Do people really think a new Rays owner won’t turn the screws and try to squeeze out more money from taxpayers? Or does everyone think county commissioners will make such a sweetheart deal in private that the new guy can’t say no?

Here’s the thing: overpaying is the price of admission to gain access into the exclusive ownership club. Every new owner has a plan to turn their balance sheets profitable again. But I can’t think of a case where a new owner assumed a ton of stadium debt to do that.

“Tl;dr: Pretty much all deadlines are fake, don’t take them seriously. “It’ll be nice if the Tampa Bay news media learns that lesson from this whole Rays fiasco.”

Tell me if I’m wrong here: If the Rays are a public asset that Hillsborough residents value and enjoy watching… Wouldn’t Hillsborough be better off letting Pinellas foot 100% of the cost of this asset? They could still enjoy the team for 30yrs w/o having to pay a thing.

☝️So that’s what it takes to get a brand new owner to build a new stadium 💡

Funding cuts are only making bad stadium reporting worse.

So yes, you CAN convince a new owner to build a new stadium upon the purchase of the team… You just have to subsidize the majority of it.

St. Petersburg City Council member Richie Floyd said the Rays and city officials discussed a $40 million settlement to buy the team out of playing there for the next three years instead of fixing the Trop. tampabay.com/news/st-peters…

How to sneak billions in stadium subsidies past taxpayers 👇

This is also why pro teams don’t let stadium subsidy decisions go before voters. Why bother when convincing public officials is so easy?

Seldom discussed: the additional billions in opportunity cost lost by handing prime land over to something that isn’t highest/best use.

John Romano’s column was a hoot. If only there was a blog that went into detail a decade ago why the Rays wouldn’t be building a new stadium without a roof…

If only we knew the things today that we knew 10 years ago…

For anyone familiar with Chapter 4 (The Art of the Steal) from Field of Schemes, the Spurs arena debate will be painfully familiar: promising illusory economic benefits and warning of phantom move threats are two staples of sports owners' subsidy playbook. fieldofschemes.com/2025/08/20/230…