Rays in advanced talks to be sold for $1.7B

[MMC]

 

[Unholy Diver]

Will he just be another cheapskate?

 

[eojsmada]

Hard to believe the previous owner cheaped out so much and only paid 200million for the franchise back when he bought it. New guy needs to come in and privately own the stadium so the franchise can actually spend money.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

They seemingly can't find a place for a new home while struggling with attendance (including in the playoffs). Hope this doesn't lead to the Nashville Rays....

 

[KevFu]

They seemingly can't find a place for a new home while struggling with attendance (including in the playoffs). Hope this doesn't lead to the Nashville Rays....

I doubt it. The sale of the Rays is because the pre-hurricane deal the team agreed to suddenly sucked for them post-hurricane (And I think they were RIGHT to back out of it).

MLB is trying to find a new owner who will effectively "eat" the difference in the gap it takes to get it done (For them, in order to buy the team).


So the old deal was that Rays have to pay for all cost overruns. No biggie, there was time to get the stadium built for 2027. Then hurricane. They lose tens of millions playing in Steinbrenner for 2 years.

THEN the city delays the funding for their part of the new stadium (Which bumps back the start date, creating overruns).
The city cites a clause in the Rays lease that "you owe us another year in the Trop anyway since you're not playing there this year" and earmarks $55-$125m for Trop repairs.

So the Rays, on top of losing the money being in Steinbrenner, now have to get Trop revenues instead of new stadium revenues for 2027, AND eat the cost overruns of delaying the project a full year.

Why spend ANY money on the Trop, so you can play there one year and abandon it? Put the repair money toward building the new place faster!

 

[KevFu]

Oh, and the other piece is that Nashville is a top contender for expansion, and MLB is gonna move on expansion very quickly after the shovel is in the ground for the Rays stadium. (New Era is already producing Nashville Stars hats!)

If you've got a guy willing to pay for an expansion team, you don't let the Rays go there. If the Rays move, it would be to Jacksonville or Orlando.

 

[GKJ]

I don’t know why they can’t just expand if they’re gonna do it anyways. What’s the other market going to be? If that’s not lined up, then I get it more. I also wonder about realignment.

 

[KevFu]

I don’t know why they can’t just expand if they’re gonna do it anyways. What’s the other market going to be? If that’s not lined up, then I get it more. I also wonder about realignment.

That's my take on it.

The main reason to wait is that they want a musical chairs situation: Where there's more cities than teams available, and maybe two of them are like "Well, I'll pay MORE!" to drive up the price.

But with Nashville, Salt Lake (very serious) Portland, Raleigh, Montreal (serious); two of "Oakland/Vegas/Sacramento" and Orlando (pretty unrealistic) in the mix... don't they HAVE that??

(And it's just straight up DUMB for them to not be looking to orchestrate the old Senators/Browns/Coyotes plan with the A's... If you don't make Vegas a "paper expansion" team, you're NEVER getting a second team back in the Bay Area!)

The big thing I'm terrified about is that Manfred seems dumb/illogical about realignment.

There's really four ways to do it:
#1 - Keep AL/NL and create a fourth division per league. (minimum 8 moves, max of 12-14)
#2 - Keep AL/NL, but two divisions per league (minimum 10 moves, max of 12-14)
#3 - Radical Geographic Realignment (minimum of 14 moves, max of 18)
#4 - Retro Four League Plan: New Pacific League, New Southern League (15 moves)

And Manfred keeps alluding to #3 (The worst), or #1 (second best, but still difficult).

And #4 is the best, because in baseball, every team moving has full veto rights.

 

[HoseEmDown]

This makes no sense. The Orlando Dreamers, terrible name but a consortium group, has all the money and plans to take the Ray's to Orlando. The only holdup was the Rays owner didn't want to sell. Now he's selling to some Jacksonville guy? Don't see how this is good for the Rays.

 

[KevFu]

This makes no sense. The Orlando Dreamers, terrible name but a consortium group, has all the money and plans to take the Ray's to Orlando. The only holdup was the Rays owner didn't want to sell. Now he's selling to some Jacksonville guy? Don't see how this is good for the Rays.

MLB is bent on them staying put in Tampa. Which is fine/good... provided there's a new stadium.

