If the Rays fail to get approval to build their planned new stadium in Tampa, personal injury attorney John Morgan said the team will relocate to Orlando.<\/p>\n
Morgan, in a recent interview with WFTV in Orlando, said he is \u201cvery close\u201d with Rays managing partner co-chair Patrick Zalupski (though didn\u2019t seem to know his last name) and plans to have lunch with him soon to discuss the situation (though no meeting is set).<\/p>\n
Morgan said he doesn\u2019t think the Rays will be able to strike a deal with Tampa and Hillsborough County to provide funding for the $2.3 billion ballpark on the Hillsborough College campus. The team plans to contribute $1.235 billion, plus cover insurance, repairs and cost overruns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t have the votes over there, and the Lightning wants stuff, and the Bucs want stuff,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cThis is where it could still be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan, who said he turned down an invite from Zalupski to join the ownership group that bought the team in September, does not think a new stadium on the other side of the Tampa Bay area will work any better.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because you\u2019re moving across the bridge I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to make a big difference,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work in Tampa (St. Petersburg). It\u2019s not going to work in Tampa again. It\u2019s a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Morgan is confident the team would succeed in Orlando.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason Orlando is the place is we have 80 million visitors,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cThe (NBA) Orlando Magic is probably the sorriest franchise in the history of sports, but yet they fill arenas all the time. Why? 80 million tourists? \u2026 That\u2019s why it should be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan last year committed a reported $250 million to the Orlando Dreamers group seeking to get a franchise, but withdrew when it became apparent Zalupski\u2019s group was going to buy the Rays. Morgan said he would get back involved if the Rays are willing to relocate.<\/p>\n
Asked by TV host Greg Warmoth if the team will come to Orlando, Morgan said, \u201cIf they don\u2019t get the votes in Tampa \u2026 Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rays have said they are talking exclusively with Tampa-area leaders, but if the deal isn\u2019t approved they \u201cwould have no choice but to evaluate alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zalupski told the Tampa Bay Times they would spend this week working feverishly to complete a memorandum of understanding with the city and county before the end of the month, then target getting votes done and definitive documents finalized by or \u201cas close to June 1 as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has spoken in support of the Rays\u2019 Tampa plans, said if the deal doesn\u2019t happen he expects Orlando to make a strong pitch, as would other cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Orlando wants it,\u201d DeSantis said, per floridapolictics.com. \u201cThey would plow a lot of money into this. There\u2019s no question Orange County would. And Charlotte (North Carolina) would, too. Nashville would. I mean, there\u2019s a lot of places around the country who would like to have a MLB franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Rays fail to get approval to build their planned new stadium in Tampa, personal injury attorney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,48,1203,6,47,76,3883,80939,66,29956],"class_list":{"0":"post-734405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-magic","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social-sports","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tampa-bay-rays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116574640132290216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}