Just hours after voting to finance repairs to the home stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays, the St. Petersburg City Council reversed course. 

The Rays will now pay the division rival New York Yankees $15 million to play their home regular-season games at New York’s spring training ballpark. That is now the only certain home the Rays will have until further notice. 

The stadium’s fiberglass roof was ripped clean off Oct. 9 when Hurricane Milton swept ashore just south of Tampa Bay. Then came the destructive water damage inside the venue, causing an estimated $55.7 million in damage. The extensive repairs cannot be finished before the 2026 season, city documents show.

The city at least would have supplied some funding and started the process with its initial vote, which was a 4-3 decision.

The initial vote Thursday was to get moving on the roof portion of the repair. Once that was done, crews would begin working on laying down a new baseball field and fixing damaged seating and office areas and a variety of electronic systems, which would require another vote to approve money for the remaining restoration.

Members who opposed it said there wasn’t enough clarity on numerous issues, including how much would be covered by the ballpark’s insurance and what amount might be provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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The reversal on fixing Tropicana Field came after the council voted to delay consideration of revenue bonds for a proposed new $1.3 billion Rays ballpark. Just two days earlier, the Pinellas County Commission postponed a vote on its share of the new stadium bonds, leaving that project in limbo.

“This is a sad place. I’m really disappointed,” council Chair Deborah Figg-Sanders said. “We won’t get there if we keep finding ways we can’t.”

The Rays say the lack of progress puts the new stadium plan and the future of Tropicana Field in jeopardy.

“I can’t say I’m confident about anything,” Rays Co-President Brian Auld told council members.

Cots at Tropicana Field before the arrival of Hurricane Milton in St. Petersburg, Fla., Oct. 7, 2024.    (Reuters/Octavio Jones)

The reversal now means the city and Rays must work on an alternative in the coming weeks so that Tropicana Field can possibly be ready for the 2026 season.

“I’d like to pare it down and see exactly what we’re obligated to do,” council member John Muhammad said.

Several council members said before the vote on the $23.7 million to fix the roof that the city is contractually obligated to do so.

“I don’t see a way out of it. We have a contract that’s in place,” council member Gina Driscoll said. “We’re obligated to do it. We are going to fix the roof.”

The team’s planned new stadium would be ready for the 2028 season, if that project advances, the team said Tuesday.

Rays top executives said in a letter to the Pinellas County Commission that the team has already spent $50 million for early work on the new $1.3 billion ballpark and cannot proceed further because of delays in approval of bonds for the public share of the costs.

The damaged roof of Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, after Hurricane Milton made landfall in downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024.   (Reuters/Octavio Jones)

“The Rays organization is saddened and stunned by this unfortunate turn of events,” a letter, signed by co-presidents Auld and Matt Silverman, said. They noted the overall project was previously approved by the County Commission and the City of St. Petersburg.

Asked if Major League Baseball can survive long term in the Tampa Bay area, Rays Principal Owner Stuart Sternberg said the outlook is “less rosy than it was three weeks ago. We’re going to do all that we can, as we’ve tried for 20 years, to keep the Rays here for generations to come.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The coronation was nothing new.

The narrative that came with it, however, reflected just how much has changed in one year.

For the third time in his decorated Major League Baseball career, Shohei Ohtani won most valuable player honors Thursday, claiming the National League’s top individual accolade by a unanimous vote from 30 members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America.

While no designated hitter had won an MVP, the award was not a surprise. In his first season with the Dodgers, Ohtani led the NL in home runs (54), RBIs (130) and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.036). He was second in batting average (.310). And with 59 steals, he became the first player in history with a 50-homer, 50-steal season.

Unlike his previous two MVP awards in 2021 and 2023 with the Angels, the two-way star didn’t win this one while pitching, limited to hitting this past season after undergoing last year a revision of the Tommy John surgery he had.

“The fact that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pitch this season,” Ohtani said through an interpreter, “just made me focus more on my offensive game.”

And the circumstances surrounding Thursday’s announcement that Ohtani won were even more different. There were no looming questions about free agency. No lingering doubts about his lack of postseason experience.

