Will the Rays end up moving to Orlando in the near future?
Let’s lead off with the morbid news.
During the 7th inning of the Cubs @ Pirates game Wednesday night, a fan fell 21 feet from the right outfield bleachers, landing on the warning track, head first. The game was stopped for ten minutes, as EMTs took to the field and attended to the fan’s injuries, put him on a back board, and rushed him to the hospital. Having seen the video, I will not link it here, since this is one of the worst accidents I’ve seen involving a fan. As of the time of this article’s publishing, the fan is in critical condition. Obviously, thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of the fan.
In other morbid baseball related news, Tropicana Stadium was apparently built on a late 19th/early 20th cemetery. This isn’t exactly new information for locals in St Petersburg, as officially all the graves in the former cemetery had long since been moved when the site was turned into a park, before later being developed into Tropicana stadium. There had long been suspicions that there may still have been graves under the site, but that was more rumors/conjecture until 2021, when ground penetrating radar surveys (GPRS) located three potential graves under the parking lots. Back in May of 2024, another GPRS was done by the city, this time uncovering 10 more potential graves. Considering the Rays stadium woes, one has to wonder if this has contributed to all that bad luck. At the very least, it does give a bit of a reason why the Rays would have backed out of the stadium deal they had announced last year, which would have built a new stadium on those very same parking lot. Having your ballpark built over a neglected, segregated cemetery with actual bodies still in it is at the very least a bad look, and definitely does not help increase the value of the Ballpark.
That’s a great segue for the next (and not nearly as macabre) topic of today’s column, which is that the Orlando Dreamers group has announced that they’ve raised $2.5B to secure stadium funding and a new MLB franchise. Normally, I’d discount these efforts, but considering how the Rays have had every one of their stadium efforts fall through, and the fact that MLB is highly unlikely to ever reward a third expansion franchise to a city in a Florida, it does seem like this could potentially lead to the Rays relocating to Orlando. Considering the Rays have nowhere to play for the 2026 season, I do expect there to be news/movement on that front before the end of the year.
In other stadium financing news, the Oregon Senate has passed a bill allocating 800M for a new MLB ballpark in Portland. The bill would source the money from pro athletes’ income taxes, which they are calling a ‘jock tax’. This is actually a brilliant move by Oregon lawmakers, as it doesn’t levy any new taxes on Oregon taxpayer, which has given the bill much broader bipartisan support. The remaining $1.2B of the projected 2B$ price tag of a new stadium is expected to come from whatever ownership group that lands said expansion franchise. Unlike the situation in Orlando, Portland would be aiming for an expansion franchise, not a relocated franchise. Portland likely faces some strong competition from Salt Lake City and Sacramento as potential landing sites for a new franchise, so there’s no guarantees that they actually get one.