MLB Commissioner Bud Selig today said the league will formally intervene in the long-stalled discussions to find the Rays a new ballpark. The club is locked in its current lease for outdated Tropicana Field until ‘27 and ranks next-to-last in attendance in the league despite six straight winning seasons. Selig declined to specify how MLB will get involved, but signaled that Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg will no longer be seeking a solution alone. "We need a resolution. This is a very troubling situation," Selig said following the conclusion of the owners meetings in Cooperstown, N.Y. "They've been a model organization."
Sternberg added his inability to reach a ballpark deal in nearly eight years of owning the franchise "has reached a boiling point." Sternberg: "Something needs to be done. It's been too long, and there's a frustration at the league level that I haven't been able to get this done." Selig declined comment when asked if relocation out of the Tampa area was a possibility, but Sternberg downplayed that option. "I can't imagine I would move this team,” he said. However, Sternberg did add that even with a new ballpark, the Rays still would not be a top-10 franchise in terms of revenue.
