The Rays have two more seasons playing at Tropicana Field before moving to a new ballpark across the bay projected to open in 2029. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)
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The plight of the A’s in Oakland and the Rays in Tampa Bay has been a Major League Baseball dilemma for decades, spanning the careers of the last two commissioners, Rob Manfred and Bud Selig.
With the very close vote of government bodies last week in Tampa and Hillsborough County supporting public dollars in part toward a $2.3 billion ballpark project for the Rays, there is finally closure to those issues.
“It’s big news,” Rays manager Kevin Cash, a Tampa native, told local reporters last week. “Congrats to the organization and our staff. A lot of hard work. A lot to be excited about.”
Both teams have been forced to relocate. The Athletics are on their way to Las Vegas via West Sacramento in 2028 when a new $2 billion ballpark on the Strip opens.
The Rays are leaving Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg for a complex across the bay near the airport, the football stadium and Steinbrenner Field, the spring home of the Yankees. The ballpark and surrounding entertainment complex will be on the grounds of a relocated Hillsborough Community College on the Dale Mabry Campus and is projected to open in 2029. The state of Florida provided that land.
Both projects were complicated and left hard feelings among the ardent fanbase in Oakland and those who have been accustomed to watching the Rays at the Trop since they expanded into the American League in 1998.
But no question, unlike the A’s, the dual local government decisions saved the Rays for the Tampa Bay Area.
“This is a great day for Rays fans, the entire Tampa Bay region and Major League Baseball,” Manfred said Friday in a statement. “This agreement… provides a tremendous foundation for the Rays and MLB to continue thriving in this community for generations to come.”
Manfred Deserves Credit For Seeing Both Stadium Situations Through
Manfred takes his share of criticism for decisions, as did Selig and every commissioner before them, but on this he deserves immense kudos. It was a long and tough haul that often suffered severe setbacks. And when his stewardship ends with retirement on Jan. 25, 2029, this will be a large part of his legacy.
That and the myriad on-field rule changes, which have increased the pace and texture of the game. Considering how the current labor negotiations end, he will leave MLB a much better place than when he took over for Selig on Jan. 25, 2015.
Selig did a myriad of positive things: Abolishing the league offices and putting MLB and the umpires under one umbrella. Establishing the division and Wild Card playoff formats. He created Jackie Robinson Day, the inner-city RBI program, and the baseball academies. Under his watch, the World Baseball Classic was born and flourished.
But the one thing he couldn’t accomplish was solving the A’s and Rays ballpark problems. If anything, the A’s in particular, became a running joke at owners meetings. In March 2009, Selig established a Blue Ribbon Committee to help find a place in the San Francisco Bay Area for the A’s to build.
After each meeting, a colleague would ask if there had been any progress citing the days, months and finally years since the committee’s inception.
Selig had nothing to report, saying so in sometimes colorful language.
“Thanks for asking,” he’d add sarcastically.
The committee would eventually disband without an answer, despite the fact that Selig had helped engineer the sale of the team in 2005 to Lew Wolff, an old University of Wisconsin frat buddy, and John Fisher. Wolff was eventually ousted and the A’s fled Oakland.
Manfred took over with all of that on his plate.
We’ve discussed the A’s situation ad infinitum since MLB approved their move to Las Vegas, which became a fait accompli when they left Oakland for good at the end of the 2024 season. The move to Vegas crossed 18 years, involving two ownerships and five different locations – two in Santa Clara County and two in Oakland proper.
The move to Vegas was contingent on the state of Nevada approving $380 million of public funds to the Vegas ballpark project, which happened on June 15, 2023. Fisher is responsible for the remaining funds.
There Have Been A Lot Of Stops And Starts in Tampa Bay
At the same time on the gulf coast of Florida, then Rays owner Stew Sternberg came to an agreement with the city of St. Pete and Pinellas County to build a new $1.2 billion domed stadium on land adjacent to the Trop as part of an urban renewal project.
Life and pair of devastating hurricanes then stepped in. Hurricane Milton, the second of which, tore all the Teflon panels off the Trop’s roof flooding the inside of the facility. The Rays were forced to play the entire 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field while the city of St. Pete refurbished the stadium. Before that could even happen Sternberg scuttled the new ballpark deal.
Sternberg relayed the team’s decision to St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch in a phone call on March 13, 2025.
“After careful deliberation we have concluded we cannot move forward with the new ballpark and development project at this moment,” the owner said. “A series of events beginning in October that no one could have anticipated led to this decision.”
It was the second time Sternberg killed a local ballpark deal, having backed out of another one across the bay in Ybor City in 2018.
The St. Pete decision effectively ended Sternberg’s ownership of the Rays. Manfred and MLB ownership told Sternberg to sell the team. By Oct. 1, 2025, the owners approved the sale for $1.7 billion to a group headed by Jacksonville, Fla., developer Patrick Zalupski.
That’s when the serious plans to move across the bay began. It seemed unlikely that government officials would pull together and agree. But all that reached fruition last week. Now the purchase of bonds and shovels digging into the ground can begin.
It also seemed unlikely that the Rays, playing back in the Trop this season, would have the best record in the AL after missing the playoffs the last two seasons.
It’s a new day that will cost the Rays in excess of $1 billion in out of pocket and borrowed funds just on the ballpark alone. They have a lease to play at the Trop for two more seasons.
“Above all, we now look forward to celebrating before breaking ground with Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa that has long been doubted, but will indeed happen,” Ken Babby, the Rays’ chief executive, said Friday in a statement. “By making the forever home a reality, the Rays are now forever home in Tampa Bay.”
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