Rays lawsuit impacts plans for talks between city, county, team

Pinellas County and the City of St. Petersburg have put a hold on the process to hire a consultant to negotiate with the Tampa Bay Rays on what could be the future of professional baseball in the area.

The process was halted after five limited partners in Tampa Bay Rays Baseball filed suit against Stu Sternberg, the Rays principal owner, Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton told the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday.

“We had begun working with the city to bring a consultant on board to look at the financial model of professional baseball here in Pinellas County, especially regarding the proposed split-season model — the financial impact of that and the economic impact of that, along with the cost,” Burton said. “We were just beginning that process. This has caused us to say, let’s pause this while the city figures out where to go with this and what that means.”

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