Now it’s officially official.
The Rays really, really want out of Tropicana Field and downtown St. Petersburg. They also want out of any understanding — and gag orders — that preclude everybody talking to everybody in the region when it comes to finding a business model-friendly new home for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Stu Sternberg, the Rays’ owner, stated the obvious by going to Tropicana Field to deliver that much-hyped, well-chronicled, long-overdue statement. And he could not have been more clear: “We will consider any site in Tampa Bay, but only as part of a process that considers every ballpark site in Tampa Bay.”
Don’t mistake that discordant reaction you might have heard for a vuvuzela chorus. It was the sound of legal alarms. The Trop contract disallows the Rays from even talking to other cities or landowners about moving the team.
Left unsaid because Sternberg, to his credit, isn’t some carpetbagger playing the infamous leverage-hustle game: “The clock is ticking. We also have a legal bullpen. And we know who our would-be national suitors are. We are a regional asset and a winner incongruously stuck on the fringe of an asymmetrical, hybrid market. We’ve tried to make it work with price-cutting and free parking. We put a lot of dollars into the dome, which amounted to throwing good-will money after bad. And we became winners. Worst-to-first WINNERS! None of it was enough. Our team is among the best in baseball; our attendance among the worst.
“We have to move. Either to the absolute best geographic and demographic site in Tampa Bay, which is likely in Tampa, to be honest, or a favorable one in another market. But if everything isn’t on the table and all parties who want in can’t join the regional conversation, we’re headed to Vegas or Charlotte. Wouldn’t you?
“We’ve done our part. I’m still doing mine. I’ve said what I have to say. Now I’m listening.”