Auld will speak during TBC’s noon luncheon event at the Cuban Club, located 2010 N Avenida Republica de Cuba. The event is open to the public but requires reserving a seat at Tiger Bay Club’s website. Only TBC members can ask questions of Auld.
Auld is in his 16th season with the Rays and his seventh as team president. He and the Rays’ other President Matt Silverman lead the club’s operations internally and externally, including the proposal to build new home ballparks in Tampa Bay and Montreal, dividing home games between the two cities.
Auld spoke last month at Cafe Con Tampa, “pushing” the split-city baseball team idea, Bay News 9 reported, speaking about low attendance at Tropicana Field being a major concern in keeping the Rays in Tampa Bay.
RELATED: An open letter to Stu Sternberg: If you cannot love this city back, please, just walk away
However, many Rays fans were skeptical during the Cafe Con Leche event.
“It really is disheartening because it really should be an exciting time,” Matt Neuhausen, long time Rays fan told Bay News 9 in an interview. “I think a lot of fans are feeling unsure and feeling anxious about this because it isn’t putting the fans first.”
While the Tampa Bay Times has also pushed the idea of a tax-payer funded baseball stadium moving to Tampa (without disclosing their ties to developers who might benefit), Montreal made a bold statement about not paying taxes to fund a baseball stadium. The nonprofit Canadian Taxpayers Federation CTF bought a billboard right next to Tropicana Stadium that read, “Dear Rays, Montreal won’t pay for your new stadium.”
“The Rays are welcome to play in Montreal, but Quebec taxpayers aren’t going to pay for a new stadium,” said Renaud Brossard, Quebec Director for the CTF in a statement. “Quebec’s economic recovery is fragile, our health-care system is struggling and this is the most heavily taxed jurisdiction in North America. Quebec taxpayers can’t pay for another stadium for a part-time baseball team.”
And at the end of October, a TV Ad started running, calling out Rays owner Stu Sternberg for proposing the “bad investment” of splitting a stadium between Montreal and Tampa.
“Montreal is not our sister city,” the Ad said. “This is just a fraudulent scheme to pad Stu’s pockets with local Tampa Bay area tax dollars.”
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This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2021.