Tag: Crossroads

Stuart Sternberg of the Tampa Bay Rays is one of baseball’s most successful, impactful owners in the past 20 years. But if Sternberg cannot salvage the Rays’ stadium deal in St. Petersburg, then he should sell the club to a group that would stand a greater chance of getting a park built in Tampa, where the team would be better positioned to thrive.

This is not to shout “Stu must go!” the way one might with other owners, from the Athletics’ John Fisher to the Chicago White Sox’s Jerry Reinsdorf, the Colorado Rockies’ Dick Monfort to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bob Nutting to the Los Angeles Angels’ Arte Moreno. Nor is to lament, “Poor Stu,” for an owner who is sitting on $600 million of public funding for a new park, and in the wake of two devastating hurricanes in the Tampa Bay region, wanting more.

Sternberg’s tenure, however, appears headed for a crossroads. His team lost its current ballpark for at least the 2025 season when Hurricane Milton blew the roof off of Tropicana Field on Oct. 9. And the Rays’ deal for a new park on the same site is in jeopardy as Sternberg and other club officials clamor for more money to cover possible cost overruns.

Time is running short. The Rays must meet specific funding and design requirements by March 31 for Pinellas County to issue the necessary bonds for its $312.5 million contribution to the new park. And MLB commissioner Rob Manfred does not want the team to relocate out of the market, repeating to The Athletic what he has said numerous times publicly: “My goal is to make baseball work in the Tampa Bay region.”

A look at Tropicana Field shortly after the destructive damage from Hurricane Milton in October 2024. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Manfred declined further comment. Sternberg declined comment entirely. And while Manfred’s lobbying of the county commissioners to approve financing last month could be interpreted as putting the politicians on notice that the team could bolt, he is taking a different approach with Sternberg than he did with Fisher and the A’s.

The two situations are not identical.

• Tampa-St. Pete is a vibrant market in a fast-growing state. The A’s were second-class citizens in the Bay Area, which at the time was the smallest two-team market in baseball.

• The Rays have a ballpark deal in place with their city and county. The league concluded, justifiably or not, that no deal was possible in Oakland, clearing Fisher to leave for Las Vegas.

• An out-of-state relocation prompted in part by a natural disaster would be unseemly, and perhaps unwarranted. Another owner, one with deeper pockets, might be more successful than Sternberg was in persuading officials in neighboring Tampa and Hillsborough County to finance a new ballpark. Fisher is investing $1 billion into the construction of the Vegas park. Sternberg is at $700 million with his project and does not want to go higher.

Another factor: Manfred might not be comfortable with a second team relocating to a market in which the league might want to expand. The A’s took away one such market, and while the league did not charge Fisher a relocation fee, it instituted a 10-year flip tax to penalize him if he used the relocation to sell the club at an inflated price. If Fisher sells before 2029, he will be taxed 20 percent of the purchase price, to be split among the other owners, according to a source briefed on the details. The tax would decrease each year through 2033.

Unlike with the A’s, the league considers Tampa Bay too valuable to vacate for say, Nashville or Raleigh-Durham, even if Sternberg’s best chance of extracting maximum value in a sale is in one of those markets. The problem is, Sternberg does not seem especially welcome in either Tampa or St. Pete. Which is unfortunate, considering how he transformed his franchise from a laughingstock into the envy of small-market and even large-market clubs.

The Rays are a modern baseball miracle, ranking sixth in the majors in wins since Sternberg became managing general partner in October 2005. They’ve played in the 2008 and 2020 World Series, developed innovative strategies, populated the sport with top executives. And they accomplished all this while routinely running bottom-five payrolls and ranking in the bottom four in attendance every year since 2010.

Before the hurricane, Sternberg was on track for arguably his biggest achievement yet — the end of the Rays’ 17-year quest for a new park. But the storm was the initial trigger for the county commissioners to postpone their approval of financing. The delay, in the Rays’ view, pushed back the proposed opening of the new park from 2028 to ‘29, creating financial consequences for the club, which is responsible for cost overruns.

The team, in a letter to the county commissioners on Nov. 19, said, “A 2029 delivery would result in significantly higher costs that we are not able to absorb alone.” Sternberg told the Tampa Bay Times: “Last month, the County Commission upended our ballpark agreement by not approving their bonds, as they promised to do. That action sent a clear message that we had lost the county as a partner. The future of baseball in Tampa Bay became less certain after that vote.”

