June 20, 2019 could end up being a very sad day for local Tampa Bay Rays fans.
Today, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said that the league’s executive council has given the Rays — who started playing baseball in St. Petersburg in 1998 — permission to begin exploring a plan that would allow the team to split home games with Montreal.
Under the plan, which ESPN said is still in its nascent stages, the Rays would play early-season home games at Tropicana Field and the rest of the home games in Montreal, which hasn’t been home to MLB baseball since the Expos moved to Washington D.C. and became the Nationals in 2005.
According to reporter Jeff Passan, private equity magnate Stephen Bronfman (whose dad, Charles was the original owner of the Expos) has already reached an agreement with a developer on a site to potentially build a new stadium in Montreal. The possibility probably sounds great for the Rays, whose players have complained about lackluster attendance (14,546 on average, second worst in MLB) and the region’s inability to get behind a new stadium to replace the outdated (and oddly charming) Trop.
The news comes a day after Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan took to a commission meeting to whine about St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman's efforts in helping find a new stadium for the team. Kriseman clapped back on Twitter to say that he was focusing on the current season and not fighting with other governments.
ESPN tempered the news, however, by pointing out how bi-city teams often don’t work out (in 2003, the Expos played 23 home games in Puerto Rico). Other MLB teams could also oppose the move, but everything is still too fresh to make any speculations.
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This article appears in Jun 20-27, 2019.