As the Yankees took three of four from the rival Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend, fans noticed a key difference: the Rays were hosting from George M. Steinbrenner Field. New York’s spring training stadium will be the Rays’ home in 2025 while Tropicana Field is repaired following damage from Hurricane Helene last fall.
But it wasn’t Trent Grisham’s defense that stood out the most all weekend, nor the team’s gritty 1-0 on Friday. As YES Network play-by-play man noted, all four games were sellouts with “majority Yankees fans.”
The reason Kay gave was, to be fair, legitimate. New York City public schools (and schools in several states, at that) had their spring break last week. Lots of families from the Tri-State Area and beyond ventured down to Tampa to watch the Yankees. Add the number of New York ex-pats that live in Florida already, plus “The Boss” holding barely over 11,000 people. It’s no wonder there was a Yankees invasion of sorts.
Except, is it really surprising anymore? The Rays failing to draw fans to the Trop is a tale as old as time. Their only time coming close to selling out? When the Yankees come to town and, even then, it’s mostly Yankees fans attending.
It’s been nearly 30 years since the then-Devil Rays debuted as an awful expansion team back in 1998. And even with the World Series appearances in 2008 and 2020, it’s time to face a truth we all know but MLB won’t accept:
Central Florida cannot support a Major League Baseball team.
It’s truly a shame not only for the Rays and their small army of fans, but for Florida. The Sunshine State is a treasure trove of both high school and college baseball. The game is popular enough there that one would think the Tampa/St. Pete/Orlando area could sustain a team. Especially when owner Stuart Sternberg constantly beats the “We need a new stadium” drum to justify not investing more in his players.
The problem is instead of motivating him to make a deal for a new ballpark, losing the Trop has had the opposite effect. Sternberg’s talks for a new stadium have devolved to the point where he’s facing pressure to sell. Worse yet, that pressure comes not only from some of his fellow owners, but MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred himself.
So where does that leave the Rays and their stadium talks? Well, luckily, they’re not in crunch time yet. Recently approved funds to fix Tropicana Field’s roof mean the Tampa Bay should move back home for 2026. In turn, the Rays’ lease at Tropicana runs through 2028.
But something has to give at some point. Between these latest botched negotiations and an asinine idea to split the season between Tampa/St. Pete and Montreal, it’s hard to view Sternberg as anything but an unserious owner. As long as he’s signing the Rays’ checks, there is no hope for MLB in Central Florida.
And after watching the road team draw more fans yet again, even with these unique circumstances, it’s time MLB realized the same. With or without Sternberg.
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