No. The Tropicana is a trash can. If the City is not going to rebuild or improve it in any way to increase interest and attendance for a team that is worthy (and I am not a Rays fan but they are a great team), then they should go where they are wanted. Like Pasco County, we would be honored to be the home of the Rays...and if someone had the vision that former Commissioner Cox did, the Rays would know this.

Like Pasco County? I love it. I too live in Pasco County & would welcome such a move. It isn't going to happen. The problem isn't Tropicana Field. All the complaints are hype. There's nothing wrong with Tropicana Field. The problem is people that live here & root for teams from cities a thousnd miles away in places they no longer live, when they have one of the best teams in Baseball as their real home team. The Yankee fans are the worst. They even have Yankee games broadcast on the Radio here & people that should be Ray's fans give their aligence to the arch enemy of Tampa Basball. If it wasn't for Yankee & Red Sox fans in this area rejecting the home town team, our team would be a permanent fixture here instead that we have to worry about them becoming the Charlotte Rays, or the Las Vagas Rays. A new stadium won't make Tampa Bay's non fans into fans. People rooting for their home team & going to the games of their home team will keep them in Tampa Bay. The land of the free & the home of the Rays.

I love Tropicana Field...the owners should upgrade the stadium and stay for 14 years.....GO RAYS!

I moved to Tampa in 08', their breakout year. I still call Tampa my home and am now a Rays fan as well as an Atlanta Braves fan. Every time I go to see a Rays game I have fun at the game, but trying to find a decent spot to chill and relax close to the stadium before the game is depressing. There is just not much there and what is there is mediocre and disappointing . A fresh move into a more happening place like Channelside, or Soho would certainly be a better place to go watch a game. Certainly better than taking a day off to drive across the bridge and go to a part of St. Pete with nothing to offer.

Interesting words "move on to greener pastures"...and leave the taxpayers with a white elephant and its associated mess. Frankly I don't care where they play as long as its on their dime and not mine!

You can thank Rick Scott for the inevitable relocation of the Rays to another market. When he refused the $2bn for HSR from Tampa to Orlando, that set the chances of building a light rail system in this metro area back at least a decade. You will never get enough butts in the seats without mass transit, new stadium or not. And it completely dissolved Tampa's chances of getting the Rays because downtown Tampa is a nightmare for traffic without the HSR hub that would have brought in fans from Orlando & the I-4 corridor. Until moving day comes, the Rays should be renting a massive fleet of party busses to make up their own mini-mass transit system during baseball season. I'd go to more games if I could drive 1/2 mile and hop on a party bus and not have to worry about parking, dui's, etc.

I don't see anything wrong with the Trop. I went to Ebbets Field, & The Polo grounds with my Father as a child. It was at least an hour each way. The trip was worth it.
As a teenager, my friends & I took the train to Yankee Stadium & Shea Stadium.
Those stadiums weren't the luxury resorts that people think they need today. Those big, fancy stadiums are a novelty for a short time & then it wears off. Look at Miami.
It comes down to how many fans care about the team's standings. In Tampa Bay the problem is that people moved from other cities & don't ever really become Tampa Bay people. They think they are still residents of their former cities & are just currently living away from home.
They gave up their old aligences in football & now support the Bucs, but contrary to common belief, Baseball is still the Sport closest to out hearts, because many of us form aligences for life.
I was a Mets fan once, but the Mets today aren't my Mets. They play in the same place & wear the same uniform, but my Mets had names like Cleon Jones, Ron Swaboda, Ron Hunt, Don Clandenon, Hot Rod Kaneel, etc. For a time after the Dodgers left Brooklyn & before the Mets, My team had names like Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Moose Skowran, Tony Kubeck, etc. That was then. I live here NOW & my team NOW is David Price, Longo , Hell Boy, Desmond Jennings, Matt Joyce & Zorilla
I live in Tampa Bay-The Tampa Bay Rays are my team. If you live in Tampa Bay, they should be your team too.

the new owners paid a lot of money fot the team(business).they knew the business had a contract to rent the building for a number of years.a contract is a contract. they would not let any contracted players walk off and play somewhere else would they? they can play whatever where ever as long as they pay what the contract says they signed for.

Let them go St. Pete

Turn the Trop into an open stadium, retractable dome for those rainy days. Who want's to go to a indoors baseball game on a beautiful sunny day?

