And you thought the Islanders had it bad.

Major League Baseball’s executive council has given the Rays the “permission to explore” a split season between Tampa Bay and Montreal, commissioner Rob Manfred announced at the conclusion of the owners’ meetings Thursday in Midtown.

“The purpose of a split season would be to preserve baseball in Tampa, but improve the economics of the club overall by playing some of their games in Montreal,” Manfred said. “There is no commitment on the part of the owners to ultimately approve a plan. The permission that was granted was simply permission to explore this alternative in an effort to strengthen a franchise that has performed great on the field but continues to be pretty limited from an economic perspective.”

MLB has not had a team in Montreal since the Expos were relocated to Washington D.C. and became the Nationals after the 2004 season.

The Rays, meanwhile, have struggled with attendance at Tropicana Field and have been unable to get efforts off the ground in building a new ballpark in the Tampa area. They have a use agreement with the city of St. Petersburg to play their home games at Tropicana Field through 2027.

In the split-season concept that was described at the owners’ meetings, according to Manfred, the Rays would play their early-season games in Tampa and late-season games in Montreal. Whether the Montreal games would be played at Olympic Stadium — previously home of the Expos — or a new venue is yet to be determined.

“There was a broad grant of permission to explore what’s available,” Manfred said. “That includes existing facilities, new facilities, whatever arrangement the Tampa Bay folks might come up with. In terms of those sorts of specifics, that’s really up to [principal owner] Stu Sternberg and his team to come back to the clubs with what they’ve worked out. But there’s no real limit in terms of sites or anything.”