Tampa Bay Rays say team will not move forward with stadium deal

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Last year, the Tampa Bay Rays, along with the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, announced a new stadium and community redevelopment plan. Less than a year later, the Rays pulled out of the deal.

The Rays announced Thursday that they will not proceed with the new stadium and surrounding development. The announcement marked the end of a years-long process that the team and city/county thought had been settled last year.

"After careful deliberation, we have concluded we cannot move forward with the new ballpark and development project at this moment," the Rays said on their official X page. "A series of events beginning in October that no one could have anticipated led to this difficult decision."

Major League Baseball said shortly after the news broke that it remains "committed to finding a permanent home for the Club in the Tampa Bay region..."

The Rays' move was not completely unexpected. The team repeatedly questioned how the billion-dollar-plus stadium deal would proceed after delays in stadium bond votes. Those bonds were eventually approved, but the Rays said it took too long.

At the time, the Rays said the delayed votes would cause cost overruns that the team would not be able to cover. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said the city had seen "nothing to explain their (the Rays') cost overruns.

Welch held a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the deal. He said the Rays' move was "a major disappointment" but left the door open for the future.

"This doesn't preclude us if there is new ownership in the next year or two," Mayor Welch said.

Watch Mayor Welch's full press conference:

Welch's repeated mentions of a new owner or ownership group came just days after reports emerged that at least two groups were interested in purchasing the Rays from owner Stuart Sternberg. That news coincided with a report that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and other owners were also putting pressure on Sternberg.

Mayor Welch said that as far as communication from the Rays goes, all he had was a brief phone call with Sternberg Thursday morning and the social media statement.

The Rays' move appears to be the end of a multi-year campaign to get a new stadium and move out of Tropicana Park. The Rays, along with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, finally reached a deal on a new stadium in 2024, just four years before the team's lease was to expire.

The announcement means the team now has to answer where it will play.

Tropicana Field's roof was destroyed by Hurricane Milton in 2024, leaving the Rays without a stadium to call home. The team decided to play regular-season games in 2025 at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

For its part, the City of St. Petersburg did agree to move forward with a multi-million dollar plan to repair Tropicana Field. Welch said Thursday the city, "intends to honor our commitment to repair Tropicana Field in accordance with the current use agreement."

However, Mayor Welch said he wasn't interested in a 10 or 15-year extension to play at Tropicana Field.

Rays fans now have to hope that the team and the city/county have a Plan B for Tropicana Field and a new stadium. But, Welch said the communities would overcome this setback.

"We were a community before baseball and we'll be a community after baseball," Welch said.