TAMPA, Florida - The Tampa Bay Rays want to move to Ybor City. That’s according to team owner Stuart Sternberg.
Sternberg made the announcement during a press conference Friday. It’s the first time the team has publicly said it prefers Tampa over St. Pete, where the team has been since coming into the league.
The announcement was centered around the unveiling of "Tampa Bay Rays 2020," which promotes itself as a "broad-based community effort" to move the team to Tampa.
Since the effort includes tax dollars, there may be challenges ahead: Hillsborough commissioners have taken an anti-tax stance regarding funding a new stadium. But Commissioner Ken Hagan, the county's chief negotiator with the Rays, has acknowledged discussing financials with the team behind-closed-doors.
However, when 10Investigates' Noah Pransky asked Hagan about the spending of tax dollars during the press conference, Hagan refused to answer. When Pransky tried to catch up with Hagan afterward, this is what happened.
10Investigates has reported extensively on the Rays' relocation effort:
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