Fastball

Tampa Bay Rays Fans React Bitterly to Team Pulling Out of New Ballpark Deal

The Rays ownership group announced on Thursday that they wouldn't be pursuing a new ballpark in the area after all, leading to questions about the organization's future. Fans were predictably not happy on social media.

Brady Farkas

Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg during the press conference as the Tampa Bay Rays announced today that a historic agreement has been reached with the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to move forward with a new state-of-the-art ballpark at Tropicana Field in 2023.
Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg during the press conference as the Tampa Bay Rays announced today that a historic agreement has been reached with the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to move forward with a new state-of-the-art ballpark at Tropicana Field in 2023. / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
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On Thursday, after years and months of battling it out, the Tampa Bay Rays announced they won't be building a new ballpark as part of a bigger St. Petersburg revitalization process.

Hurricane Milton in October delayed building and caused excess charges, which the Rays ownership doesn't want to assume. There are now questions about whether or not the Rays will stay in the area, and Major League Baseball has reportedly made overtures for the current group to sell to a group that will invest in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market.

Rays fans, beaten down by years of ballpark talk, predictably reacted bitterly on social media.

Thanks for wasting untold amounts of public time & money to negotiate an insanely lopsided, wildly generous deal from an area decimated by hurricanes, only to walk away when you proved to be even more greedy than theoretically possible.

The plan was always to pretend to be all for the deal assuming the City and County wouldn’t come through and he could blame them (still blaming them for two massive hurricanes) and make them the bad guy when they move. Now the bluff has been called and they don’t have their share of the money. Hopefully they will sell the team. MLB sound force it. Worst owner in sports now that Dan Snyder sold the Commanders. Horrible people

Sell the team. I am so burnt out trying to care for this team. I will not purchase any tickets till the team is sold and all this stadium and moving crap is resolved.

Your ownership is a disgrace to die hard fans.

The Rays will spend this season playing at Steinbrenner Field, the Single-A home of the New York Yankees, because of damage sustained by Tropicana Field during Hurricane Milton.

The regular season begins on March 28 against the Colorado Rockies.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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