TBGKon

8 hours ago, Burmy said:

I think Gasparilla's gonna move to the new USF Stadium when it gets built.

7 hours ago, dont care said:

Depends which one has the higher capacity, when not tarped up ofcourse. For that reason alone the new trop will probably get the game.

A move to the South Florida stadium wouldnt surprise me either.  New Rays is said to be around 30k, and USF around 35k.  While USF is bigger, the new Rays ballpark would be inclusive of another tourist destination in Pinellas County (St. Petersburg/Clearwater) so it sounds like a tossup.

Let’s try keeping this thread to the logo discussion.  If you want to discuss the reported merger, there’s a thread in the Sports In General section.

49 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Do they take one of the two FBS Bowl games away from Raymond James Stadium?

Hard to say.  I could see them maybe getting the Gasparilla Bowl, but the Reliaquest Bowl (formerly Outback Bowl) on New Years Day is probably firmly at Raymond James in Tampa.

There was a new interior rendering from today.  Looks like while the roof is solid, the vertical walls just below the roof are transparent, as well as the centerfield area.  It was said on the broadcast of the press conference that those centerfield windows are movable to allow the outside in.

https://www.mlb.com/rays/ballpark/historic-gas-plant
 

The Rays have an official site with the new ballpark details 

1 hour ago, Dilbert said:

In 1965 at the new Astrodome, players complained of having issues seeing the ball and glare with the transparent roof, so they painted it, killing the grass and thus gave us astroturf. While the Rays wont have an issue with a dead playing surface, how are they gonna solve the glare issue?

Not sure, everything so far is just speculation.  I do know that the University of Minnesota baseball team uses US Bank for their early season home games and I haven't heard of a glare issue there.   It's possible part of the roof can be strategically shielded like the half of US Bank Stadium's roof is.

I guess we'll find out more soon enough.

1 hour ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

I'm sure it will be an improvement, but I guess I'm just a traditionalist who thinks that baseball should be played outside as much as possible. I've also seen firsthand the difference it makes at Jays' games when the roof is open compared to when it's closed.

Your opinion is valid.  I just know that if Tampa Bay (and Miami for that matter) didn't have a roof, you would have an excessive amount of rain delays/postponements between June and September.

50 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

 

That's exactly what it is, not fixing the root of their issues and just moving the low attendance to a new building.

 

I'd think it was a good idea if public transit in the area expanded to service the new stadium and provide an alternative to over-congested highways. But this is the Tampa Bay Area we're talking about, so that won't happen.

If the goal is to include a Battery Atlanta style district, St Petersburg may be the only option.  I don't believe that any of the currently considered sites on the Tampa side would allow for that.

2 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:

Maybe I'm wrong, but aren't two of the main issues people have with Tropicana its location and the fact that it's a closed dome? If so, they aren't fixing either of these problems, although I guess the new roof will at least let some sunlight in.

While it may be a fixed roof, I believe they're going to have the Vikings type of ETFE roof, which is transparent, lightweight, and durable material.  There's also being thought that it will have some wall panels that can open up on the sides to allow some of the outside in, while still remaining covered.

2 minutes ago, McCall said:

I always thought the location of the Trop, in addition to it's abandoned Hope Depot vibes, was one of the biggest contributors to low attendance, that it's difficult to get to on a daily basis for season ticket holders.

This is true about the location being distant from the population center, but the ability to have a Battery Atlanta style district is available in St Pete.  I do not believe many of the Tampa options gave the flexibility for a district.  The development of the district will offset is said to possible look enticing to offset any attendance dips.

38 minutes ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

Would it be built in the adjacent parking lot and then demo the Trop?

Yes, most likely.  Here's a conceptual site plan that was released when the Rays/Hines development was brought up earlier this year.  The current Tropicana Field is located in the area surrounding the light blue tower F2

4 minutes ago, Burmy said:

Good ne

I was hoping for Tampa and Ybor City to work out...but any port in a storm, I suppose.

