If funding were approved, St. Petersburg residents would have been on the hook for a new stadium for one of baseball’s least attended teams.

Before the Pinellas County Commission punted on finalizing bonds for a new $1.3 billion stadium again on Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Rays wrote a letter saying the deal approved this summer no longer works financially for the team.

Things are getting dicey in the Tampa area for the Tampa Bay Rays. First, the Rays will spend the 2025 season in a temporary facility, playing at the spring training home of the New York Yankees. This is a result of October's Hurricane Milton,