Rays tell business leaders MLB revenue-sharing sustains the team, to the growing annoyance of other owners

Cash in the form of Major League Baseball revenue-sharing is sustaining the Tampa Bay Rays, but the patience of other team owners is running low as they wait for the Rays to secure a new ballpark.

That's a key point local business leaders took Wednesday from an hour-long discussion with Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg and president Matt Silverman at the offices of the Tampa Bay Partnership, a nonprofit economic development organization.

What the Rays's leadership told the partnership was that the team's "sustainability is driven off revenue-sharing," partnership chairman Chuck Sykes said. "That is not a long-term winning formula."

As a business person, he said, "I wouldn't get a false sense of security to say that there isn't real money behind this revenue-sharing that would cause somebody to say eventually, "Time's up. I've had enough.' "

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