Foul ball: Another collapsed stadium deal raises questions about team's future

Just days from a deadline to secure a new ballpark site in the region, the Tampa Bay Rays pulled the plug on their $892 million Ybor City plans. Will 2019 be the beginning of the team’s long farewell?

By Brian Hartz
| 6:00 a.m. January 4, 2019
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

A rendering of the proposed Rays stadium in Ybor City, Tampa. Negotiations for a financing deal for the venue collapsed on Dec. 11. Courtesy photo.

Strategies

Strike three. Ybor City is out.

On Dec. 11, Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg officially bailed out of negotiations with Tampa and Hillsborough County for a new home for the Major League Baseball team in Ybor.

The stunning announcement came hot on the heels of a rebuke of the county’s stadium financing framework by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who took the unusual step of criticizing local officials over the plan’s lack of specific details. (That lack of details includes a short memo from area officials to the league office.)