Author Topic: MLB, Selig, and Rays want Tampa area to build new ballpark (Read 3117 times)

welch · « **Topic Start:** August 15, 2013, 06:18:57 PM »

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130815&content_id=57093096&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Essence: Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays dislike the stadioum they play in. They want Tampa or St Petersburg or any nearby town to build them a new stadium. The team has a contract requiring them to play in the current stadium until 2027. Stadium is ugly and is all of 23 years old. Selig believes this is intolerable.

Since the Devil Rays are a profit-making company, why don't the Devil Rays build their own stadium?

Oh, and why did Selig and his friends put expansion teams in Miami and Tampa 20 years ago while leaving DC without a team?

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #1:** August 15, 2013, 06:54:53 PM »

Nfl has la, NBA has Seattle, who does mlb have as a prod?

TigerFan · « **Reply #2:** August 15, 2013, 07:21:30 PM »

Quote from: HalfSmokes on August 15, 2013, 06:54:53 PM

Nfl has la, NBA has Seattle, who does mlb have as a prod?

Good question. Not much out there I don't think. Las Vegas wants a team pretty badly. Indy? Memphis? Buffalo?

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #3:** August 15, 2013, 09:13:26 PM »

Charlotte, Portland, Vegas, with less likely places like a 3d team in metro NY and Montreal. I don't think San Antonio has the wealth. Maybe Nashville or Indianapolis?

imref · « **Reply #4:** August 15, 2013, 10:35:43 PM »

i was down there last week but didn't go to a game. They sold out Sunday's game vs. SF, i believe it was their first sell-out of the season. It's a horrible stadium about 40 minutes south of downtown tampa, far from everything. That area really needs a waterfront, retractable roof stadium in downtown.

DPMOmaha · « **Reply #5:** August 15, 2013, 10:57:41 PM »

I'd like to see Montreal get a team with a reasonable ownership deal. They supported baseball very well up there until they got the screw job. Give them a healthy team like Tampa and competant ownership, baseball'd be a smashing success.

imref · « **Reply #6:** August 15, 2013, 11:30:03 PM »

Quote from: DPMOmaha on August 15, 2013, 10:57:41 PM

I'd like to see Montreal get a team with a reasonable ownership deal. They supported baseball very well up there until they got the screw job. Give them a healthy team like Tampa and competant ownership, baseball'd be a smashing success.

i wonder if Orlando would make a play for the team, though i'm not sure if it is a big enough market for baseball. Nashville could probably support a team too.

TigerFan · « **Reply #7:** August 15, 2013, 11:50:02 PM »

Quote from: imref on August 15, 2013, 11:30:03 PM

i wonder if Orlando would make a play for the team, though i'm not sure if it is a big enough market for baseball. Nashville could probably support a team too.

I've also wondered about Orlando for a long time. I think with people traveling to Disney all the time they would get a lot of visiting fans. The same process would happen in Vegas I'd presume. I wonder what it would be like with so many people of the opposing team at every single game.

DPMOmaha · « **Reply #8:** August 16, 2013, 12:01:58 AM »

Orlando, maybe, but I don't know about Vegas. Ppl go to Vegas for a very specific purpose and leaving the strip for a sporting event isn't one of them. If they're going to get attendance, it's going to be from the locals. I'd imagine MLB would be leery of moving to different city in Florida.

TigerFan · « **Reply #9:** August 16, 2013, 12:42:05 AM »

Quote from: DPMOmaha on August 16, 2013, 12:01:58 AM

Orlando, maybe, but I don't know about Vegas. Ppl go to Vegas for a very specific purpose and leaving the strip for a sporting event isn't one of them. If they're going to get attendance, it's going to be from the locals. I'd imagine MLB would be leery of moving to different city in Florida.

Lapse in thought. For Vegas I was thinking most people there would already have their own favorite teams they grew up with. If they didn't become fans of the local team they would probably only go to cheer on the visiting team.

DPMOmaha · « **Reply #10:** August 16, 2013, 12:47:53 AM »

If the Rays move, they'll likely be successful almost immediately with a healthy farm system. That's a highly competitive team. It would be interesting to see how a community without a franchise embraced a team like that. They'd be a huge hit in Montreal, I'd think. I don't think many of them have picked up other teams, at least those that didn't pick up the Nats. So, you've got a built in fan base, plus, if you went to Montreal, you wouldn't have to worry about realignment and you'd have an instant rivalry with Toronto. Honestly, Montreal makes a lot of sense if they moved the Rays. If they moved the A's, someplace like Vegas or Portland would make sense in that case.

OldChelsea · « **Reply #11:** August 16, 2013, 08:07:57 AM »

...oh but it's so historic...MLB's last remaining hard (non-retractable) dome....

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #12:** August 16, 2013, 08:46:54 AM »

Quote from: JCA-CrystalCity on August 15, 2013, 09:13:26 PM

Charlotte, Portland, Vegas, with less likely places like a 3d team in metro NY and Montreal. I don't think San Antonio has the wealth. Maybe Nashville or Indianapolis?

You have to factor in territories, would the Rays ownership want to be in the same position as the nats with their tv rights?

