'Keep an open mind': Tampa Bay Rays president pleads with fans regarding sister city plan
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 1, 2021

The Tampa Bay Rays aren't backing down from their sister city plan, so now comes the hard part: convincing the public and the fan base of the first-of-its-kind plan.

President Brian Auld met with community leaders and paying members of the public to do just that Friday morning at Cafe Con Tampa at Oxford Exchange. He told skeptical fans to keep an open mind about the team building two open-air stadiums in Tampa Bay and Montreal.

The team would play the first half of its home games in Tampa Bay and then move its home base to Montreal when the Florida heat becomes unbearable.

"We know Rays fans, and we do have access to the internet," Auld said. "We are familiar with the way a lot of people feel about this. We can appreciate how hard it is. That said, we cannot bury our heads in the sand as to what's going on.

"There's one way through. There's one way to keep this team here for the next 30 years. We need to be serious about it. We need to decide if it's better than not having us at all."

Rays owner Stuart Sternberg first pitched the split-city model — a first for MLB — in 2019. This week, the team walked back plans to hang a sign promoting the Montreal plan in Tropicana Field during the postseason.

"I made a big mistake, a real mistake, in trying to promote our sister-city plan with a sign right now in our home ballpark," Sternberg said on the team's pre-game radio show, according to the Tampa Bay Times. "I absolutely should have known better. And really, I'm sorry for that. I'm here to tell ... the fans that the sign is not going to go up."

The Rays current lease at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg expires in 2027. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has yet to choose between two proposals to redevelop the 86-acre stadium property. All development proposals submitted to the city were asked to include plans with and without an MLB stadium.

Auld didn't confirm an exact site location or price tag for a new open-air stadium in either St. Petersburg or Tampa. He did, however, praise Ybor City — a location the team identified in 2017 as the site of an $892 million roofed stadium. Those plans fell through.

"As has been noted before, Ybor City is a great location," Auld said. "But it's not the only location. We're continuing that dialogue with both sides of the bay. ... Everything [an audience member] said about Tampa is true. It's a great city."

Auld's public appearance came less than a week before his team starts what it hopes to be another long postseason run. The Rays will finish with the best regular-season record in the American League for the second season in a row.

Attendance is low, but TV numbers are high, Auld said. That's been a trend for the Rays for years.

The Rays hope this plan would spark a fruitful partnership between Tampa Bay and Montreal. But the team needs to convince the fan bases in each city, both of which would prefer a team to themselves. A team name hasn't been decided, Auld said.

Tampa International Airport is tentatively scheduled to start a direct flight from Tampa to Montreal on Nov. 7. Auld said he believes that connection would allow people and businesses to spend their money in each other's cities.

"We've spoken to some of the folks called the Montreal group, and they've got very big businesses," Auld said. "And they're interested in bringing United States headquarters to this area. ... There are huge opportunities here."

Auld acknowledges that his timing isn't great, but the situation is urgent. The Rays need to gather as many advocates and believers of this plan as possible, he said. That includes fans and elected officials.

The Rays are still asking for public financing for new stadiums in Tampa Bay and Montreal, even though an open-air ballpark is cheaper. The team's desired percentage of public and private money is unclear.

"It's going to take years to build a stadium," Auld said. "It's going to take some time to figure out the details behind it. We don't have enough time. That's why I'm really working hard to make sure everybody understands what's going on with this, the way we're thinking about it and how important it is to our future."