Moving the Rays

[TheGiantsFan]

Something I have been thinking about is moving the Tampa Bay Rays out of Florida. I have reasons for that. Nobody seems to care about the Rays over there, as they have the worst home attendance rate among MLB teams, despite the Rays being a rather successful team. Maybe it has something to do with the Trop as well...

So one of my ideas is moving the Rays to Vancouver, as the Vancouver Loggers. It gives Canada a second MLB team and a direct rival to the Mariners. To accomodate the Loggers, here'show I'd make these changes to the AL divisions..

AL West:

LAA

OAK

SEA

TEX

VAN

AL Central:

CWS

DET

HOU

KC

MIN

AL East:

BAL

BOS

CLE

NYY

TOR

Basically, I moved the Astros to the AL Central and the Indians to the AL East to accomodate the Rays moving to the AL West.

My second idea is to move the Rays to New Orleans to become the Crescents. As for the divisions, I have two ideas for that. One is to keep the New Orleans Crescents in the AL East, or switch places with Cleveland in their respective divisions.

As you can see, I'm moving the Indians around quite a lot, but I wouldn't want the Tigers to lose a big divisional rival like that.

So yeah, I just felt like sharing a random idea with you guys and I can't wait to see what y'all think...

- Daryl

[Burmy]

I go with Option "C": have the new Montreal Expos remain in the AL East.

[C's]

MLB in New Orleans would be a disaster.

Not exactly jazzed about putting a team in Vancouver either when the Grizzlies lasted what, five years up there? Then again I don't remember the exact circumstances of their departure.

As for the Rays, the Trop is exactly to blame. The facility is a joke, the infrastrucutre around it is a joke, the location is a joke, everything.

[loxley44]

I always thought the Rays should move to Orlando. They have played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports on Disney property and I think the would be a good home. Bring back the Orlando Rays!

[C's]

If you're willing to wait until 2028 then sure.

[Evil G]

Montreal deserves a team now.

[Soarindude]

The odds of the Rays moving outside of Florida is about 0%.

[vicfurth]

Good color balance and nice weight on the keyline. I give it a B-.

[Evil G]

The odds of the Rays moving outside of Florida is about 0%.

Says a Rays fan.

[davidrpaige]

MLB in New Orleans would be a disaster.

Not exactly jazzed about putting a team in Vancouver either when the Grizzlies lasted what, five years up there? Then again I don't remember the exact circumstances of their departure.

The Grizzlies were a NBA team, not MLB.

If MLB ever did move to the Big Easy, they would use the Pelican name as it has huge history there. It would be odd since the NBA team decided to leech on that baseball history, but the NBA can suck it. Frankly, baseball would do a hell of a lot better in NOLA then basketball is.

[BigGameBob]

MLB in New Orleans would be a disaster.

Not exactly jazzed about putting a team in Vancouver either when the Grizzlies lasted what, five years up there? Then again I don't remember the exact circumstances of their departure.

The Grizzlies were a NBA team, not MLB.

If MLB ever did move to the Big Easy, they would use the Pelican name as it has huge history there. It would be odd since the NBA team decided to leech on that baseball history, but the NBA can suck it. Frankly, baseball would do a hell of a lot better in NOLA then basketball is.

True, but the Pelicans name wouldn't be my first choice. My ideas would be Krewe, Jazz, Brass, or Zephyrs.

[C's]

MLB in New Orleans would be a disaster.

Not exactly jazzed about putting a team in Vancouver either when the Grizzlies lasted what, five years up there? Then again I don't remember the exact circumstances of their departure.

The Grizzlies were a NBA team, not MLB.

If MLB ever did move to the Big Easy, they would use the Pelican name as it has huge history there. It would be odd since the NBA team decided to leech on that baseball history, but the NBA can suck it. Frankly, baseball would do a hell of a lot better in NOLA then basketball is.

Baseball plays twice the games and features twice the home capacity of NBA games. If the area couldn't support an NBA team, what in blue hell makes you think they'll support major league baseball?

Pro sports that aren't football don't mean a damn thing in the bible belt east of Texas and OKC. Basketball had a history too in New Orleans before Shinn moved his team there. It didn't matter. New Orleans was and is apathetic about the Hornets. There is zero reason to think they'd be any less apathetic about a baseball team. Zero.

[eliasrappaport]

Where's the concept? There's a thread for relocations...

[Fishhead]

I just moved back from the Tampa Bay area recently and the situation is bascially this. St. Petersburg wants the Rays to stay. Tampa wants them and is determined to find any way around the contract the Rays have with St. Pete and Pinellas County.

[Soarindude]

I just moved back from the Tampa Bay area recently and the situation is bascially this. St. Petersburg wants the Rays to stay. Tampa wants them and is determined to find any way around the contract the Rays have with St. Pete and Pinellas County.

Interestingly enough, more and more St.Pete fans are in favor of a switch to Tampa. It's just the contract that the original owners signed that is causing the problem. Unfortuntately, the original owners screwed a lot of things up for the current Rays, who have overcome probably one of the worst ownerships in sports history.

I did a high-school internship with the Rays and apparently there are several bizzarre contracts that the original owners signed, from entertainment, food, legal, and building contracts that are causing the Rays attendance and income to stay so low.

Of course, that's not the only reason why the Rays can't get consistent attendance. The stadium is in a terrible location. The population they are attempting to attract people to is only like half of what the average population for a baseball team is. Not to mention teams that have an above average population. The St.Pete area is a mess urban planning wise and Tampa/Feathersound population are unreliable because of this. I think the Rays have (has?) one of the highest television ratings, which shows you the fanbase we have.

I'd like to see an actual concept, instead of another Rays debate!

[Silent Wind of Doom]

I'm glad you used the qualifying "one of" when talking about the Ray's ownership, considering the owner you've got sitting across the state.

Vancouver and New Orleans are two locations I've often thought of as viable for expansion. Yes, baseball has a larger capacity and amount of games for baseball than basketball, but comparing sports is like apples and oranges. Montreal gave up on a baseball team and yet holds one of, if not the biggest hockey franchises in the NHL. Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg all have large following for the NHL or the CFL, but that doesn't mean an MLB or NBA franchise would work there. Vancouver may work, but the only thing I'm not sure of is if it's engulfed in the Seattle market or not. Are there a lot of Mariners fans there?