The Rays pledged $700 million to the construction of the park before any overruns, and have not specified how much more they desire. They already expect to generate lower revenues for at least this season while playing at the Yankees’ spring training stadium in Tampa. Waiting one more year for the construction of their new park would mean waiting one more year for the greater revenues the new facility would provide.

The delay in the county’s approval, however, turned out to be only seven weeks. The city of St. Petersburg approved bonds to finance its $287.5 million contribution in the interim. Whether the park in St. Pete still could open by 2028 is debatable. But coming in the aftermath of the hurricane, Sternberg’s aggressive posture did not endear him to the county commissioners. One said he withdrew his opposition to the project only after a conversation with Manfred.

“While I do not trust the owner of the Rays, I trust Mr. Manfred. He is the reason I am voting yes,” county commissioner Chris Latvala said after the financing passed on Dec. 17.

Other officials also went public with their distaste for Sternberg, damaging the team’s reputation as it tries to do business in the community and further souring the relationship between the two sides, according to a Rays official who was granted anonymity for his candor. (The inability of the Rays to play at Tropicana Field this season automatically extended the team’s lease by one year, through 2028.)

Tampa officials also are said to be lukewarm toward Sternberg. An effort in 2017 to build a park in Tampa’s Ybor City area never came to fruition. Nor did Sternberg’s proposal to split the Rays’ home games between Tampa and Montreal, an idea the league quashed in 2022 and amounted to another failed attempt, even if the decision was beyond Sternberg’s control.

So, if Sternberg can’t complete a ballpark deal in either city and the league doesn’t want to lose the market, the logical solution is for him to sell to interests in Tampa who could get the Ybor City park built, once and for all. Potential buyers in Tampa exist, according to sources who are briefed on the matter but would not reveal the identities of the likely bidders. Sternberg periodically has engaged in sale conversations. The question is whether he could get his price.

Sternberg led a partnership that bought the Rays for a reported $200 million in 2004. Forbes last March valued the team at $1.25 billion, fourth-lowest in the league. The uncertainty over where the Rays will play if Tropicana Field is not repaired by 2026 might dampen the enthusiasm of potential buyers. Sternberg also might factor into the price the 1/30th share he or a new owner would receive once the league expands by two teams. If the expansion fee for each club is $2 billion, each of the existing teams would receive about $133 million.

The proposed ballpark in St. Petersburg is part of a $6.5 billion redevelopment project that also is part of Sternberg’s financial equation. Even if the ballpark deal collapses, the Rays and their real-estate partner Hines still might control the redevelopment project, adding another level of complexity to the overall picture.

Getting a ballpark built is never easy. The hurricane only added to the Rays’ degree of difficulty. And even if the park in St. Pete gets done, who’s to say the Rays won’t end up like the Miami Marlins, locked into a 30-year commitment in a city where they have yet to succeed? Sternberg, a native of Brooklyn who now lives in St. Pete, seems to be one of the few who believes baseball can work in his adopted city.

Then again, maybe Sternberg knows better. Brian Scott, chairman of the Pinellas County commissioners, said in November he believed it was possible the Rays were looking for a way out of the ballpark deal. It would be the most cynical of plays. But considering all the Rays are up against — the financial damage caused by the hurricane, the potential increase in the cost of the new park, the loss of rare positive momentum — it would be understandable if Sternberg was having second thoughts.

The team’s experience at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa this season might be telling. The capacity of the park is only 11,026. Many fans might be excited to see a major-league product in an intimate minor-league setting. But if the Rays generate greater buzz in Tampa than they do in St. Petersburg, it will only reinforce the perception that they have spent nearly three decades playing in the wrong city.

Sternberg’s past and present employees swear by him. The team’s performance reflects well on him. If somehow the Rays can bridge the funding gap — through corporate support, government support, whatever it takes — perhaps this whole thing still could work. If not, then Sternberg should get out, and sell to an ownership group willing to make a greater investment and negotiate a ballpark deal in Tampa. It might be the best outcome for all.

(Top photo of Stu Sternberg in September 2023: Chris O’Meara / Associated Press)