The Rays are looking at drastic measures.
The Tampa Bay Rays have the worst average attendance in Major League Baseball although they’ve been a fairly successful team this season with a record 43-31. Over the past few years, the team has been trying to secure funding for a stadium but unfortunately, it hasn’t exactly worked out for them. This has led to speculation that the team might be relocated but now, a new report from ESPN reveals that the team is actually thinking becoming a two-city team which would be an unprecedented move.
“The Tampa Bay Rays have received permission from Major League Baseball’s executive council to explore a plan in which they would play early-season home games in the Tampa Bay area and the remainder the year in Montreal, commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday.
While the plan is in its nascent stages, the Rays have embraced the two-city solution as the most feasible to saving baseball in the Tampa Bay area after years failed attempts to build a new stadium in the region, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.”
It’s unclear how this plan would work out and whether or not the team would have to change its name. There are a ton logistical problems that would arise with such a plan so the team will have quite a bit thinking to do.
As right now, Montreal does not have a ble longterm baseball venue although there is a belief that they could use the Olympic Stadium.