#HMBlog: St. Pete Mayor Kriseman: Rays "Shared City" Talks Are Over
ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - The chatter of sharing the Rays with our neighbors to the north are over (at least for a few years). This afternoon Mayor Rick Kriseman issued a letter detailing the end of negotiations with the Rays for their “shared city” concept. In which, the Rays would have played half the season in St. Petersburg and half in Montreal.
Major Takeaways from the letter:
The Rays will abide by the current deal and will play at the Trop full time, at least until 2028.
The Rays declined an offer to allow them to look for stadium site in the Tampa Bay area.
Kriseman won’t use public funds to build a stadium for a part-time team, but will consider it for a full-time one.
"I continue to believe that the Rays Organization will come to determine that the Tampa Bay area, and specifically St. Pete, remains the best place to play baseball and to succeed in the long term," Kriseman said in the letter.
What do you think about the letter and the team staying put? Comment below.
#HMBlog - Tampa Bay Rays explore plan to split home games between St. Petersburg & Montreal
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida - As if we needed any more reasons to hate Canada, the Tampa Bay Rays announced today that they are exploring a plan to play some of the Rays home games in Montreal. According to ESPN, MLB’s attorney’s gave the okay to the plan in which the Rays would play the first half of the season in St. Petersburg and the second half north of the border in Montreal. The Rays issued a statement on Twitter confirming the plan:
So, it’s come to this…we should have bombed Canada once the Raptors won the NBA title like I wanted but instead we’ll have to share our baseball team like some single mom because you people wouldn’t go to games. The good news is that now us Floridan’s have an excuse to go vacation in Canada to see our boys. I hope we drive slow in the passing lane and we won’t tip.
What do you think about the plan? Comment below & let us know.
UPDATE: The plan appears to be dead according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times: