to drive back and forth for 81 games.

        1. Less so if they’re already on the Tampa side of the bay. At least Orlando is more feasible than driving to Oakland.

          Whether and how Sternberg gets repaid by MLB for losses related to any relocation is going to be very interesting. Does anyone recall how the NBA managed the money issues when the Hornets spent a year in Oklahoma City after Katrina?

          1. I wonder if they changed the TV revenue at all. The Hornets still played 5 or 6 games in New Orleans during their residency in Oklahoma City. I wonder if that was just for TV. Although at that time New Orleans and OKC were almost identical in size.

          2. Why would (or might) Sternberg get compensated by MLB for any losses related to temporary relocation? Businesses can and do purchase business interruption insurance (the Flyers, famously, did so in the early days of their existence in Philadelphia and Snider once claimed that it had saved them from bankruptcy).

            I would assume the league would not force the Rays to move to another city or state against their wishes? Wouldn’t it be up to the team to research and select their preferred location? Part of that calculation would involve how suitable and close a stadium is to their “permanent” home.

            If there is any compensation due for their home being unavailable, sadly it would be an insurer and/or the stadium owner/lessor that should cover it.

            To the best of my recollection, the NBA didn’t compensate the Hornets for their temporary move. They may have disbursed some shared revenue payments early or something to help with cash flow, but I do not recall any special funding for the franchise in relation to Katrina related gate/game day revenue losses.

            My guess would be ownership sought (and probably got) federal/state government cash in relation to any real or perceived losses.

  3. Of the local alternatives, the Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field in Tampa makes the most sense. It has about 11k seats and plenty of parking (including at the Bucs’ Ray Jay across the street). The downside is that expanding it would be tough (but not impossible).

    The stadiums in Clearwater (Phillies) and Dunedin (Blue Jays) both hold about 8.5k. They could be expanded but maybe not much beyond what Steinbrenner already has. Parking at either would be an issue, so what’s the point.

    And Orlando might get a series or two but more than that, they might as well be in Montreal since it now routinely takes 3 hours to get there from Tampa. Which is why the Rays don’t draw much from there, and the Magic doesn’t draw from Tampa.

    1. For a team that averaged 16,515 fans last season, 11k isn’t far off particularly if the stadium is major league ready and is already in Tampa, so expansion wouldn’t be necessary says the stats. A sold out smaller venue is a better experience than a little more in a cavernous space.

      Arrangements for the Single A team will need to be made, but heck, we’re about to see that before :) .

      1. 11k is pretty far off when you consider that the Rays typically get 20k+ for games against the Yankees and on weekend. I guess you could make up for that some by charging through the nose for those games and less for weeknight games against the White Sox, but it’s still going to be a significant hit:

        https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/TBR/2024-schedule-scores.shtml

  4. Reminds me of when the NY Daily News speculated about the Yankees possibly going to New Orleans for two years when Yankee Stadium was rebuilt in 1973-76.

  5. Bear in mind that most of the spring training facilities in Florida (and specifically on the Gulf coast) are also home to the MLB teams’ Single-A minor league affiliates. While it wouldn’t be impossible to reconfigure one or both of the Rays’ and the Tampa Yankees’ schedules — maybe they could do day-night doubleheaders on the days where their home games overlap — it would be a pretty serious undertaking on top of all the disruptions that are have already occurred, and are bound to occur throughout the season.

    Disney WWOS is still the more interesting option, if not a more viable or likely one. There are only a few youth tournaments that would need to be rescheduled as opposed to entire MiLB campaigns, and the Rays would still (theoretically) be drawing crowds from the WDW complex along with the rest of Greater Orlando. Mind you, WWOS is about as far from Downtown Orlando is the Trop site is from Downtown Tampa, but still.

    Aside from the revenue aspect of it, the main downside of a WWOS move might be that the Rays could end up playing 81 road games at home instead of against just the Yanks and the Sox. As Barry L alluded to above, Tampa Bay and Greater Orlando are farther away from each other than most people believe, and the drive up I-4 to WWOS might not be desirable even for people in Polk County (to the east of TB), let alone people in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties.

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