ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Opening Day never fails to bring out the grills, the gift giveaways and of course, the fans.
- Rays opened 2019 season Thursday vs. Houston Astros
- Team's stadium proposal with Ybor City struck out
- Owner Sternberg says focus is St. Petersburg for team's future
- RELATED: 5 things to know about the Rays in 2019
But this season for the Tampa Bay Rays also brings a lot of questions about whether the team will stay in or leave St. Petersburg.
Now that plans to move the team to Tampa and a proposed $900 million stadium have struck out, franchise owner Stuart Sternberg says he is giving St. Pete a second look.
"We'll focus now on Pinellas and specifically St. Petersburg. The mayor (Rick Kriseman) and I met (Wednesday)," Sternberg said.
"We've spoken recently in the past. Told him by some point this summer we'll get back, ideally have a plan in place or an idea what the future of this franchise is and where we're gonna be."
Sternberg was on hand to shake hands with fans for Opening Day, but the question remains is he ready to shake hands with the city on a new deal to stay put and build a new stadium here.
"We're trying to do everything we can. We put in $6-7 million bucks into this place this year," he said. "We've got the Rowdies now. We've put a bunch of improvements in, we continue there."
Meanwhile, Sternberg also hopes the team can have a great season, one that will keep the fans filling the seats like every game is Opening Day.
"We're excited. We won 90 last year. We would take 90 again," he said. "If we can get that, that would be a great accomplishment, especially in the American League East."