Breaking News: Rays to Move to Oklahoma City for 2016 Season

A source with connections to the parties involved is reporting that the Oklahoma legislature has signed a tentative agreement to begin work on a 40,000 seat baseball stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to be completed in 2016 and when that stadium is completed, the Rays will move there.

This is devastating news for Rays fans in the St. Petersburg-Tampa area as they are losing one of the most promising teams in baseball, but it cannot be considered unexpected. The Rays simply have not received the type of attendance figures they need to stay in the area, and the mayor of St. Petersburg, Bill Foster, has not given the Rays enough leeway to pursue other possible options in the Florida area. The Rays are mired in a 30-year lease on Tropicana Field that will take them through 2027 and it has yet to become known how the Rays will get out of that deal. Here’s what Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant had to say about the news via Twitter.

"Yeah man! Baseball in OKC! So excited!"

Oklahoma City residents are extremely excited as yet another major sports franchise has deemed their market desirable for a relocation. Currently, the closest MLB team to Oklahoma City is the Texas Rangers, who are 190 miles away.

As Rays fans living in Florida, what are we supposed to do now? Can we remain fans of a team that is moving over 1200 miles away? But at the end of the day it’s our own fault. If we had gone to the games, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

April Fools everybody.