Tampa Bay Rays: Stu Sternberg’s split city idea was always doomed to fail

With MLB officially nixing the Tampa Bay Rays “split city” idea, it leaves questions as to what the future of the Rays, and what repercussions that principal owner Stu Sternberg will face.

MLB put to rest one of the most critically panned ideas that has been entertained in professional sports, and it leaves question marks as to what Stu Sternberg and the Tampa Bay Rays organization will do now.

On Thursday morning, Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times broke the story that MLB killed the idea that the Tampa Bay Rays would play in brand new stadiums in both Tampa Bay and Montreal once their Tropicana Field lease expired in 2028.

In the proposed idea, the Rays would have started the season in Tampa Bay, then finished the season in Montreal. Both cities would have had new stadiums, and where the Rays would have played home games in the postseason would be decided on a per year basis.

The idea did have some support from Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB as the franchise was given permission to explore the idea in June 2019. Many business owners in the Tampa Bay area also supported the idea.

But ultimately, MLB decided to change course and nix the idea. According to Sternberg, who held a press conference with reporters Thursday afternoon, MLB just wasn’t ready for the idea.

As Rays president Brian Auld told Marc Topkin, the organization put all their chips into this plan, including most famously, putting a sign to try to convince fans to support the split-city idea, which Sternberg would apologize for.

“We put everything we had into this effort because we truly believed in it — we thought it was great for the Rays, for our players, for Major League Baseball, for Montreal and Tampa Bay,” Auld told The Tampa Bay Times. “And to have the rug pulled out from under us like this is extraordinarily disappointing.”

Sternberg still, however, does believe that the sister city idea will be the future in all of sports.

“Partial seasons are going to be the wave of the future in professional sports.” Sternberg told reporters.

The news was celebration for many in the Tampa Bay area, including Tampa mayor Jane Castor, who has previously stated that she wanted to keep the Rays in the area, potentially in Ybor City.

“All along our goal has been to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay.” Castor said in a tweet, “We had been working on both sister city and full season proposals, and now we can focus all of our energy on a full season.”“I am optimistic (The Rays) will call Tampa Bay home for many years to come.”

The Rays and Sternberg are now in a tough situation. While the split city plan was always doomed from the beginning, Sternberg has no plans to sell the team, but the failure of the split city plan could have repercussions.

The Rays lease at Tropicana expires in 2028. MLB obviously would like a new stadium for the Rays by the time the lease expires, and it is still uncertain whether the Ybor City plan is dead as well.

But what is certain is that the Rays are back to where they were before they entertained the split city idea. With the lease set to expire in 2028, the Rays must figure out a plan for their new stadium, wherever that might be.

All signals currently indicate that the Rays will most likely stay in the Tampa area, but, with the failure of the split city plan, it will be interesting to see what comes next for the franchise.