Tampa Bay Rays want to look outside St. Pete for new stadium site

The Tampa Bay Rays want to explore potential sites for a new ballpark throughout the Tampa Bay area, including Tampa and Hillsborough County, the team's owner said today.

"It is my strong conviction that if baseball is to survive and flourish in Tampa Bay for the long term, we must rise above municipal boundaries and work together with a common interest," Stuart Sternberg, the Rays' principal owner, said in a news conference at Tropicana Field.

"We will consider any potential ballpark site in Tampa Bay," Sternberg said, "but only as part of a process that considers every ballpark site in Tampa Bay."

Tropicana Field, where the Rays are under contract with the city of St. Petersburg to play through 2027, has failed to live up to the team's expectations, Sternberg said.

St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster said he fully expects the Rays to honor their contract and remain playing in downtown St. Petersburg until 2027. "Like it or not, we are married and joined at the hip until 2027.''

He disagreed with Sternberg's contention that Major League Baseball won't work in downtown St. Petersburg. He said if the Rays start entertaining sites outside St. Petersburg, the city won't allow that and it would become a legal issue.

"The city of St. Petersburg, quite frankly, won't be brushed aside.''

Foster said he thinks the current site of Tropicana Field is a viable location, and that he and Sternberg agree that St. Petersburg has potentially viable sites for a Rays stadium.

He said the team and the city could amend the current contract, which calls for the Rays to stay at the Tropicana Field for the next 17 years, "if the price is right.''

In March, an independent committee that explored potential sites recommended two in Tampa - downtown and the West Shore area - and one in mid-Pinellas, off Interstate 275 just west of the Howard Frankland Bridge.

Factors considered by the committee, called the ABC Coalition, included proximity to population centers.

The coalition did not recommend two other sites it explored, in downtown St. Petersburg and the Florida State Fairgrounds east of Tampa.

Sternberg referred to the ABC report in his news conference, saying the Rays have come to many of the same conclusions as the coalition.

The coalition, headed by Progress Energy Florida CEO Jeff Lyash, was empaneled by former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker after the collapse of efforts to build the Rays a waterfront stadium in downtown St. Petersburg.

"Our ability to compete and, quite frankly, to survive rests on our ability to attract people and businesses to our ballpark," Sternberg said today. "Our customers are our fans. And like any other business, we need to be in a location that is convenient for our fans to reach us."

Sternberg said he wants the Rays to remain in the Bay area, but "for that to happen, a regional discussion needs to begin soon."

"That process needs to consider all possible locations throughout Tampa Bay - meaning Tampa and Hillsborough as well," he said.

Without a regional discussion, he said, "the air of uncertainty over the future of Major League Baseball in the area will continue to linger."