For years baseball people have marveled at the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 ability to remain competitive in the American League East despite consistently lowest industry payrolls and annual attendance. Since 2008, the Rays have been to the postseason nine times, including the World Series twice, always with payrolls of well over $100 million less than the Yankees.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Tampa Bay fans have gotten used to the Rays\u2019 jettisoning their favorite players (See: Isaac Paredes, Randy Arozarena, Brandon Lowe and Tyler Glasnow in just the last three years) as soon as they became too costly or neared free agency.\u00a0 And with the clock continuing to tick on their expiring (2028) lease at dreary Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, there\u2019s never been a sense of permanence of the Rays in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
But now, finally, there is.<\/p>\n
Last week, both the Tampa city council and the Hillsborough County commissioners both voted to approve a new $2.3 billion mixed-use stadium project near the Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry Boulevard campus, not far from Raymond James Stadium, the home of the NFL Tampa Bay Bucs. The plan is similar to what the Atlanta Braves constructed in Cobb County, GA in 2015 for a stadium surrounded by a village of shops and restaurants that would produce addition revenue for the team.<\/p>\n
It was always the accepted view of most folks in the Tampa Bay area that if the Rays were going to survive they would have to be in Tampa where the large majority of their 3 \u00bd million residents are. This was part of the reason the Rays have remained one of the top revenue sharing recipients in baseball, an average of nearly $60 million a year. That\u2019s on top of the $50 million they and the other 29 clubs receive annually from the MLB Central Fund. So they\u2019ve had the money to increase payroll, but the previous Rays owner Stu Sternberg just chose not to spend it.<\/p>\n
If the owners are able to establish a cap in the new collective bargaining agreement, revenue sharing would go away, but the Rays are anticipating revenues of far more than $60 million from the new park and surrounding village which is now slated to be ready by 2029. For sure, now that the stadium issue has finally been resolved, the Rays, under their new ownership led by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski, are expected to be operating vastly different. Last week Zalupski told the Tampa Bay Times: \u201cTampa\u2019s the No. 11 media market in the country. There\u2019s nothing holding it back, \u201cadding that with the new ballpark and the development around it, \u201cwe should be able to drive payroll (currently 27th at $116,208,358) into the top 15 circle and maybe even the top 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the Rays have been leading the American League East since June 27, but will be facing their biggest challenge now in the September stretch, starting with this present road trip through Texas where they snapped a 10-game skid at Globe Life Field as of Friday, and three in Atlanta against the Braves. They then finish the season with three games with the Red Sox, four in New York with the Yankees and three more at home with the Phillies.<\/p>\n