White the headline talks up a “possible move,” this interview of Rays owner Stuart Sternberg by Fox’s Jon Paul Morosi seems pretty unequivocal: the Rays aren’t going anyplace and Sterberg is more focused on beginning to lay the groundwork for the Rays ballpark which comes after that iron-clad lease on Tropicana Field expires in [gulp] 2027.
About that date, Sternberg says:
It’s far, but it’s not that far because I can’t in 2026 snap my fingers and all of a sudden have a place to play. The groundwork needs to be done, starting very soon. You’ve got to figure out the proper location, whether it’s 10 yards from where we’re playing or 30 miles. Then you have to figure out if it’s feasible. Then you have to go through the approvals and everything else. Even if you have a location, just to get that OK’d takes years. Then it takes years to actually build the thing. At some point in the next few years, we’ve got to have it figured out.
He sounds pretty resigned.
He also has a lot to say about moving cities (he doesn’t want to) and Morosi asks him a few questions about Montreal (he’s not interested but believes baseball will be back there someday, maybe in 20 years).
