Making Sense of the Tampa Bay Rays Newfound Ballpark Issues and Why Relocation Could Happen

We heard over the weekend that the Rays new ballpark could fall through, leading to a potential relocation of the franchise. Here's more information as to why:

A general view of a Tampa Bay Rays hat and glove during the seventh inning of the game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on April 3. / Scott Taetsch-Imagn Images

This past weekend, we heard that the Tampa Bay Rays' future in Florida is now up in the air all of a sudden. The Rays, who are supposed to be moving into a new ballpark in 2028, are now fighting a potentially uphill climb to get that new building at all.

The Tampa Bay Times originally wrote the story, we interpreted it, and then MLBTradeRumors helped make even further sense of it all.

The skinny of the story is this: Local government in Florida was supposed to vote on bonds that would support financing for the ballpark in October. Because of Hurricane Milton, those votes got pushed back.

Because they got pushed back, there are new elected officials in power, and not everyone in power supports the Rays new ballpark plan. Thus, the ballpark plan could now be voted down, and even if it's not, it could be further delayed.

If the Rays are unable to get a new ballpark, then the threat for relocation grows loudly once again.

“Last month, the County Commission upended our ballpark agreement by not approving their bonds, as they promised to do,” Sternberg told the Times. “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.”

While the Rays certainly don't want to move, there will be takers for them should they end up doing so. Montreal, Nashville, Charlotte, Portland and others will undoubtedly surface as possibilities.

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