Only one last victorious appearance to bookend a celebratory season for the newest Dodgers star.

“I’m representing the team, winning this award,” Ohtani said on MLB Network, after teammate Clayton Kershaw delivered the announcement.

“I obviously don’t go into the season trying to strive to get the MVP award,” Ohtani added. “I was more focused on being one of the guys with a new team, with the Dodgers. I wanted to embrace the fans, as well, and just let them learn who I was. That was my main focus.”

When Ohtani won his second MVP this time last year, the announcement was surrounded by thick offseason speculation. Ohtani was early in his process as a marquee free agent. He had yet to start meeting with clubs trying to sign him. His future was hanging in the balance.

Fast-forward 12 months, and there were a few constants to be found Thursday — right down to Ohtani’s new interpreter for the announcement, Matt Hidaka (who interpreted for Ohtani during his introductory news conference with the Angels in 2017).

Instead of facing total offseason uncertainty like he did last year, Ohtani was looking ahead to his return to the mound with the Dodgers next year, when he is expected to resume two-way duties as a member of their rotation.

Exactly when Ohtani will retake the mound is unclear. He ended the season needing to check a few more boxes in his recovery from elbow surgery, including facing hitters again in live batting-practice sessions.

“The goal is to be ready for opening day, and that includes hitting and pitching,” Ohtani said. “But we are taking our time, obviously … I think we are going to take a little bit more time and be conservative and we’re going to make sure I’m healthy before I step back on the mound.”

A labrum surgery on his left shoulder this month — resulting from the dislocated shoulder Ohtani suffered in the World Series — also likely will push back his pitching timeline, leaving his chances of starting during the Dodgers’ season-opening trip to his home country of Japan seemingly slim.

“The goal is to be ready for opening day, and that includes hitting and pitching,” Ohtani said. “But we are taking our time, obviously … I think we are going to take a little bit more time and be conservative and we’re going to make sure I’m healthy before I step back on the mound.”

It’s also unknown how strictly the Dodgers will limit Ohtani’s pitching workload, as they typically do with pitchers returning from major arm surgeries.

What is clear: Ohtani will have a leading role to play in multiple ways for the Dodgers, who are hoping he can replicate some of his dominant offensive form from the past year while also being in position to impact what was a shorthanded staff.

“Right now my focus is to get healthy, come back stronger, get on the mound and show everybody what I can do,” Ohtani said, after laughing off a question about whether he hopes to add a Cy Young Award to his trophy case next year.

It was all a far cry from where Ohtani was last year, as he embarked on a free-agent process that resulted in a record-breaking $700-million contract.

In hindsight, it’s a decision that worked out for both parties.

En route to helping the Dodgers win the World Series — their second since 2020 and first in a full season since 1988 — Ohtani pulled away from all other NL MVP contenders, including New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (who finished second) and Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte (who finished third).

It made Ohtani the 12th player in MLB history with three or more MVP awards (of that group, only seven-time winner Barry Bonds won a fourth). It made Ohtani the second player in history to win both an AL and NL MVP, joining Frank Robinson’s honors in 1961 (with Cincinnati) and 1966 (with Baltimore). And it marked the 13th time in Dodgers history one of their players won an MVP. Cody Bellinger had been the last to do so in 2019.

The Dodgers’ hope is that more MVPs — and World Series titles — are in Ohtani’s future, as he enters the second year of his 10-year deal with the club.

Other than his pitching rehab, after all, the lack of uncertainties surrounding Ohtani on Thursday reflected just how quickly he has settled with the Dodgers.

It wasn’t his first time winning the honor. But it only added to what has been the most triumphant season of his MLB career yet.

“The next goal,” Ohtani said, “is for me to do it again.”

Football coverage is a divisive subject.

Some think the standard of punditry is great, others will tell you it needs some work and some will deride it as awful. The analysis of the analysis never ends.

This week, The Athletic is looking more closely at the state of the industry, starting with yesterday’s piece assessing what is demanded of pundits in the United Kingdom in 2024 and how people consume their work.

Today, we broaden the discussion to see how UK coverage stacks up against the rest of the world, including the proudest of all football nations Germany, Brazil and Spain, together with those pesky upstarts in the U.S..

