October 3 – One of the best-known club names in US football, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who boasted English legend Rodney Marsh and Brazil’s Mirandinha on their roster in the late 1970s, have been sold to the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team.
No financial terms were given for the sale of the Rowdies, who were bought by Bill Edwards in 2013 who invested significantly in the Al Lang Stadium and expressed an ambition to move towards the MLS. The Rowdies currently play in the USL Championship, having moved over from the NASL in 2017.
Edwards bought the club when they were on the verge of bankruptcy. They are currently battling for a place in the USL play-offs.
Last year a St. Petersburg referendum voted in favour of an improvement of the Al Lang Stadium which would cost up to $80 million and increase capacity from 7,500 to 18,000. Edwards was to provide the finance and the MLS was positive about the positioning of the Rowdies as one of the MLS expansion clubs.
The sale to the MLB team will bring the Rowdies into a sports investor group with considerably more leverage in the local market. Rays presidents Matthew Silverman and Brian Auld will become vice chairmen of the Rowdies, overseeing all aspects of the club alongside Rowdies VP & COO Lee Cohen.
“We are committed to continuing the upward trajectory that the Rowdies have been experiencing under Bill’s visionary leadership,” said Silverman. “The Tampa Bay Rowdies are a legendary soccer team, and we look forward to extending their legacy and prominence.”
The Rays have long had their own plans for a $1 billion replacement of their Tropicana stadium with the site of the Al Lang Stadium having been one of the venue options suggested 20 years ago. The Rays haven’t been able to progress those plans though the expanded sports group opens up a number of possibilities and perhaps the incentive to upgrade more ambitiously.
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