The owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, Stuart Sternberg, confirmed today that they have everything ready to make history with the construction of a new field and change their current headquarters from St.Petersburg to the neighbor of Tampa.
Sternberg, in a press conference, said that they already have located the area where the new stadium will be built, in the area of Ybor City, north of the Ybor Channel.
The announcement made by Sternberg was the first time he publicly spoke of the change of venue of the team that began his career in the majors, in the season of 1998, based in St.Petersburgh.
Sternberg and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred admitted that Tropicana Field is the last indoor stadium that is now outdated, lacking the latest advances and modernities that fans demand.
Last season the Rays had the lowest attendance of viewers with 1.25 million people attending the 81 games they played at Tropicana Field.
In addition, on September 5 they registered the lowest total of the season in the Major Leagues with only 6,509 fans who attended the game.
Following the announcement made by Sternberg, a group of local businessmen formed the Tampa Bay Rays 2020 organization with the aim of initiating the campaign of seeking support for the project among residents and the business community.
The start of the new field construction project is not yet defined, although it is known that the cost could exceed 700 million dollars.
