Rays owner ‘highly optimistic’ about deal to build new St. Pete stadium, but threatens to sell team if not

Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said on Friday that he’s “highly optimistic” the team will reach an agreement to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg before the end of the year, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Sternberg also pledged to pay more than half of the $1.2 billion cost, and he even found the opportunity to sneak one last relocation threat into the process.

Here’s the notable quotable:

“If I can’t get something done here, the best buyer will be somebody from somewhere else, and the team will be sold,” he said. “I will not be moving the team. I’ve always been clear on that.”  

The Rays have been trying (and failing, repeatedly) to convince politicians in various cities to finance their new stadium for the duration of Sternberg’s ownership. Remember, this is the same leadership group who, so taken in their estimate that they See a Different Game, proposed a two-city solution and swore that they would never consider playing a full season in St. Petersburg again. Now, here they are, not quite hat in hand, but nevertheless expressing public optimism that they’ll continue to play out full seasons in the beautiful city of St. Pete. Hmph.

As such, Sternberg’s threat to sell the team should be taken as seriously as a toddler’s tantrum in the candy aisle. It stands to reason that if Sternberg had an actual alternative play to groveling in St. Pete, he would’ve pursued it to completion by now. 

Of course, Sternberg knows that the sell threat — really a relocation threat in disguise — has to be taken with a touch more seriousness in light of the Athletics’ ongoing move from Oakland to Las Vegas, and that’s why he’s throwing it out there — as a means of getting the deal past the finish line.