In Europe, the landscape of punditry can be wildly different. Travel to Italy, Spain or Turkey, switch on a television and scan through the channels and you’ll almost certainly be able to find some football coverage, be it via a football talk show, replays of matches, or on the news.

This is the case in the UK, too, via Sky Sports’ network of channels, but we’re talking free-to-air here in countries where people are arguably far more obsessed with football than your average UK football diehard.

It borders on fanaticism in a place like Turkey and the at-times frantic coverage reflects that. One grim incident recently showcased how seriously football is taken, when pundit Serhat Akin was shot in the foot when leaving a TV studio.

The former Fenerbahce player had been covering the club’s match against Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise from an Istanbul studio, after which he was approached and shot by a masked man.

Akin posted a picture of his bloodied foot on Instagram with the caption: “They shot my foot, our last word is Fenerbahce.”

Over in Germany things are a bit calmer.

In many ways the coverage is very similar to in the UK, only probably a bit better. Standard Bundesliga behaviour.

Why? Well, depending on your disposition, they don’t quite have as much forced melodrama that you tend to find with the Premier League.

The punditry industry is not quite as accessible for ex-players, so the notion of former pros that you’d get on, say, a certain national radio station in the UK where certain people will make certain comments to attract attention doesn’t really exist.

Presenters, again, unlike in the UK with Gary Lineker, Alex Scott, or, until recently, Jermaine Jenas, are media professionals rather than players. Pundits include Per Mertesacker and Christoph Kramer, the 2014 World Cup winner who has been an analyst for many years already despite being only 33 years old and still not officially retired (he left Borussia Mönchengladbach in the summer).

They have a tactics corner on Sky via Dutchman Erik Meijer, the one-time Liverpool striker who spent much of his career in Germany. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Meijer described his reaction to being asked to appear on German television: “The first question I had was, ‘There are 80 million Germans in this country so why do they need to employ a Dutchman? But they wanted a different voice — someone who would say that Bayern Munich were c**p when they were.”

Julia Simic, who used to play for the women’s national team, is also a regular, while pundits who cover the Premier League include former goalkeeper Rene Adler and ex-Croatia international and Fulham and West Ham striker Mladen Petric.

While Germans do like other sports, such as basketball, handball and tennis, football is the main draw and the coverage can be dense and fanatical, although it tends to be quite considered and mindful of weighty issues. The rise of vloggers and influencers we have seen in the UK hasn’t yet caught on.

Probably the most high profile figure is Wolff Fuss, inflection king extraordinaire. Search for him on TikTok and you’ll find 20 million matches. Fuss has the stage to himself because, in another difference to the UK, co-commentators are quite uncommon in Germany.

If Fuss is the main man, then Lothar Matthaus is the loudest. Not necessarily in volume, but in the decibel level of his opinions (and his outfits… Matthaus caught the eye at this summer’s European Championship with some striking gilets).

Lothar Matthaus (right), complete with gilet (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Matthaus could probably be compared to Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher in that he gives forthright views on “his” club, which in this case would be Bayern Munich. Neville and Carragher constantly attract the attention of Manchester United and Liverpool managers with their views but Matthaus — and his partner-in-crime, Dietmar Hamann — tend to take it a bit further.

In the past year alone, Matthaus has called for Thomas Tuchel to be sacked, questioned the signing of Eric Dier, claimed Jadon Sancho’s influence at Borussia Dortmund had been exaggerated by the media and said he “felt sorry” for Cristiano Ronaldo whose “ego trips” had “damaged the team and himself”.

Last November, Tuchel referenced Matthaus and Hamann in a press conference after a 4-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, saying: “Can I quote Lothar and Didi? For a team with no further development and a bad relationship between coach and players, that was alright today, I’d say. I’m sure the experts will tell you the rest themselves.” Nice.

Matthaus is probably still tame compared to Rafael van der Vaart, who, since retiring, has very much earned a reputation for making unfiltered and inflammatory comments in his role as a pundit in the Netherlands.

