Rays Respond to St. Pete Following Foster's Proposal

After St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster sent the Rays an offer last week to amend the team's use agreement with the city, the two parties sat down today to discuss the future.

Although the team didn't indicate if it had signed the amendment, it appears the meeting didn't go the way Foster and St. Pete officials had hoped.

Here's the official statement from Rays' president Matt Silverman:

Since Stu’s announcement a few weeks back, we have received an outpouring of support from fans throughout Tampa Bay. They love the Rays and they want to ensure that the team is a permanent fixture in our community.

To secure the long-term future of the Rays here, any search for a new ballpark site needs to explore all of the Tampa Bay region. This is what we repeated to Mayor Foster today. We thanked him for his gesture, and we conveyed to him again that we will consider sites in St. Petersburg and Gateway when we are considering all potential sites in Tampa Bay.

Our organization is singularly focused on the pennant race at hand. Come November, we will work to formulate a process for a ballpark site search with the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.

Thanks to 10 News Producer Matt Sinn for the help on this.