Ali the Baseball Cat · « **Reply #13:** August 16, 2013, 09:22:47 AM »

This is MLB we are talking about here. Bud will probably decide that Miami needs an AL team and Miami-Dade will oblige with another billion dollar bond issue.

Copecwby20 · « **Reply #14:** August 16, 2013, 10:29:46 AM »

As someone who is dating someone who lives in, and is considering moving to Nashville.... That options sounds best to me.

GburgNatsFan · « **Reply #15:** August 16, 2013, 10:45:18 AM »

I hear its a great town, although all that country music... ugh. Give me Memphis.

Quote from: Copecwby20 on August 16, 2013, 10:29:46 AM

As someone who is dating someone who lives in, and is considering moving to Nashville.... That options sounds best to me.

Lintyfresh85 · « **Reply #16:** August 16, 2013, 10:50:12 AM »

The Trop is a dump. They need to move. My suggestion? They move to Tampa Bay.

But seriously, OKC, Portland, Charlotte or Montreal work for me.

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #17:** August 16, 2013, 01:33:12 PM »

North Jersey would work. i've joked about the Raritan Bay Rays, but you could still split New York metro area 3 ways and have the 3 largest markets after accounting for other split markets. TV would love it. Basically, this would give Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester and Fairfield to the Yankees, Long Island to the Mets, and Staten Island and the rest of the populous part of Northern New Jersey to the Rays. It is to the benefit of the rest of baseball, just as splitting of Washington from Baltimore made sense for MLB. As for the Yankees and Mets, after some revenue sharing concessions and subsidies for their stadiums, they would likely play along. I don't see this as having much of an impact on the Mets, and while most of it would come out of the Yankees, there probably is a number or a deal that makes it work. Relax the luxury tax, split their revenue sharing burden with the Rays, etc...

imref · « **Reply #18:** August 16, 2013, 01:39:01 PM »

there's no way philly, and the NY teams will allow a team in NJ

Ali the Baseball Cat · « **Reply #19:** August 16, 2013, 01:48:41 PM »

They allowed an NHL team

Quote from: imref on August 16, 2013, 01:39:01 PM

there's no way philly, and the NY teams will allow a team in NJ

sph274 · « **Reply #20:** August 16, 2013, 03:08:00 PM »

could they move a team to brooklyn? having the brroklyn team in the same division as the yankees would be awesome. and like 4 million people live in bk alone, could prb sustain a team. better than tampa

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #21:** August 16, 2013, 03:09:17 PM »

Quote from: sph274 on August 16, 2013, 03:08:00 PM

could they move a team to brooklyn?

Not without paying the Yankees and Mets a lot of money

Ali the Baseball Cat · « **Reply #22:** August 16, 2013, 03:15:33 PM »

Don't you mean "PBR"?

Quote from: sph274 on August 16, 2013, 03:08:00 PM

like 4 million people live in bk alone, could prb sustain a team. better than tampa

Coladar · « **Reply #23:** August 16, 2013, 04:13:36 PM »

That's an interesting point about MLB - other leagues having that looming threatening city to move to, none more so than the NFL and the LA market.

Vegas is a non-threat - it'll be a cold day in hell a pro sports team ever moves there, given noted aversions to the gambling aspect as well the extreme transient nature of the town.

Mexico City I could see. You'd be tapping an entire country, one far more baseball conscious than Canada. There'd be some issues there, but I'd put even odds on that being the first 'International, v2.0' (1.0 being Toronto and Montreal) of MLB. Portland... just isn't a 'baseball' town. Carolinas, Tennessee, perhaps, tapping the SE/Regional market, given whatever town they'd end up in is unlikely to support a franchise entirely on its own.

Mexico City seems appealing on a surface level though. Crime/danger and travel time/transportation of players into Mexico being two of the major hurdles.

Edit - Well, and I guess on second thought, summer heat? Dunno on that one, but I'm assuming if Texas summer day games are hot, Mexican ones would be intolerable. So an indoor/domed facility would be a necessity I'm guessing.

1995hoo · « **Reply #24:** August 16, 2013, 04:31:29 PM »

Mexico City has a combination of heat, altitude (over 7,000 feet above sea level), and air pollution (worse than pretty much anywhere in the USA). You'd need a retractable roof there. Same is true in Vegas due to the desert, but if any sports league is skittish about gambling, it's MLB.

I recall some time back prior to the Expos moving there was talk of Charlotte and there was some pretty hard evidence that the city's corporate market was already stretched out between the Panthers and the then-soon-to-return NBA (the discussions of the Expos' move occurred during the brief time between the Hornets' departure and the expansion Bobcats' arrival). There was some very serious doubt about whether the area could support a third team, especially one that plays more games than the other two combined. It's one of several reasons why the Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh instead of Charlotte (although that was several years prior to the Expos' situation becoming truly dire).

Back in the early 1980s there was a study showing that San Antonio was too small to support a pro football team (the USFL put one there anyway with predictably horrific results....some of the players still haven't been paid in full!). The area has changed a lot since then and they had a CFL team for one year in the mid-1990s that drew respectable crowds, but baseball is a bit of a different animal due to the number of games.