On June 25th, Stu Sternberg the principal owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, announced the revolutionary idea of a shared team concept with the city of Montreal. The idea is to split home games early in the season in Tampa Bay then later in the season with Montreal. The Rays owner thinks that the volume of 81 games in Tampa Bay is too much for the market to handle so it should be split to benefit both cities. This has to be a leverage move by ownership to take another step in getting the city to fork over more dollars to pay for a new stadium. Sternberg quickly shot that down stating that this is not a page out of a playbook to gain leverage. How can it not be? The City of St Pete or Tampa Bay does not seem willing to open up their checkbooks for a team locals fully cannot fully get behind. Do the locals even deserve a team? The cold hard truth is no but, we are not here to discuss that. The idea of sister cities representing one single team is sort of creative but, there are way too many issues that would prevent it from being successful. Measuring success can be narrowed down to three main factors, fan involvement, revenues generated, and overall team success. The first of these factors is something the area of Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg has failed at. This has forced those who do support the team to be confronted with the asinine concept of a team shared by two cities that are 1,500 miles away from each other. It will not work, no matter what way you spin it, for the team, players, families and most importantly for the bottom line.
The bottom line is most important for ownership but not the players playing on the field. Let’s not forget that at the end of the day, these players are human, and are working to support their families just like you and I. The plan represents a few distinct challenges for families of the players. They will have to work on securing two separate living areas during the grueling 162-game season. What kind of housing will be available to these families? It is not easy to find efficient, fairly priced housing for such a short period of time. In fact, the task is so tedious that I believe it would force families to be away from each other when the team moved to Montreal for the late summer months. This will be an extremely hard sell to the players union. Another interesting dynamic will be the handling of taxation for half the season in Canada. Florida does not have any income tax. In contrast, Montreal has an eye-popping marginal combined (Federal & Provincial) tax rate of ~53.3%. This means for games played in Canada, players will not have the same opportunity for compensation as games played in Tampa Bay. These sorts of obstacles will affect the teams already inept ability to attract free agents. Families of baseball players have it hard enough finding optimal family time during the grind of 162 games. This proposed solution from Sternberg will do its best to make this burden felt even more so than it already is.
The fans of the Tampa Bay Rays will also have to be open-minded and willing to adopt this solution for it to be successful. Based on the track record of Major League Baseball in Florida, I do not see this happening. The fan base of the local team will ask to be fully invested into a team that will only be around for half a season. Then if the team is talented and making a playoff push, this ask becomes even more difficult. Loyalty in sports mean everything. It is why you see star players jerseys being burnt after leaving fans behind and moving to a new city. The casual fan may not mind investing time and money into a half-ass team but the dedicated fan will not be as willing to be in tune for a team split between two cities. In splitting the team, ownership is also risking TV rights and revenues of a city that put forth better than expected viewership numbers based on their attendance issues. Messing with viewership and fan loyalty in this manner seems like a recipe for disaster. It is a tall ask of two cities that in both past and present have fought to even support a Major League Baseball team. This whole plan by Stu Sternberg is a creative leverage play. It is not a creative plan with a backbone that can sustain baseball in two cities. A full-time move to a new city representing a fresh start is much more conducive to what MLB and Rays ownership are looking for. It is clear the locals do not want to pour money into a new toy for their baseball team. The harsh reality is it is time to move the team. Did someone in the back suggest the Portland Pilots?