{"id":561789,"date":"2026-02-09T00:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/561789\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T00:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:22:14","slug":"tampa-or-bust-for-rays-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/561789\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Or Bust For Rays’ Ownership?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Orlando could be a contender if the Tampa stadium proposal falls apart.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has given his support to Major League Baseball\u2019s Tampa Bay Rays ownership\u2019s proposal to build a ballpark-village in Tampa. But MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, while applauding the Rays\u2019 ownership plan, has reminded people that it ain\u2019t over until it\u2019s over and there could be an alternative to Tampa in Florida if the plan falls through. \u201cOne thing that has been consistent during my time as Commissioner was my view that Major League Baseball belongs in Tampa Bay,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cThat support has been, I hope, clear and unwavering. There\u2019s great excitement about the new ownership group here with the Tampa Bay Rays. It\u2019s a great group. It\u2019s a big group. It\u2019s a Florida and Tampa rooted group, \u00a0really important in terms of the local presence here. I know that this group wants to make baseball a success here. They want to get a new facility built, and they want to provide a winner to the Rays fans here in the Tampa Bay region.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Manfred is not just the Commissioner of Major League Baseball. He is also a lobbyist on behalf of his MLB owners and with that in mind he needs to create leverage to apply pressure on Tampa political and business leaders to get money for the proposed venue. Investors in central Florida want an MLB franchise in Orlando. \u201cFlorida is vibrant. There are alternatives in Florida, and I do think we\u2019re at a point in the history of the club that something needs to get done. But I would be hesitant to characterize it as, you know, it\u2019s this or never,\u201d Manfred said. A group called the Orlando Dreamers doesn\u2019t have a ballpark site just a plan to go after an MLB franchise. The Dreamers group could provide a fallback position if the Rays\u2019 ownership cannot get a Tampa deal done.<\/p>\n

Evan Weiner\u2019s books are available at iTunes\u00a0\u2013\u00a0https:\/\/books.apple.com\/us\/author\/evan-weiner\/id595575191<\/a><\/p>\n

Evan can be reached at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Barry Larkin is part of the Orlando group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando could be a contender if the Tampa stadium proposal falls apart. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has given…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,182,19,4,186,297,16597,2550,68,74041,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-561789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-major-league-baseball","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-orlando-dreamers","13":"tag-rays","14":"tag-ron-desantis","15":"tag-tampa-bay","16":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","17":"tag-tampa-rob-manfred","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116037822982602986","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}