I feel the same about St. Pete.  Tampa proper was more of a selfish preference for me as I live on the Tampa side in south county, but it did make sense  to center within the population.  Whatever keeps them in town is fine by me.

South Florida is wearing Gold/Green/Gold at home against Alabama tomorrow.

So what would New Orleans and Detroit do?  Maybe even Minnesota and LA.  Vegas and Arizona are retractable but have that tray system, but what about Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta?  

15 hours ago, Lights Out said:

 

I'm amazed that they've found a way to make their uniforms even worse. Imagine how bad those silver pants are going to look with the navy jerseys now.

You assume they will still wear them with the navy jerseys.  Maybe the white pants are the new primary pants for the navy jersey.

10 hours ago, bushy said:

Lol I thought the Jets & the Vikings both changed their sets again. Had idea they were throwbacks.
 

What made them wear them for the first game of the season?

Vikings wore them in honor of Bud Grant I believe, who passed away earlier this year.

Maybe the best suggestion for division games in the NFL is that there are two divisional windows during the season.  Each set of 3 division opponents has to fall somewhere in that time once.

I agree that Week 1 should be non-divisional games (sorry NBC for your Dallas-NYG boner for SNF what seems like every year for week 1). The first window could be 5-6 weeks starting maybe week 2 or 3.  During that time you will play your three divisional opponents.  The other window would be the final 3-4 weeks of the season, where the other 3 divisional opponents would fall (still keeping divisional games in Week 17 for certain.

9 hours ago, sportsfan7 said:

It gives them an even number. 12 for all sport plus Army & Navy for fb only and Wichita St & whoever for non-fb. Personally, I would consider GCU, FGCU, Belmont, and Denver for the last spot.

GCU and Denver are a hard no.  The American commissioner Aresco has said any expansion would be within the current footprint.

Belmont is a good option, since they're in Nashville.  VCU has also been talked about in chatter online.

South Florida is bringing out their classic Gold/Green/Green uniform for Saturday's home opener against FAMU

It will be very interesting to see how the Army-Navy game is handled.  I've heard suggestions that the game will still remain after the conference championship weeks and will be considered a non-conference game.  That of course doesn't mean that Army-Navy won't play each other in conference scheduling or in a potential conference championship game.

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

I feel even stronger now that they should do the schedule so it's something close to this:

 

First 3 games: interconference

next 3 games: intraconference

next 3 games: division round 1

next 2 games: interconference

next 3 games: intraconference

final 3 games: division round 2

 

I know with bye weeks and London it's very difficult to actually do that, but it lets teams work out the kinks in less-meaningful interconference games, before playing more meaningful intracconference match ups, and then super meaningful divisional games.

 

 

 

Yes, I've always hated seeing divisional games played against the same opponent played within the same half of the season.  I know the Bucs have played either the Panthers or Falcons twice in 3-4 weeks.  Never made sense.

3 hours ago, coborjobs2010 said:

Here are some tidbits regarding the Texans updates: 

The four uniform combos will be quite different than each other, not just switching out pants and jerseys and helmets. (1)One will be timeless, traditional. (2) Another will be traditional but modernized. (3) One will get wild with the bull theme. (4) One will have the H-Town blue tribute. (5) One was taken from player feedback and be very mean and tough looking.  

And we thought the Commanders and Cardinals combinations were disjointed, this sounds like it turns the dial to an 11.

On 9/3/2023 at 8:49 PM, 4_tattoos said:

Did anybody else watch the San Jose State/Oregon State game? This was visually odd to see during a D1 college football game. They could have at least put proper seats in the grass berm area. This side faces the hard camera. Seems like that should be a feature in an endzone feature, not a sideline.

 

I could see them switching the hard camera to the other side once construction is complete on the building.  Of course, the turf paint/design would need to flip, but maybe thats in the plans.