ST. PETERSBURG -- Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg, addressing the media at the Dali Museum on Tuesday, discussed a proposed split of the Rays’ regular season between Tampa Bay and Montreal. The MLB executive council’s decision to grant the team permission to explore the option of a two-city solution was first reported on Thursday.

“For most of the franchise’s two decades, there have been questions about its viability,” Sternberg said of St. Pete. “We can’t pretend that [with] a tweak here or a slight turn there, everything will be great and we will have the strong, sustainable franchise that we all crave.

“In spite of our successes on the field and the development of a growing fanbase across this wonderful region, we greatly lag behind the rest of the league. We are at or near the bottom in nearly every economic category in Major League Baseball. This is a reality, and we can all confront it together.”

Few details were given about how such an agreement might work logistically, financially or even what the name of the team might be. After multiple attempts to build a new stadium in the greater Tampa Bay area over the last decade, Sternberg believes the current situation in St. Pete is untenable and a partnership with Montreal is the last, best hope.

“[The Tampa Bay market] is simply not well-suited for a Major League Baseball team that needs to draw tens of thousands of people for each of its 81 games to its ballpark,” Sternberg said.

By spending the second half of the season in “a baseball-hungry market” like Montreal, Sternberg promised that the team could thrive as it “could not and would not” in St. Petersburg alone.

While the idea is certainly surreal, it isn’t without some precedent. The Montreal Expos played 22 home games in at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2003.

How the arrangement would work on a larger scale would create some “considerable issues to surmount," according to Sternberg. For the proposal to work, both cities would need to construct a new open-air ballpark or, in St. Pete’s case, renovate the existing Al Lang Stadium, the Rays’ former Spring Training site and current home to the USFL Rowdies soccer team.

Sternberg, who said he has no intention of selling the team, would maintain primary ownership of the franchise. Ideally, he would like to see this done by the 2024 season.

However, according to the use agreement the Rays signed with the City of St. Petersburg, the team must play all of its home games at Tropicana Field until 2027 unless given express consent, or it will face possible litigation from the city. The same agreement also limits the potential locations for a new stadium to Pinellas and Hillsborough County, where the City of Tampa resides.

St. Pete mayor Rick Kriseman publicly stated in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times that he would hold the team to its contractual obligations. Previous attempts to relocate the team across the bay to Tampa, including a proposal to build a new stadium in the downtown Ybor City district, have not come to fruition.

Although the Rays’ owner declined to comment on what the fate of the franchise could be after the 2027 season, he said he would like to see the Rays in Florida for generations to come.

“This is not a staged exit -- that thought has never entered my mind,” Sternberg said. “This is not part of our plan to take the team to Montreal. ... This is not a page out of playbook to gain leverage. We are focused on this plan. We are focused on how we can thrive here in Tampa Bay.

“This is about Tampa Bay keeping its hometown team and Montreal having one, as well.”