Although a sale is not imminent, the owner of Tampa Bay Rays, Sta Sternberg, is pressure to sell his team by several people in the League, including the commissioner of the MLB Rob Manfred, According to Evan Drellich of athletics.
Manfred and “Some other owners” would be at the pressure of Sternberg to sell the franchise, although it is not clear which else is involved or how much they pressure it. Although a team sale is not close, there would be several groups interested in the purchase of the team, including the family of Edward Debartolo Jr.
The pressure to sell the team is involved in the middle of the Sternberg renewed quest to find a new stadium, which it has been doing for almost two decades now. Sternberg and local Saint Petersburg officials worked on a proposal of $ 1.3 billion for a new stadium after Tropicana Field was destroyed by Hurricane Milton last year. Who forced the Rays to play home games in the New Yorkees New Yorkees Minor League complex This season.
The stadium proposal seems to have struck several roadblocks in the middle of a funding dispute between the team and the city. It is not known if it will be done, and there is a deadline of March 31 for several aspects of this plan.
Sternberg bought Rays for the first time for around $ 200 million in 2004. They were last time at around 1.25 billion dollars by Forbes Last March, which is one of the lowest in the MLB. Only the Royals of Kansas City, the A and the Miami Marlins were less valued. In comparison, New York Yankees were estimated at more than $ 7.5 billion last year.
Several teams have been sold in recent years of the League. The Minnesota Twins had hoped to sell before the opening day this spring, although it is unlikely that it will happen. Baltimore Orioles were sold for $ 1.725 billion last March.
The Rays, which entered the MLB in 1998, missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 2018. Tropicana Field opened its doors in Saint Petersburg in 1990, and it can accommodate around 42,000 people. Sternberg has been trying to find a way to get out of this stadium for some time, and he even launched the idea of playing half the team's games in Montreal. This plan has not won a lot of traction.
Even if a team sale seems far away, MLB did not want the Rays to leave the market in the Tampa Bay region, whether under the Sternberg watch or a new property group. MLB believes that the region can support the franchise, according to the report, and it does not want to abandon a city of potential expansion to move the shelves.
MLB did not comment on the athletics report on Sunday evening, and Sternberg did not confirm anything. Although the future of the organization appears troubled, it seems that calls for a new ownership group will only increase if the current stadium agreement collapses later this month.