St. Pete has the geography issue, but the real culprit is that when everyone was opening new BALLPARKS to replace cookie-cutters, the Trop was a cheap copy of a cookie cutter that was 15 years out of date when they STARTED a 30-year lease.

 

[HoseEmDown]

MLB is bent on them staying put in Tampa. Which is fine/good... provided there's a new stadium.

St. Pete has the geography issue, but the real culprit is that when everyone was opening new BALLPARKS to replace cookie-cutters, the Trop was a cheap copy of a cookie cutter that was 15 years out of date when they STARTED a 30-year lease.

They're not even in Tampa now. The trop has been open for over 30 years and the Rays have been around for close to that, how much is left on the lease? I'm pretty sure they can buy their way out, which will increase the sale price but get out of a bad deal.

Every league wants to get a team in Vegas because tourism will fill the stadium, well the same will happen in Orlando. It's perfectly set for the same type of result, hotels and attractions. You get the team still in Florida but less a chance to have a Milton repeat.

 

[KevFu]

They're not even in Tampa now. The trop has been open for over 30 years and the Rays have been around for close to that, how much is left on the lease? I'm pretty sure they can buy their way out, which will increase the sale price but get out of a bad deal.

Every league wants to get a team in Vegas because tourism will fill the stadium, well the same will happen in Orlando. It's perfectly set for the same type of result, hotels and attractions. You get the team still in Florida but less a chance to have a Milton repeat.

"Tampa Bay Area" you get it.

They have a 30-year lease, up after 2027. The new stadium was to open for 2028.

But construction was supposed to start in 2024. The city delayed funding -- aka they delayed the stadium opening to 2029. The city said "you can just play 2028 in the Trop.... per your lease you owe us another year there since you're not playing in it this year!"

If they're doing THAT instead of the actual smart/cost efficient way to handle the problem; then how willing are they going to be to let the Rays out so the Rays can leave St. Pete for maybe Tampa or elsewhere?

 

[KevFu]

Here's what MLB once the Rays are sold and a stadium deal is done:

#1 - Start expansion bidding process.

#2 - realign into four leagues:
AL - MIN, CWS, DET, CLE, TOR, BOS, NYY, BAL
NL - MIL, CHC, STL, CIN, PIT, NYM, PHI, (WAS or MON)
Pacific - COL, ARZ, SD, LAA, LAD, LV, SFG, SEA
Southern - HOU, TEX, KC, MIA, TB, ATL, CAR, (WAS or NASH)

Play 16 vs your league (112 games), play 4 games vs 12 interleague teams, rotating over 4 years to see everyone (48 games).
Playoffs: 2 vs 3, winner gets 1; semifinals and World Series.

The reasons are
A. TV times. The West gets like 17 more road games at 7 pm local instead of 4 or 5 pm local when their fans are at work. That's money. The eastern teams play EIGHT games out west (10pm) instead of 24-28 games). ALL Central teams are tied to the East.
B. History/tradition. Cincinnati has been NL for 149 years. The teams leaving the AL/NL are teams with 30-70 years.
C. Travel. All 4-game series is 40 series instead of 54. That's 30 flights instead of 45.
D. Competitive balance and financial equality. The gap between richest/poorest divisions shrink drastically.

And most importantly, the votes. Teams moving divisions have full veto rights. The 16 teams in the AL/NL wouldn't be able to veto, only "vote no" (an 18-team super majority needed to pass).

In the realignment fight, teams like CIN, PIT (poor) are going to say "No, we don't want to be in the division with Mets/Phillies (Rich)." Well, instead of CIN being able to blow up the whole thing, they need 12 other teams saying no to blow up the whole thing.

The teams with veto power are the biggest winners: the West, HOU/TEX (27 more games in ETZ/CTZ). Miami, Tampa, ATL get out of rich divisions HOU/TEX who are a level down in spending instead.
Expansion teams won't have veto power.

But finalize the realignment plan BEFORE finalizing expansion. If only 6 teams will go south, then you take 2 southern teams. If Colorado won't go West, you can add Salt Lake or Portland and push WAS south. OR you can change the name of "South" to "Continental" and it's just all the willing volunteers to be together.