Rays Owner Stu Sternberg said that "splitting future seasons in Montreal remains the most likely" way to keep the team in the Tampa Bay area, "calling the chance to instead stay in a new full-time home even less than the previously phrased 'highly unlikely," according to Marc Topkin of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. Sternberg said that the Rays will "continue to push hard for the Montreal plan." He added, "Something we would have liked to have happen in 2024-25 will happen in 2028." The team's work, "primarily on determining the viability of a plan that calls for new open-air stadiums to be built in both markets, will be aggressive." Sternberg said that this is because the Rays "need to know in the next 12 months or so whether it will work as well as they expect." If the splitting plan cannot be worked out, Sternberg said that he would either "start looking for a new home elsewhere or, more likely, sell the team to someone who would move it." He also said a Hillsborough site would "no doubt" be the choice over St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Sternberg said the Rays are "not looking to break their lease" at Tropicana Field to leave before the end of the '27 season. Sternberg: "It could come to that but that's not the way I'm approaching it" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 12/11).
