The Tampa Bay Rays are trying to make a charge at a division title and potentially contend for a World Series this season with some very important days coming up this week ahead of the trade deadline.

For as fun as this season has been so far though, the big picture focus from many fans remains figuring out what the situation is going to be with the stadium moving forward. The team has been trying to get a more than $2B ballpark project approved in Tampa, but an already lofty plan is now getting even tougher due to a dispute between the Mayor and the City Council of Tampa.

The city council removed a planned vote on a stadium from its agenda for an August 20 meeting, which has led Mayor Jane Castor to publicly call them out.

"It’s beyond frustrating that as city and county leaders are working tirelessly to hammer out an equitable deal to bring the Rays to Tampa, city council members want to halt our efforts in their tracks," Castor said via Front Offie Sports. "Some city council members are clearly intent on killing the plan before negotiations are done and an agreement is ready for review. It defies common sense that they would prefer to have no say in the benefits a Rays project would bring to our city and instead punt it to the county."

Time is starting to tick here as construction needs to begin by the end of the year in order for the Rays to be playing in the new ballpark by 2029, but it does not seem like this hurdle is going to be cleared with ease.

The original plan had the team paying $1.3B for the new stadium while taxpayers were scheduled to pay less than $1B, however the agreement was non-binding according to Front Office which has led to the city council's waffling.

Fans who do not want to see the team move out of the area permanently certainly are seeing their concerns grow, and if this stadium dispute is not resolved, that could wind up becoming a real possibility. Over the coming months, if a real plan cannot be established and agreed to on a new ballpark for the Rays, there is going to be some very difficult conversations to be had by the team, the city and Major League Baseball as a whole.