2017 All-Star Corey Dickerson was designated for assignment. (Dan Hamilton, USA Today Sports)

One of the biggest debates over the last decade in the sport of baseball has been the uncertain future of the Tampa Bay Rays. If they don’t bring up attendance numbers, are they going to relocate? When will they get a new stadium? Why is their attendance as bad as it is? The answer is simple: get out of St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg, which isn’t an actual part of Tampa, was a horrible location from the start and it was destined to fail. Undoubtedly, it is a hassle to get to the stadium in its current location. When you combine that with how much of a hole the stadium is, it plays a large role as one of the main reasons for which fans did not attend for the longest time.

That was until 2008, when a young core led by franchise player Carl Crawford led the Rays to not only their first playoff appearance, but first World Series. They would lose 4–1 to the Philadelphia Phillies, but that was beside the point. More and more fans started to show up to the games and excitement continued to build, that is, until the team became completely unrecognizable.

Pena, Longoria, Crawford and Barlett led the 2008 Rays. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

As a lifelong Tampa fan, you grew up unattached to players because it’s seemingly a revolving door of roster moves. An endless cycle that’s seemingly never ending, began with the departure of left-fielder Carl Crawford following the 2010 season. It was the beginning of the end of the young core that prospered in Tampa. Fan favorites such as James Shields, Ben Zobrist, Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza were traded to other teams leaving Tampa fans yearning for their brief past.

Around this time, franchise cornerstone Evan Longoria would sign an extension to become the highest paid player in the history of the franchise, just as he witnessed the dismantling of the team around him.

Evan Longoria reacts to his Game 162 Walk-off in 2011. (Kim Klement, US Presswire)

That brings us to the present-day. At this time last year, defensive dynamo Kevin Kiermaier signed a 6-year, 53-million dollar extension with the franchise as the Rays bought out his arbitration years. Kiermaier, a fan-favorite, was seemingly excited apart of a potentially winning environment long-term. This past trade deadline, the Rays found themselves in contention and attempted to piece together an already mediocre bullpen with more mediocre parts. Some performed well however, such as Sergio Romo, who came in and enjoyed a nice run; posting a 1.47 ERA with 28 Ks in 31 innings.

Veteran reliever Sergio Romo signed a one year extension with the Rays this past month. (AP)

The Rays unfortunately hit a skid toward the end of the season and instantly downgraded in the offseason, as 1B Logan Morrison and ace Alex Cobb declined their qualifying offer to test free agency. Then, in arguably the biggest trade in franchise history, they dealt Evan Longoria to the San Francisco Giants for CF Denard Span, INF Christian Arroyo, and 2 prospects. Longoria should’ve been dealt 3 seasons ago, and it was clear now was the time for Tampa to move on, as they were able to extract more than his worth back. Sending off Longoria was just the first of many moves made by the Rays this offseason that have completely changed the look of this ball club.

Tampa refrained from making any significant moves until this past week, after Rays Fan Fest, when they designated their best hitter (Corey Dickerson) for assignment. Dickerson, who started this past All-Star game, hit for a more than solid .282/.490/.815 slash line with 27 home runs, 33 doubles in 150 games. Instead of potentially trading him for a lot, they designated for assignment for CJ Cron, a 1st baseman who hit .248 with 16 home runs in 2017. In a rather bizarre offseason, this is by far the most bizarre transaction. The Rays did not finish there however, as they traded fan-favorite starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi to the Twins for their 24th rated prospect. The Rays made what was expected to be their final move (outside of a possible Colome trade) last night when they sent right fielder Steven Souza Jr. to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Souza, a great defensive player, had a breakout power year mashing 30 home runs for the first time in his big league career.

Once again, the team is completely unrecognizable. Even the most notable of names enter 2018 as a contract year. All-Star catcher Wilson Ramos, shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, reliever Sergio Romo, and left-fielder Denard Span are likely to be traded by the July 31st trade deadline.

Catcher Wilson Ramos looks to mash at the plate in his first full season back from his ACL tear. (AP)

This is where it gets tricky. The two biggest reasons we can’t draw a crowd is because of the stadium location and the lack of well-known players. Tampa has always been treated like a small market team, even though it’s one of the largest metro markets available in sports. In an interview with DeWayne Staats just last season, commissioner Rob Manfred said that Tampa gets some of the most revenue from television and its contract with Fox Sports Sun. Every team also got extra money from the league this past season to spend and Tampa is one of the lowest payrolls in all of baseball every year. There’s no reason for Tampa to be as “broke” as they claim. Seemingly, one of the problems was solved when owner Stuart Sternberg announced that there would be a new stadium in Ybor City.

Fan Fest came and went and Stu reiterated that every player on the roster was there to stay for the season and there was a lot of optimism in the fans and within the team. Now, not even a week and a half later, it’s absolutely nothing but dismal hope and despair. Kevin Kiermaier has come out and proclaimed his frustration with the org for making such moves. Contrary to popular belief, this shouldn’t be on general manager Erik Neander. This same thing happened with Andrew Friedman, and it’s the same thing that’s going to happen until Sternberg sells the team.

If anyone needs further proof of how cheap Stu can be, he went on the radio three days ago and said that the only way the stadium will get a roof is by fans showing up to the Trop. Stu went on the radio and bashed the fanbase and claimed that they were the reason that we aren’t getting a retractable roof. The problem with this is the geographical setting of Ybor City and how close to the Gulf it is. It rains almost every day over the summer. It’s not a “we can go without a roof” situation, it’s a must have. You can’t have double headers be a regular occurrence. You don’t bash your fanbase when there’s no logic behind your statements to back you up.

With that said, can you really blame the fans for not attending regularly? You have to take out a loan to go to the games, rush to the stadium to hopefully get there on time with no guarantees, and not even know any of the players? Dickerson should either still be on the team or traded for something worth of value. It’s said that they’ve received offers, but preferred to cut him to save the money. Stu doesn’t want to spend money on players or the necessities of a new stadium, even if the funds are there, because it’s less money that goes into his pocket.

If you continue to strip down every team dead smack in the middle of a rebuild, it’s not a rebuild. It’s an endless cycle of not wanting to pay your talent. While it’s difficult to compete head-to-head with the Red Sox and Yankees year after year, Tampa has some of the smartest executives in the MLB and have proved they can compete in the past. That being said, even the smartest of executives can’t build a winner without the owner behind the team. Tampa Bay has seemingly gone back into both the cellar and obscurity overnight.