Rays owner says team 'progressing' towards new ballpark

The Tampa Bay Rays are getting close to finding a location for their new ballpark, team owner Stuart Sternberg told MLB.com on Wednesday.

According to Sternberg, the prospective sites for the Rays' new home are located in the Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, while adding that both locales are "eager" to keep the Rays in the area.

While this comes as positive news for baseball in Florida, Sternberg added that "there are logistic issues, there are money issues, and all of that that goes along with it." The Rays owner also suggested that attendance numbers haven't been promising before rhetorically asking "can this actually work here?"

The Rays rank dead last in attendance per game so far this season, drawing just 14,603 fans per home game.

The Rays have an agreement with St. Petersburg - the location of their current ballpark, Tropicana Field - to be able to look for a new site elsewhere, but that expires in January 2019. By the sounds of things though, Sternberg will have the Rays' new home picked out well before the expiration of that agreement.