A Decision on the Rays’ venue has to be made soon.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred must be beaming with the television ratings so far from the 2024 playoffs. While the numbers are up, the numbers are nothing to write home about. But Major League Baseball is more of a local sports business these days rather than a national sport and the numbers probably reflect the fact that the country’s two biggest markets, New York and Los Angeles have teams in the semi-finals and one of the markets will be in the World Series. So much for the rosy side of Major League Baseball business. The saga of John Fisher’s Oakland Athletics baseball franchise has not come to its end. Fisher’s Athletics business is supposed to be in Sacramento next season but the Major League Baseball Players Association has not come up with an agreement with Manfred and MLB officials that will allow Fischer’s business to play in a Minor League Baseball stadium in Sacramento for three years. Fisher still does not have a financial package in place to build his stadium in Las Vegas. Manfred’s biggest problem is in the Tampa Bay market. Hurricane Milton blew the roof off of the Tampa Bay Rays’ St. Petersburg stadium. The St. Petersburg facility is unusable and there is a problem in renovating the place. The stadium was scheduled to be demolished following the 2027 season with a new stadium and stadium-village scheduled to open in 2028. Does it pay to fix the roof when the baseball team is supposed to be there for only three years? Will the baseball team play in other cities away from the Tampa Bay market or will the franchise remain in the market and play games in the Tampa Bay area spring training-minor league stadiums? Will the new stadium be built by 2028 and there may be some financial issues that could impact that venue. Tampa Bay is MLB’s biggest problem.
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