LOS ANGELES — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has late December in mind as a target for the Tampa Bay Rays to know what stadium they’ll call home to open 2025.
“I think by Christmas they gotta have a pretty good plan in place, and there’s a lot to that,” Manfred said during batting practice before Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday.
MLB prefers that the Rays stay within their market in Florida, where various minor-league stadiums and spring training complexes are available. Manfred said a minor-league team’s schedule could be adjusted as needed, and the Rays likely could also be.
“We can make it work in a minor-league park,” Manfred said. “I think there’s probably some flexibility in terms of what we do with the big-league schedule.”
The full extent of the damage from Hurricane Milton at Tropicana Field, the Rays’ usual home, isn’t known yet.
“They’re still in the damage assessment mode,” Manfred said. “That needs to get done and obviously, it’s not just the roof, there was damage internally as well. Won’t know exactly what’s going to happen until they complete that process. … It’s just a guess as to how long it’s going to be.”
Ratings ‘really good’
The first game of the World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers drew 17.8 million viewers at its peak on Friday night, from 11:30 p.m. ET until it ended, Fox Sports said on Saturday.
Gibby, meet Freddie: MLB delivers 15.2M viewers for #WorldSeries Game 1 ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/EmBjDcF3Ld
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) October 26, 2024
“Ratings were really good last night,” Manfred said.
Ratings from Japan weren’t available before Game 2.
“We should get ’em today,” Manfred said. “We’re hoping we get a really good number, they’ve been great so far in the postseason, and hoping we get another good one.”
World Series will boost MLB’s revenue
Major League Baseball is going to finish with more revenue in 2024 than it did the year before, Manfred said but did not specify a figure for either year.
“I don’t have a number that I’m prepared to use right now,” Manfred said. “It will be impacted by this, certainly will be impacted by this, in a good way.”
The league in 2023 took in $11.6 billion.
No update on the Olympics
Another huge baseball event is coming to Los Angeles in 2028: the Olympics. Whether MLB players will participate remains under discussion.
“That’s an ongoing conversation, not resolved one way or another, I want to be clear about that: Not a yes, not a no,” he said.
Grass in Sacramento a ‘modest investment’
The league recently decided to go with grass instead of turf in Sacramento at the stadium the A’s and a minor-league team will share, a decision made out of concern for the heat that turf can generate.
“The way I look at it: We got consensus with the players that given the circumstances, that was the best playing surface,” Manfred said. “Grass can be replaced. It can be replaced. And that’s a question of relatively modest investment in order to make sure that it’s the best place for the players to be playing.”
Steal a base, don’t steal a taco
Taco Bell is not running a taco giveaway promotion during this year’s World Series because it is no longer an MLB sponsor. Sports Business Journal reported in April that Taco Bell had been a league sponsor since 2004.
Asked why there are no more taco giveaways, Manfred said, “All things come and go, I guess is the best answer on that one.”
(Photo of Rob Manfred speaking to reporters before Game 2 of the World Series: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
