By Jordan Long
The Tampa Bay Rays are exploring the idea of starting their season in Tampa Bay while finishing up in Montreal. A timetable is not set in stone for if and when this is going to happen. Tampa Bay is looking to improve their attendance.
The Rays play in a dome stadium called Tropicana Field. It holds about 25,000, the second smallest to the Cleveland Indians whose capacity is 35,041 at Progressive Field. Tropicana Field is one of the older ballparks in Major League Baseball since it was opened in 1990 but Tampa Bay didn’t come into the league until 1998.
The Rays are one of the worst at drawing fans to the ballpark despite their 45-34 record. They are averaging 14,545 fans this season, up from last year when they drew 14,258. The only team worse than them is the Miami Marlins who average 9,325 at home games.
The Rays aren’t having success drawing people to the stadium. Splitting games between Montreal and Tampa Bay may help with this. Montreal hasn’t seen Major League Baseball regular season games since 2004 when they had the Expos. They moved and became the Washington Nationals. Montreal has been[JL1] waiting for Major League Baseball to come back to the city and this would be a way to do it.
The problem is even if the Rays wanted to move or build a new stadium, they have a lease to play at Tropicana Field until the 2027 season. It is possible the first season they could legally do a split season is 2024.
According to UPI.com, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said, “The Rays cannot explore playing any Major League Baseball games in Montreal or anywhere else for that matter prior to 2028 without reaching a formal memorandum of understanding with the city of St. Petersburg. Ultimately, such a decision is up to me. And I have no intention of bringing this latest idea to our City Council to consider. In fact, I believe this is getting a bit silly.”
Tampa Bay needs to figure out a solution to bring in more fans. It hasn’t worked in Tampa Bay even though they have a winning ball club. Doing a split season wouldn’t be the worst idea. Tampa Bay would still get to see their baseball team while Montreal could have baseball back. Plus it might be a test to see if Montreal could support a baseball team again if Major League Baseball wants to expand. It is a win-win for both cities.
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