The future of Rays baseball in St. Pete has businesses taking it game by game

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:02]I'm Blake Phillipson in St. Pete. The Rays playing red hot baseball to start the year, but the focus off the field on the future of the Rays here in St. Pete.

[00:00:10]Are they going to move to Tampa? Are they not? Well, the businesses here tell me that they're just taking it game-by-game. By now, it's no secret that business in St. Pete felt a dip while the Rays were away. But a month and a half in, businesses all around the Trop are already seeing a huge difference. Going to be a probably a 30% difference of the more customers. And that's a big difference for small businesses. Bill Georgio owns The Burg Bar and Grill, and for 17 years they've called their spot on Central Avenue home. So, if the Rays leave, Georgio knows things are going to change, but he will not. I'd rather be a city with the Rays than without them.

[00:00:46]Um, you know, having Tampa have the Bucs, the Lightning, and the Rays, I see it a little bit unfair, but you know, it's okay. I mean, you know, I'll support them no matter what. On game days, they see their regulars. Here we're now. These three fans tell me that they've been coming to The Burg for at least the last 10 years, making it part of their game day experience. And I started coming with my brother-in-law and his wife, found the place, introduced it to introduced us to it.

[00:01:14]It's it was great, and um, so we kind of made it our pregame stopping point.

[00:01:19]>> The Rays moving to Tampa was back front and center these past few days with a new memorandum of understanding being agreed to by the city, county, and the team. Now, city and county leaders could vote this week to keep the ball moving.

[00:01:31]And these fans say that they're going to follow the Rays anywhere, so long as they have Tampa Bay on their jersey. I don't have a problem with it being down here. I haven't so long as it's a dome and air conditioned.

[00:01:44]Last year, I think was a wonderful learning experience on why we should never have an open-air stadium. But with a move, they know exactly what is going to be missed. You don't have teams like The Burg. You don't have this neighborhood with all these restaurants and bars and great places to come and hang out. You know, we come here every time we come to a game, we stop by the Berg before we go to the game. So, that's definitely something to be missed if they do move over there. Hillsborough College is set to vote to approve a lease for the Rays to use part of their Dale Mabry campus for the stadium project in Tampa, but still many hurdles left to be cleared on if and when the Rays could leave St. Pete. In St. Pete, I'm Blake Phillips, Tampa Bay 28.