The Tampa Bay Rays have been one of the best teams in baseball in 2019. With a 43-31 record, the Rays are in second place in the American League East, an figure to battle for a berth in the postseason.

Given that they play in one of the most notable divisions in the game, it would see that Tampa Bay would have one of the most passionate fan bases in the sport. However, that could not be further from the truth.

The Rays rank 29th out of 30 MLB teams in home attendance, according to ESPN. In fact, Tampa Bay has the lowest attendance rate of the entire decade. Part of the reason for this is local dissatisfaction with the decrepit Tropicana Field, which has been the home of the Rays since they were founded as an expansion team in 1998.

Multiple attempts at planning a new stadium in Tampa have been scrapped, and the team seems to face a rather uncertain future.

According to ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan, the Rays have been granted permission to explore being a dual-city team, playing in both the Tampa Bay area as well as Montreal, Canada:

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Passan includes further details for the plan and the logical thought behind such a measure in his article:

Under the plan, the Rays would play in new stadiums in both the Tampa Bay area and Montreal, according to sources. The ability to play games early in the season in Florida would preclude the need for a domed stadium, cutting the cost of a new building. A month ago, Bronfman — who along with Montreal businessman Mitch Garber has expressed interest in taking a minority stake in the Rays alongside owner Stuart Sternberg — reached an agreement with a developer on a site in Montreal's Pointe-Saint-Charles neighborhood to potentially build a new stadium. The number of home games each city would receive has not been determined, according to sources.

While this could prove to be a short-term solution for the Rays, it is likely that the organization will need to hammer out plans for a new stadium in Tampa Bay at some point.