The proposed agreement to split games between Tampa Bay and Montreal has been struck down by Major League Baseball.
The idea was initially floated out as a means to keep the Rays in Tampa, even in a modified capacity, after attempts to build a new ballpark in the area fell through. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg called the news “flat out deflating”.
“Things had progressed nicely and things had been working nicely, and then recently it just sort of took a turn to the south and we don’t precisely know why,” Sternberg said. “I have no doubt that what we tried to accomplish with our sister-city plan will become accepted in all of professional sports. Major League Baseball simply isn’t prepared to cross that threshold right now.”
When pressed to comment whether he viewed the ruling a betrayal on the part of fellow owners, Sternberg replied “that’s a word”.
The Rays lease at Tropicana Field runs through the 2027 season. The venue, one of the quirkiest in baseball with a dome and catwalk in play, has been home to the team since they debuted on March 31st, 1998.
Yet in spite of their on field success, including 2 trips to the World Series, 4 AL East titles, and 3 wildcard berths since 2008, that hasn’t translated to box office success. The Rays regularly rank in the bottom 5 for attendance and averaged under 10K fans per game for the 2021 season.
Sternberg says he has no plans to sell the team, but did say that his Montreal partners were less than thrilled at the news stating “They were as, if not more, devastated than I was at the news.”
In a call on Thursday Stephen Bronfman, who was part of the Montreal group attempting to return MLB baseball to Quebec, said “I’ve grown up with the game, I love Montreal, I believe in what we were working on…I think we’re all a little burnt today … but anything can happen. We put a ton of work into this marketplace and I think there is a lot of data out there, there is so much positive news about what Montreal means to baseball, what it can bring.”
Tampa has one of the lowest payrolls in the MLB, ranking 26th in the league in 2021 with a total of $70.8M on the books for their 26 man roster, IR, and retained salaries. That figure is dwarfed by larger market teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets whose payrolls were $271M, $205, and $201M respectively. Which begs the question: if the Rays have been able to post a .545 win percentage since 2008 (4th best in the league) with such a small payroll, what could they accomplish if they were able to spend at the same level as their competitors?
All of this ties back into ticket sales, concessions, merchandising and more, which is why the Rays were hopeful that their sister city plan would be approved. With fewer games creating a premium on tickets, and access to a secondary market of fans, Tampa was hoping to level the playing field with the blue bloods of baseball.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor could be counted among those who didn’t lose any sleep over the announcement that the bid had failed. “All along our goal has been to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay,” she said in a statement. “We had been working on both sister-city and full-season proposals, and now we can focus all of our energy on a full season. I am optimistic the Rays will call Tampa Bay home for many years to come.”
With the Tampa/Montreal split season plan now dead in the water, baseball fans north of the border will have to wait a little bit longer before they see another team join the Blue Jays in Canada.