ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — On his Thursday afternoon radio show, Tom ‘TKras’ Krasniqi summed up what many Rays fans are feeling right now: frustration, exasperation, exhaustion.
“And I’m speaking not only for myself but for all of Tampa Bay, we’re tired of this!” he said into the microphone.
With the deal to keep the team in St. Petersburg now dead — the latest failure in a saga of failures — TKras says it’s time for the Rays' current owner, Stu Sternberg, to sell the team.
“We all deserve better, and we’re not getting it right now,” he said. “We’re not.”
TKras is not alone. Pinellas County Commissioner Chris Latvala continues his push for Sternberg to sell.
“He’s not able to get a stadium deal across home plate,” Latvala said in an interview. “And I think the longer it goes on, the more it puts the future of baseball in Tampa Bay in doubt.”
St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch seemed to agree in his Thursday statement to the media. Welch said the bridge between St. Pete and Sternberg has been burned.
“I have no interest in working with this ownership group,” he said.
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Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan also voiced a desire for new ownership before he and other leaders in Tampa and Hillsborough County make a pitch for the team.
“I think from the Hillsborough side, that our sentiments are similar to what Mayor Welch stated,” Hagan said in an interview with TKras and WDAE.
But, in another interview with WDAE, Rays President Matt Silverman didn’t budge.
“The team’s not for sale,” he said.
“I think Stu gets a bad rap, because he is the one guy for the last 20 years who has defended Tampa Bay, who has stood up for this market, who says we need to figure something out here,” Silverman continued.
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Silverman thinks current ownership will get to the finish line and eventually score a long-term stadium deal in Tampa Bay.
TKras doesn’t buy it.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before we see the Rays changing hands,” the radio host said in an interview with ABC Action News. “And look, [Sternberg’s] done a great job in transforming the baseball operations into one of the model operations in all of Major League Baseball, but when it comes to the business side of it in terms of getting a stadium deal done, I think he has fallen well short of expectations.”
According to The Athletic, several people within the MLB, including the commissioner, are also pressuring Sternberg to sell the team.
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