Rays owner: 'We must rise above municipal boundaries'

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg was adamant Monday that baseball would not work long-term in downtown St. Petersburg.

"You'll find a franchise that cannot continue as it currently exists," he said, at a news conference on Monday to announce that the team would explore all other options and all other locations for a possible stadium.

The team's lease with the city of St. Petersburg ends in 2027.

The ABC Coaliton, commissioned by former St. Pete mayor Rick Baker to look into the situation, recommended three possible stadium locations earlier this year: in Pinellas County near the Howard Franklin Bridge, the Westshore area in Tampa and Downtown Tampa.

Ryan Neubauer, spokesman for Build It Downtown Tampa, is trying to gain support for the idea of moving the team to a new stadium in the downtown area. He said a stadium downtown would put the team within 30 minutes driving distance of a large group of people with money to spend on tickets.

"Downtown Tampa makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons -- most notably geographic and demographic," Neubauer said.

Sternberg said it was imperative Tampa and St. Petersburg explore the idea of a new stadium as a region, rather than as competing cities.

"We must rise above our municipal boundaries to work toward our common interest," Sternberg said.

ABC Action News asked both mayors about the idea of a 'municipal divide.'

"The Rays are a huge regional asset. But they are a St. Pete asset," said Bill Foster, mayor of St. Petersburg.

"We really need to exhaust all the Pinellas opportunities before we move on to Hillsborough," Pam Iorio, mayor of Tampa, said. "We don't want to get into a fight with our neighboring county. We need to look at this as a region."

Funding for a new stadium would also be an issue. According to Craig Sher, a member of the ABC Coalition, a new retractable-roof stadium would cost at least $500 million.

Any kind of public financing is unlikely, at least for right now, Sher said, because of the current recession. Neubauer said from his group's perspective, the private sector would have to step up with a considerable amount of money to make a new stadium a reality.