With The Gas Plant Deal Officially Dead, What’s Next?

You can almost hear the naysayers rejoicing.

Politicians, pundits, media members, and anyone else sick of driving over the Howard Frankland Bridge all screaming in adulation that the Gas Plant project presented by the Rays last year has officially met its demise with the failure of the team to present the city with the required proof of funding and permitting work by a March 31 deadline to release the public money approved by both the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to assist in building the stadium that would replace Tropicana Field.

The team will finish out the 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, but what does this mean for the future of the Rays franchise?

Does The Team Have A Home For 2026?

Currently, the use agreement between the team and the city states that the Rays have an obligation to play its games at the Trop, and because the building is unable to host the team this year due to the damage sustained as a result of Hurricane Milton, that agreement, which was slated to end after the 2027 season, will now run through 2028.

But the city has yet to vote on paying for the repairs to the stadium.  Insurance on the building, which was lowered by the city council in order to save money on the premiums, will not cover the entire cost of the repairs, so taxpayer money will have to be used to cover the shortfall.  The council has already voted once to push back the vote on repairs, and each week work doesn’t start makes it more likely that work won’t be completed in time for the start of the 2026 season.

Major League Baseball has already said that the use of Steinbrenner Field by the Rays would be a one-year inconvenience for the Yankees organization.  So if the Trop isn’t ready for the start of 2026, it sets in motion the possibility of the team relocating before the end of the use agreement.

Would Sternberg Sell?

Owner Stuart Sternberg has said on multiple occasions that he is not looking to sell the club, and president Matt Silverman reiterated that statement on sports radio in March after the team announced they would be stepping away from the Gas Plant stadium agreement.

Something tells me that those statements should be read as no one has offered a number that would make Sternberg say “sold.”

Does the Rays owner have a number in mind that he would be willing to let the team go for?  He’d be a bad businessman if he didn’t.  But that number has probably increased significantly over the two decades he has owned the club.  And with the Pohlad family already announcing that they are looking to explore selling the Twins, I would expect Sternberg is more than willing to bide his time and see how the market currently looks before he even makes whispers of selling.

And for those screaming for a sale: a new ownership group doesn’t mean a new stadium in the region has a better chance, while relocation does become a more likely outcome.

Could The League Force A Sale?

Some have wondered, and there have been reports made, about pressure from the league to force Sternberg to sell because of what has gone on between the team and the city and county leaders, and the animosity that has been fostered between the two sides.

But despite what some people may think, Sternberg isn’t Donald Sterling.  He isn’t Daniel Snyder.  He hasn’t appeared to have committed any sort of crime or infraction that would force the league to remove him, and there have been no reports so far that the team is carrying the amount of debt that would worry the other owners.

Is what is happening between the Rays and the region holding up the league’s plans to expand to 32 teams?  Of course it is.  But that isn’t enough for the league to call for an ouster.