Rays Notes: Stadium Situation, Rays on NBC Sports Network

The Rays came up with positives on the field on Thursday night, rebounding from Felix Hernandez’s perfect game with a 7-0 win over the Angels. But today’s Rays Notes revolve around some off-the-field developments.

According to Michael Sasso of the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Council will hear a developer’s proposal for a new Rays stadium in the Carillon area of St. Pete. The Rays will also attend the meeting and assess whether the plan is a viable option.

"“We will learn very quickly if our partners will accept a St. Pete solution.”– St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster"

According to Sasso, there is a clear distrust between the St. Pete council and the Rays. Council members have been told not to speak at the meeting for fear that the Rays will use their comments against the city of St. Petersburg, and the city attorney was quoted as saying that he expects the Rays to leave the entire Tampa area. This should be fun. The council is reportedly “excited” about the meeting, and it’s definitely progress. At least we finally have a proposal instead of just vague statements that Bill Foster believes there are viable stadium sites in St. Petersburg. Hopefully the Rays are finally moving towards the new stadium they desperately need.

In another interest note, albeit one with much less long-term ramifications, Marc Topkin tweeted this yesterday.

Everyone’s first reaction had to be “The Rays are going on national TV?” Well, they are- if you consider NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) actually national TV. Nice to see the Rays get some national publicity, although no one will actually care. The principal reaction from the general public (or whoever the heck actually watches that show) will be “Wow, the Rays are such a great organization, it’s a pity they have no fans.” Whatever, at least we’re getting a behind-the-scenes look at the Rays, and it should be fun.