Once targeted, Montreal won’t be an option now for Rays

The Rays spent several years working to develop and push a plan in which they would have spent half of the season playing in Montreal, but Major League Baseball eventually quashed the idea in January 2022.

Now, with Tropicana Field severely damaged by Hurricane Milton, the Rays need an interim home to at least start the 2025 season and potentially for three years until their new stadium in St. Petersburg is built.

Montreal would seem to be a potentially primary and appealing option.

But that won't be the case, as Montreal officials confirmed Friday to the Tampa Bay Times that Olympic Stadium is not available due to an extensive four-year, $870 million construction project to replace the roof.

"Until 2028, the field of play will be within a construction site and therefore not open to the public," stadium communications officer Anik Parisé wrote in an email.

Montreal is the second potential option to come off the list, as officials with the Rays' Triple-A team in Durham, North Carolina, said Thursday they could not host the parent club for a full season due to scheduling conflicts and other logistical issues.

Rays officials have not said which sites they are considering or when they will make a decision. But, for multiple reasons, time is of the essence.

Other sites likely to be considered include spring training/minor-league stadiums in Clearwater, Dunedin and Tampa; St. Petersburg's Al Lang Stadium; the Disney complex; the Rays' Port Charlotte spring site; a sharing arrangement with the Marlins; the Omaha, Nebraska, site of the College World Series; and cities with expansion aspirations and minor-league teams such as Charlotte, Nashville, Salt Lake City and San Antonio, Texas.

Under the split-season plan, the Rays would have played in new outdoor stadiums in both markets, staying in Florida until the start of the summer heat and rains, then moving to Montreal before potentially returning toward the end of the season.

In this situation, the Rays would have played at Olympic Stadium, which hosted the Montreal Expos from 1977-2004, as well as a pair of Toronto Blue Jays exhibition games from 2014-19.

• • •

, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.