Rays Reject Plan To Confine Ballpark Search To Pinellas County

The Rays have "rejected St. Petersburg's offer to let the team out of its contract to play at Tropicana Field if it confined its search for a new stadium to Pinellas County," according to Michael Van Sickler of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. After an hour-long meeting with St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster, Rays President Matt Silverman yesterday "repeated the message delivered last month by Rays owner Stu Sternberg: The club will stay in Tampa Bay only if it can consider all locations, including those in Tampa and Hillsborough County." St. Petersburg City Council Chair Leslie Curran said, "I'm extremely disappointed by the response. The Rays need to focus on St. Petersburg and exhaust all those opportunities." Silverman said that "further discussion of the issue will wait until after the season." Van Sickler notes what the process "might entail -- be it talks of a buyout that could deliver millions to St. Petersburg or some other compromise that would allow the Rays to search for a new home outside of Pinellas -- is unclear" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 7/28).