You may recall Van der Vaart had a pop at England’s Declan Rice after the Euro 2024 final on the coverage of Dutch broadcaster NOS, saying: “£100million for Declan Rice, what does he do? He comes to collect a ball only to pass it back to John Stones. He is useless. If you are truly worth £100m then you should be able to play a ball forward.”

This was very much in character for Van der Vaart, whose appreciation for the England team seems to be somewhat lacking given he also decried the whole side as “s***”, also on NOS, after they defeated the Netherlands 2-1 in the semi-finals.

Over in Spain, you may be most familiar with Spanish football TV punditry from clips of El Chiringuito de Jugones, a late-night debate show in which a cast of big personalities voice their opinions — usually quite loudly and with little sense of impartiality.

🔥 “RAMOS, TE QUIERO. ERES MI CAPITÁN” 🔥

⚪️‼️”¡¡FIRMA y QUÉDATE en el REAL MADRID!!”‼️⚪️

🤍💜 El discurso de @As_TomasRoncero que convencerá a @SergioRamos. #ElChiringuitoDeMega pic.twitter.com/SVdRd0HPcS

— El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) May 9, 2021

In recent years the programme has gained notoriety for interviewing Real Madrid president Florentino Perez after the attempted launch of the European Super League, using the phrase “tic tac” to announce incoming transfer news (imitating the ticking of a clock) and showing three minutes of former Madrid midfielder Guti looking sad after his old side’s 4-0 Champions League defeat by Manchester City last year.

You will find a more sophisticated level of discussion on TV channel Movistar Plus and streaming platform DAZN. The former features former Madrid and Argentina player turned pundit Jorge Valdano while presenter Miguel Quintana and former Equatorial Guinea international Alberto Edjogo-Owono, who spent his career in the Spanish lower leagues, are two respected voices on DAZN.

But the way fandom works in Spain — in particular with the big two clubs, Barcelona and Madrid — means those pundits are often labelled the enemy of one or other team, despite trying to be impartial.

In Spain, there is also a deeper layer of scrutiny towards refereeing and why decisions do or do not happen (possibly linked to the above). There is no equivalent of Match of the Day, perhaps because there is not much interest in analysing games like Osasuna versus Getafe from a tactical perspective. And the tactical insight mainly comes from social media rather than mass media.

As for other prominent pundits, Guti has made a name for himself on DAZN, while Gaizka Mendieta and Juanfran Torres are also regulars on television.

Often more in-depth analysis can be found on late-night radio shows such as El Larguero on Cadena SER or Cadena COPE’s El Partidazo — both of which go on until the early hours and continue to attract huge audiences, as The Athletic’s Laia Cervello Herrero explored earlier this year. Even then, debates can get heated given the nature of football in Spain.

You might think the tone would be fairly outrageous in a football-mad country like Brazil, but while passions undoubtedly run extremely high and some coverage can be melodramatic, there is also room for reasoned debate.

The biggest difference in Brazil is the volume of the commentators, who are the stars of the show.

“The commentator really goes for it,” Natalie Gedra, a football reporter for Sky Sports in the UK who previously worked for ESPN and Globo in Brazil, tells The Athletic. “Brazilians cannot understand countries who don’t scream ‘GOOOOOOAAAAAAL!’ There’s also a tune that comes with it, either the club’s anthem or a song that’s related to the national team.

“Visually it’s different too — for example, you will have a gigantic ball going back and forth on the screen between transitions of replays. I remember watching World Cups growing up and they had a little mascot who would show up on the screen and dance around.”

Having ex-referees as pundits, for example, has been a well-established practice in Brazil for at least a decade, formerly in the commentary box but now more as studio analysts. Oh, and the studios are always at TV HQ, not on site at stadiums.

Talking of the commentary box, it’s typically filled with three people – a commentator, i.e. the star, a journalist and a former player.

“They have more ex-players now, but a lot of journalists are co-commentators or pundits on both pre and post-match shows,” Gedra adds. “Everyone knows the commentator; they’re massive stars.”

Reflecting how their best players tend to head to Europe, Brazil’s most famous ex-players aren’t really part of the TV coverage over there, other than for World Cups. Ronaldo worked on the 2014 World Cup and, most famously, Pele was a commentator for the 1994 World Cup.

