Major League Baseball last expanded in 1998. Commissioner Rob Manfred has maintained for years that the league would not consider expansion until the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays resolved their stadium situations.
In September, the A’s played their final game in Oakland, heading to Sacramento next year and ultimately Las Vegas. In July, the Rays and their hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, agreed to build a new ballpark there that would open in 2028.
In the wake of Hurricane Milton, which made Tropicana Field, the current home of the Rays, unplayable for the 2025 season, city and county officials have focused on the area’s post-hurricane recovery. They also postponed a vote on bond financing for the proposed ballpark, and newly elected officials have expressed reservations about the project.
Stuart Sternberg, the owner of the Rays, fired back at the Tampa Bay Times on Saturday. He said moving the Rays out of town completely isn’t an unlikely conclusion at all.
If Sternberg makes good on his threat, cities awaiting an MLB expansion process could rush to lure the Rays.
Montreal previously considered the Rays’ concept of splitting the season between Florida and Canada. Nashville, Charlotte and Raleigh have expressed interest in expanding, and those cities would allow the Rays to remain in the same geographic region.
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Austin, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Portland, San Jose and Mexico City have also expressed interest. It is considered highly unlikely that MLB would consider putting another team in Oakland anytime soon.
The Rays agreed this week to become the second team to play the 2025 season in a minor league stadium. The Rays play at nearby Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, with the A’s at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento.
The city of St. Petersburg has yet to decide whether to approve an estimated $56 million in hurricane damage repairs for Tropicana Field, which would allow the Rays to play there in 2026 and 2027.
The county has yet to approve bond financing for the new stadium, postponing an October vote in the wake of the hurricane. In this month’s election, two provincial commission supporters were replaced by skeptics.
“Last month, the County Commission turned our margin agreement on its head by not approving their bonds as they promised to do,” Sternberg said. “That action sent a clear message that we had lost the province as a partner.
“The future of baseball in Tampa Bay became less certain after that vote.”
The Rays’ search has taken the better part of two decades, and a few more months wouldn’t necessarily affect the outcome, whether it’s the current deal or renegotiations with the city and county. Sternberg told the Tampa Bay Times he would give it another try before moving the team.
“We’re going to exhaust everything we can here until, and unless, it comes to that,” he said.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
