While most interest in the Tampa Bay Rays focuses on their slow start and burgeoning injured reserve list, another concern has more long-term implications. At some point, the Rays will have to have a new home. Preferably with a roof, ideally a retractable one.
The cat-walk house that is Tropicana Field is still among the worst in baseball. It can’t be perfumed any more. And a downtown St. Petersburg location — where the nearest market to the west is Corpus Christi — is obviously ill-suited demographically and geographically.
Ideally, the Rays would homestead in Tampa, the hub of this 3-million population market, but that — given the Rays’ lease obligations — is not likely to happen. One of those alternative sites in north St. Pete – near Tampa Bay – would be most practicable. Notably Carillon Town Center across from Feather Sound. But, yes, there are significant costs – as well as relocation reluctance among St. Pete officials – that are formidable impediments to all Trop alternatives.
But the bottom line remains this: The Rays will always be swimming upstream to compete against Boston and New York. For the long-term viability of a relatively small-market franchise in a non-traditional, asymmetrical marketplace, the Rays have to move closer to the population core.
Not surprisingly, that rationale doesn’t sit well with St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker, most of those vying to succeed him or David Goodwin, the city’s economic development director. But the relevant reality is this: the Rays, who are now officially skeptical about building a new stadium anywhere in downtown St. Pete, will ultimately do what is in their best interest. What’s best for downtown St. Petersburg is a subplot.