Bottom line is that they can't attract enough corporate sponsors to the Trop that's where teams make a big chunk of their revenue. Also, unlike where the Lightning play people can't wait to leave that area after the games. Other than Ferg's there is nowhere else to go around there especially at night. If the Rays don't move to Tampa or somewhere else in Pinellas they will move out of the state and the Mayor can use his contract to wipe his tears with as he jumps up and down saying I have contract, I have a contract!

I do not approve of any tax payers money to help them get a new stadium. After no raises, and pay cuts from the school board, then more pay cuts thanks to Governor Scott and President Obama……all I can say is Good Bye RAYS.

Every city I have ever lived in, the baseball team or football team pulls this every few years at the tax payers expense, you end up like Cincinnati, with empty stadiums littered all over the place. I say that we let teams build their own stadiums and when they threaten to leave, we let them. It is a self serving system that only benefits a few wealthy individuals.

I think we should have a mass divorce/marriage ceremony at the Top and soon.

I am from Massachusetts and was a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. Seven years ago I moved to Gulfport full time, no Snowbird I. If I was able to do that and leave my family behind in the snow and ice, I could most certainly decide to switch my allegiance to my new home team, the Rays. Once I made the decision to do just that, I discovered that the young, overachieving Rays were a lot more fun and every time I went to the Trop, I didn't have to get a bank loan as I did in Boston.

In other words, I decided to have an amicable divorce from the Red Sox. I still root for them when they play against non-division teams, but I always root for the Rays. I buy their hats and jackets. I tick off my Massachusetts friends and family when I brag about how much better the Rays are than the Sox. I'm hooked and I love it.

All of us Tampa Bay converts should have a ceremony, where, together, we can formerly divorce our former home town teams. We should do it at the Trop with a whole lot of ceremony. Then we should all pledge our loyalty to our Rays with the promise that we will support them in every way. Maybe we could have an anniversary party every year. If all of us newcomers learned to love our Rays and committed ourselves to our full support, all this talk about low attendance at whatever stadium they were to play in would be moot.

Am a little different on the subject. I am a former partial season ticket holder (half season), who got tired of hearing the ownership group tell me I wasn't doing my part to keep the team in Tampa Bay. So my $40-100 I was spending not including tickets for at least 30 games was good enough, I was being told I should be doing more to support the team. So I made the decision that I moved away from an ungrateful Rays Ownership to supporting the local single A team Clearwater Threshers. Where I go to about 20-30 games a year. The travel for me is 5 minutes round trip, and the staff is always seems happy to see me. I also support the Lightning a few games a year.

I love baseball. I also love America and the Tampa area.
Let's put things in perspective. In this economic climate how can anybody justify burdening taxpayers even more? Give me a break. The Trop, love it or hate it, houses the team an presents a clean adequate venue for baseball.

If the Rays ownership wants a new home, let them pay for it themselves.

Sadly the Rays are a farm team. They get good here, then move on to a market that appreciates them.

First of all, it's not about what the fans want. Whether or not the Rays stay, will only be decided by the owners and the monied top percent. Considering how players are traded and moved around, all fans should realize that it's just a game and every team consists of an incestuous bunch of overpaid athletes. More power to them if they can dupe such salary from the fans; just to play a game. Of course it's big business. But any fan who feigns allegiance to the Rays should reconsider why they feel such allegiance. Every team is a "mutt" of every other team. Plus, if the Fenway, after all these years, can still house their team in the same stadium, then how petulant of St. Petersburg to want a new stadium on a capricious whim? Trop is fine for now. If you're ready for the higher ticket prices that will come with a new stadium, go ahead.
Plus, having a stadium in a urban area, is much more desirable than going out into a field in the middle of nowhere. Toytown will be an oasis for the fools who want to pay 7 dollars for a hotdog, $10 for parking, while being gouged for every other overpriced commodity because there's no other place to go. The owners will have the fans where they want them. The stadium that we have now, allows people to quickly and easily go into town before or after the game and do other activities; sober up before leaving town, and save tons of money; not to mention helping the community financially. Keep the Trop where it is until the contract ends!

Let the RAYS & MARLINS swap cities. Miami fans deserve a winning Baseball franchise. Saint Petersburg/Pinellas County can help the Tampa Bay Area fans grow a new fanbase from the area. WinWinWin.