The Rays are playing where they should be in Tampa and Frank Morsani almost made it happen.

George Steinbrenner Field is playing host to Tampa Bay for all of the 2025 season. The Rays are playing in Tampa and had Frank Morsanti gotten his way back in the 1980's and early '90's Tampa would have been their home all along. 

We all know by now that due to hurricane Milton and the storms distructive power that took the roof off Tropacan Field. The strom left the Rays homeless for at least the 2025 year but with some help from the Yankees and MLB Tampa will host the team. 

Had Frank Morsanti been awarded the franchise he worked so hard to bring to Tampa, the plot of land where Steinbrenner Field sits on a plot of land accross Dale Mabry highway from where the original Tampa Stadium was built and where a proposed baseball stadium likely would have been build for Morsani's team. 

Who is Frank Morsani?

Over the past forty-plus years, you couldn’t live in the Tampa Bay area and not have heard of Frank Morsani. Most people know him as a prominent Tampa auto dealer, philanthropist, and former chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is known for his significant contributions to the University of South Florida and the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, including the naming of the Morsani College of Medicine and Carol Morsani Hall.

It was Morsani who wanted to take his seat in a new ball park in Tampa and watch his baseball team play. One can'tbut wonder how things might have turned out had the man who tried for over a decade to bring a team to Tampa had gotten his wish.

Morsani’s initial efforts to bring a Major League Baseball team to Tampa began in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then, he and other local businessmen formed a group that aimed to acquire the Minnesota Twins and move them to Tampa. So, back in 1984, his group bought 42% of the Twins with the intent of acquiring controlling interest and relocating the team to Tampa.

MLB had intervened and pressured Morsani's group to back out of the deal after it allegedly promised them first crack at an expansion franchise in the future. Meanwhile. at the same time as Morsanti was leading the crusade to bring a team to Tampa in 1977, the Pinellas Sports Authority was created by the Florida Legislature.

The group's purpose was to search for a suitable site and bring a team to the area. In 1983 as part of a revitization of the Gas Plant area of St. Petersburg the city and Pinellas County approved a deal to build a multipurpose stand thinking it would give them a leg up on Tampa and other cities who wanted a team.

The plan to build the stadium was now in motion and in 1986, then-MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth informed St. Petersburg that baseball could make no assurances that they would get a franchise if they built a stadium, essentially telling them not to build on speculation.

The theory of the case for MLB was that St. Petersburg was outside the 50 mile radius of the new teams potentional fan base and building a stadium in the location chosen was not a wise decision. Un dettered St. Petersburg went on with the stadium plans and sought to bring the Chicao White Sox to town and that didn't work.

So, in the fall of 1990 St. Petersburg completed the Florida Suncoast Dome built on premise that one day it would host a MLB team.

Over in Tampa Morsani after failing to purchase and reocate the Twins, Morsanti and his group were relentless in beating St. Petersburg in the race to bring baseball to Tampa. The group went after first the Texas Rangers and then the Oakland Athletics. Once again MLB put the brakes on buying a controlling interest in the teams for the purpose of moving the teams to Tampa.

Baseball announced that in both Tampa and St. Petersburg were named finalists for an MLB expansion team in 1993, but lost out to Miami and Denver. It was Miami that landed the new franchise led by local businessman Wayne Huizenga. MLB wanted to work with the new owner because of the success of his Blockbuster video. MLB saw that he could help them in a very strong promotional way. 

In 1990 enter Vince Namioli who wanted to own the team that would play in St. Peterburg and call the soon to be finished Suncoast Dome their home. He led the Tampa Bay Baseball Group, as they tried to bring baseball to the area in 1993. He took a page out of the Morsani playbook as he looked to buy a team and move it to St.Petersburg.

He offered Bob Lurie $115 million for the San Francisco Giants, but Major League Baseball forced Lurie to try to find a local buyer, who turned out to be Peter Magowan. So then Naimoli tried to buy the Seattle Mariners and move them to the area, but that didn't work either.

By now the Florida Suncoast Dome was out of step with the new retro stadiums like Camden Yards in Baltimore, PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and others on the books. The dome's stange roof was a concern to the MLB brass. The venue was in use for many events and they did hst the Tampa Bay Lightning until their new downtown Tampa arena was finished.

Once again MLB was ready to expand and once again both Tampa and St. Petersburg were in the race to land the team with Morsanti thinking now he would be rewarded by not moving any of the three franchises he sought to bring to Tampa. He did not ask the city of Tampa and Hillsorough County to build a stadium.

So, following nearly three decades of unsuccessfully trying to gain an expansion franchise or enticing existing teams to relocate to the Tampa Bay area, an ownership group led by Naimoli was approved on March 9, 1995. The team began play as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1998 Major League Baseball season.

In many ways Naimoli he used the Morsani playbook in chasing franchises with the hopes of moving them to the area. In the end having a place to play already built did in fact help his group land the Rays.

After nearly 20 years Morsani gave up but not without a fight he sued MLB Morsani and the case was based on broken promises made by high ranking members of baseball that he would get a team.

The suit revolved around allegations of tortious interference and antitrust violations. Morsani claimed that MLB interfered with his attempts to acquire a baseball franchise, including the Minnesota Twins and the Texas Rangers, and later denied him opportunities to own a team despite promises made.

In the end in 2003 Morsani who spent a reported $3 million dollars on atempting to bring a team Tampa got some satisfaction. In the end the suit lasted 11 years but in 2003 and the two sides settled legal battle. Morsani and his partners did recieve an undisclosed ammount of money from the MLB.

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