NEWSLETTER
In news that is obviously MOST major for fans of the Tampa Bay Rays and residents of the St. Petersburg area, but is also major for all of baseball, it sounds like the Rays FINALLY have their new stadium deal.
A decade+ drama is at a close, and a number of things can move forward:
Most immediately, the news that a stadium deal is in place for the Rays means that the Rays and their fans have a home for the long-term future. No more hanging under the dagger, no more cockamamy two-city-team plans, no more veiled threats. The Rays are staying in St. Pete, close to where they’ve always been, and will finally have an actually-MLB-caliber stadium.
But the bigger picture news is more interesting to me. Specifically: expansion.
Commissioner Rob Manfred has long indicated – directly or indirectly – two things: (1) MLB would like to expand to 32 teams, and (2) MLB cannot expand until the stadium situations in Oakland and Tampa/St. Petersburg are resolved. The latter issue implicates the former, because MLB wanted to ensure maximum leverage for its current teams (the A’s and Rays, if they “needed” to move), and for its future expansion franchise bidders. You don’t want to use up a city for expansion if it would’ve been a better financial fit for a relocation.
Now, those two city issues are resolved. The A’s are in the process of relocating to Las Vegas, with owners approval reportedly scheduled for a vote in November. (The city of Oakland may make a last-minute pitch to keep the A’s, but I think the situation is broadly seen as the page having been turned.) And the Rays are staying in the Tampa Bay area, getting their new stadium. No relocation for them.
With these two situations resolved, I expect Commissioner Manfred to speak a little more openly about expansion when he makes the rounds after this season. The timeline for actually getting to it probably plays out over the course of multiple years, but I don’t think it’s inconceivable that groups – which have been loosely gathering in cities like Nashville, Charlotte, Montreal, and Portland for a long time now – could start preparing their pitches sometime next year.
In turn, so many interesting things follow from expansion. The expansion draft. Schedule shifts. Playoff changes. And the big one: realignment. At 32 teams, most expect that MLB will go to the NFL model of having eight four-team divisions, perhaps even more geographically-oriented than the six five-team divisions are now. That, to me, becomes endlessly fascinating when you try to figure out permutations that make sense from every perspective.
