ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — What's in a name? At least enough for one St. Petersburg council member to suggest a change for the Tampa Bay Rays.
District 6 Councilwoman Gina Driscoll submitted a new item to the next city council's meeting, set for Dec. 14. In it, Driscoll proposed to include the new name for the Rays within the ongoing negotiations happening for a new stadium.
"Respectfully requesting that the Administration include in stadium negotiations a team name change from 'Tampa Bay Rays' to 'St. Petersburg Rays' and present a report on the subject to City Council during its scheduled meeting on January 4, 2024," the proposed agenda item reads.
There is the obvious, years-old argument that Tropicana Field is located in St. Petersburg. And since the stadium was built in March 1990, the city of St. Pete has become its own destination, rather than just the smaller, lesser-known neighbor of Tampa.
But, as Mayor Ken Welch pointed out in an opinion piece for the Tampa Bay Times, some feel it's more about the region than the specific location of the stadium.
The San Francisco 49ers play in Santa Clara, California. The New York Giants and Jets play in a completely different state, East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Patriots represent the entire New England region from Foxborough, Massachusetts.
And, according to the mayor, the Rays represent the entire Tampa Bay region from here in St. Pete.
"I recall this idea being mentioned more than 15 years ago while I served on the Pinellas County Commission, but then and now, I firmly believe our powerful strength as a region includes all sides of the bay, all corners of Pinellas County, and all surrounding counties from Citrus all the way down to Sarasota," Welch wrote in the article.
Instead, Welch is choosing to focus on the major redevelopment project coming to the Historic Gas Plant District where the Trop currently sits. It's set to honor the Black community that once lived there while building a multi-use space that meets the growing needs of the St. Pete community.