MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly insisted that the league is fully committed to the Tampa market. Now Manfred himself has made a direct, in-person appeal to show how much that’s still the case.
The commissioner has met in recent days with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Pinellas County Commission chair Kathleen Peters, and county administrator Barry Burton to advance the effort to build a $1.3 billion ballpark for the Rays in St. Petersburg.
That initiative, though seemingly settled last summer, has hit a series of resurgent problems following the devastation in October to the Tampa area, and particularly Tropicana Field, from Hurricane Milton. The county has delayed approval of $312.5 million in public-sector bonds for the new stadium, and so did the St. Petersburg City Council before finally green-lighting its $287.5 million part of the project last week. The county is due to revisit the stadium bond issue on Dec. 17.
None of the principals involved have made a substantive statement on the tenor of those meetings, though Peters did say Manfred spoke of MLB’s support of the stadium deal. The county approval is a critical component of the ballpark project, but even if it’s approved, the Rays have said the stadium is now heading toward a 2029 opening—a year later than first projected and introducing additional costs that the club claims it cannot afford.
The presence of Manfred, however, provides another affirmative statement on the intention of MLB to stay in the Tampa media market that has now grown to a No. 11 ranking in the U.S.
Last month, the commissioner made a similarly unequivocal statement during owners meetings, contrasting somewhat from the more mixed messages that many Tampa officials say the Rays have provided.
“Given the devastation in that area [from the hurricane], it’s only fair to give the local governments an opportunity to figure out where they are, what they have available in terms of resources, and what’s doable,” Manfred said.
Changes for Next Year
The Rays, meanwhile, have made a series of tweaks to their existing plan to play next season’s home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, normally the spring training home of the Yankees. The 2025 home schedule for the Rays will now start March 28, a day later than first planned, to provide additional time to ready the facility. The new date is still just four days after the Yankees break camp. Even with the change, the Rays still have a heavily front-loaded home schedule, playing 47 of their first 59 games in Tampa to avoid the worst of the area’s extreme heat and rain.
Plans are also beginning to come into focus on what the Rays will be able to do at Steinbrenner Field to monetize their games there. The Yankees said the Rays will have “limited permission to sell regular-season advertising inventory throughout the seating bowl, including stadium concourse walls, the scoreboard, and the outfield walls.”
