Rays Owner: MLB No Longer Believes in Tampa

[Red Barchetta]

Originally Posted by LITTLE NELL

Article in today's Tampa Tribune; St. Pete city council turns down Rays request to even explore looking for a new site. This is insane, as Red Barchetta said a few posts ago the powers to be are not working together and bottom line is that the whole area will lose the team.

This is the same city council who shot down a proposal from the Rays a few years ago to build a privately funded, bayfront ballpark on the site of an existing, spring training ballpark site.

It seems as though the St. Pete city council cannot get past the fact that they built an ugly dome in 1990, eight years before they attracted a full-time tenant with the (Devil) Rays and they want to prove they were right with their vision. I know it's hard to believe, but there are only 7 older ballparks in MLB than Tropicana and most of them have been entirely renovated. The St. Pete council realizes that the only way the dome will remain a viable structure is to keep the Rays in St. Pete, despite the poor attendance. If the Rays move out, the occassional tractor pull, monster truck or concert event will not be enough to justify the dome. The dome previously hosted the NHL Lightning from 1993-1996 before they moved the franchise to downtown Tampa, so I know it's a matter of pride for St. Pete not to lose the Rays and to allow Tampa to have all three professional sports teams.

[Railsplitter]

Originally Posted by Golden Sox

Weren't the Expos quietly trying to move to New Jersey? I don't think the Yankees and Mets would allow another team in New York. I don't know if they have the right to keep a team out of New Jersey. I would think New Jersey could easily be a better choice for a MLB team than any other city.

I t's been 56 years since New York had three teams, meaning anybody old enough to remember going to the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field is old enough to have grandchildren. I doubt any current Mets or Yankees fans would care about a new team.

Nobody has mentioned Louisville, which lost a team when the National League contracted in 1899. IIRC. Louisville had the firstbminor league team to exceed 1,000,000.

[Mr. Jinx]

Originally Posted by Railsplitter

I t's been 56 years since New York had three teams, meaning anybody old enough to remember going to the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field is old enough to have grandchildren. I doubt any current Mets or Yankees fans would care about a new team.

Nobody has mentioned Louisville, which lost a team when the National League contracted in 1899. IIRC. Louisville had the firstbminor league team to exceed 1,000,000.

Louisville is relatively close to Cincinnati already though (another small market team) and I just don't think that region would be able to support 2 major league teams. Most Kentucky fans are already going to be Reds or to a much lesser extent Cardinals fans anyway so I think the fans you get would be cannibalizing from Cincinnati.

[DSpivack]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jinx

Louisville is relatively close to Cincinnati already though (another small market team) and I just don't think that region would be able to support 2 major league teams. Most Kentucky fans are already going to be Reds or to a much lesser extent Cardinals fans anyway so I think the fans you get would be cannibalizing from Cincinnati.

Too small of a TV market.

[ComiskeyBrewer]

Originally Posted by Hitmen77

It seems to me that support for the Brewers really took off after they moved to Miller Park. If I remember correctly, their years at County Stadium didn't have such good attendance numbers. Maybe part of their success is thanks to having a retractable roof which makes early season days cold and/or rainy days still a good draw.

It's not like the Brewers have been wildly successful since 2001, but they have had a good amount of exciting teams and exciting players over the last decade or so. They've certainly succeed in turning a small market team into a successful franchise attendance-wise.

New Ownership had as much, if not more to do with the attendance rising than Miller Park itself(though the promise of no rain outs helps with the fans driving from areas like the Green Bay/Appleton area. And it is a lot easier to go to games when the temp is going to be 70* no matter what).

[Lemon44]

With Andrew Friedman leaving, this story also came out:

www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/new-rays-president-optimistic-about-stadium-talks/2202287

It pertains just to leaving St. Petersburg, not where the Rays would relocate.

[TheVulture]

If Tampa Bay can't support a team, what does that say about all the teams who have lost far more games recently, such as the White Sox?

[MUsoxfan]

Originally Posted by TheVulture

If Tampa Bay can't support a team, what does that say about all the teams who have lost far more games recently, such as the White Sox?

Florida is the worst pro sports state in the country. They also barely support their NFL teams. There are lots of factors at play here, but I don't think it's fair to bring the Sox into this

[TheVulture]

Originally Posted by MUsoxfan

Florida is the worst pro sports state in the country. They also barely support their NFL teams. There are lots of factors at play here, but I don't think it's fair to bring the Sox into this

The Rays have won 629 games the last seven years, that's more than all but a few teams. I don't see how TB can be said to be unable to support a team when said team is more successful than most teams.

[MUsoxfan]

Originally Posted by TheVulture

The Rays have won 629 games the last seven years, that's more than all but a few teams. I don't see how TB can be said to be unable to support a team when said team is more successful than most teams.

Easy:

- A large percentage of people that live in Florida are not native to Florida

- There is much more fun stuff to do in Florida than watch a baseball team that you're not a fan of in the first place

- If you live in Tampa, good luck getting to St Pete at rush hour especially when there's no public transport on a large scale

- The venue is in a permanent dome in sunny Florida

- The venue is in a less than ideal neighborhood in St Pete


All those factors together equal ****ty attendance

[DSpivack]

Originally Posted by MUsoxfan

Easy:

- A large percentage of people that live in Florida are not native to Florida

- There is much more fun stuff to do in Florida than watch a baseball team that you're not a fan of in the first place

- If you live in Tampa, good luck getting to St Pete at rush hour especially when there's no public transport on a large scale

- The venue is in a permanent dome in sunny Florida

- The venue is in a less than ideal neighborhood in St Pete


All those factors together equal ****ty attendance

Those are all good points. Another factor is that a lot of people in the area lived on fixed incomes, right?

[Brian26]

Originally Posted by TheVulture

If Tampa Bay can't support a team, what does that say about all the teams who have lost far more games recently, such as the White Sox?

Originally Posted by TheVulture

The Rays have won 629 games the last seven years, that's more than all but a few teams. I don't see how TB can be said to be unable to support a team when said team is more successful than most teams.

The results on the field are irrelevant. The discussion is about market conditions.

[doublem23]

Originally Posted by TheVulture

The Rays have won 629 games the last seven years, that's more than all but a few teams. I don't see how TB can be said to be unable to support a team when said team is more successful than most teams.

They're not talking about the Rays the team, they're talking about Tampa the market

[34 Inch Stick]

Wait for Castro to kick off and move them to Havana

[Golden Sox]

I'll never forget when Eddie Einhorn wanted to move the White Sox to St. Pete. He said Florida was the greatest opportunity for MLB since the Dodgers moved to LA. The Rays are not only last in attendance, they are last in total revenue. The White Sox are 13th in total revenue according to Forbes magazine.