“There are some ex-players, like, for example (Walter) Casagrande, who played for Corinthians. He was the most prominent for many years,” Gedra says. “He was a bit of a pioneer, he had a big profile and didn’t back down from making big statements, but he was also very articulate.

“The main Brazilian football names don’t become pundits in Brazil, but Pele in 1994 is by far the most famous example. There is a picture of him celebrating in the commentary booth with commentator Galvao Bueno which is one of the most iconic images in the history of Brazilian television.

Meu amigo Édson se foi!!
Que tristeza! Mas Pelé, não!!
Pelé é eterno!! Rei Pelé!!
Primeiro e único!! pic.twitter.com/AA56oWRdlZ

— Galvão Bueno (@galvaobueno) December 29, 2022

“Galvao Bueno is probably the biggest name in the history of Brazilian TV, he’s absolutely huge and the voice of many of the biggest sporting moments, like all the World Cups. Yes, people love or hate him but everybody knows who he is.”

Commentators in the UK don’t have anywhere near as big a profile. No wonder Guy Mowbray has started doing Gladiators.

Another difference is in the make-up of the post-match chat. Gedra has observed that Brazil’s coverage is less data-orientated than in the UK, although the tone depends on the channel. Globo, the free-to-air channel, have largely monopolised coverage but they are now under threat from newer players such as Sport TV, ESPN and TNT Sports. YouTube channels are also growing.

“I worked for ESPN and I think they got the tone just right, very analytical and not too spectacular or passionate,” Gedra says.

Unspectacular is definitely not a word you would use to describe the stylings of Alexi Lalas, one of the most prominent broadcasters in the U.S., whose brash persona brings a love-it-or-hate-it quality.

He works as an analyst for Fox Sports, has a podcast called Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union and doesn’t care if people like him or not. But his bold, direct and outspoken opinions have made him an influential figure in the U.S. and beyond.

Lalas is another who doesn’t seem to especially like English players, saying during the Euros that Gareth Southgate’s team were “insufferable as they are talented”.

“But I’m in the entertainment business,” Lalas told The Athletic earlier this year. “I am a performer. When you say that, sometimes people cringe. By no means am I saying that I can’t be authentic and genuine. But I recognise the way I say something is as important as what I say.

“When I go on TV, I put on a costume and when that red light goes on, I don’t want people changing the channel.”

Lalas’ audacious approach is a bit of a leap from the English-style NBC coverage that rose to prominence a few years ago. A number of ex-Premier League players headed Stateside and made names for themselves, such as Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe — while having decent careers in England, neither was a household name when playing for Wimbledon and Middlesbrough respectively.

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The pair, who have their own podcast called The 2 Robbies, gave NBC’s coverage a familiar feel alongside commentator Arlo White and pundit Lee Dixon, while former Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham is another face of the channel having moved Stateside. “What we’ve tried to do from the start is talk in a normal way about football,” Earle told The Guardian in 2017. An underrated concept.

Fox Sports also employ recognisable names from UK TV coverage including commentator (sorry, ‘play-by-play announcer’) Ian Darke, former Newcastle defender Warren Barton and ex-Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves. Fox also use Mark Clattenburg as a refereeing analyst.

Undoubtedly the most renowned U.S. soccer coverage, though, is on CBS Sports via its hugely popular Golazo Champions League show, complete with the instantly recognisable line-up of Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher, whose on-screen chemistry make them a social media staple on every matchday.

Left to right: Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards have been a hit on CBS (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

Pete Radovich, the coordinating producer of the UEFA Champions League coverage on CBS Sports, told The Athletic in September on how he came to realise that the network’s Champions League Today studio now owns the global conversation on major nights of European football.

“Thierry Henry, in no uncertain terms, says he gets asked more about CBS now than Arsenal,” he said. “That to me is wild.”

The show’s razor-sharp use of social media and its mix of humour, analysis and engaging post-match interviews with managers and players is a winning formula, while most importantly the quartet’s camaraderie feels natural, warm and unforced.

Americans showing the world how to make excellent football soccer coverage? It’s a brave new world.

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)