The Montreal-Tampa Rays?

[Survival79 2,068]

7 hours ago, Maroon said:

Considering two people on this page alone used the word "floundering" to describe the Florida franchises and their attendance, how about move the Rays to Montreal and split the Marlins between St. Pete and Miami and call them the Florida Flounders. Heck, have them play a few games in Orlando and they could get licensing rights from Disney for this bad boy to appear in their logo:

 

 

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[marlinfan 125]

8 hours ago, Maroon said:

Considering two people on this page alone used the word "floundering" to describe the Florida franchises and their attendance, how about move the Rays to Montreal and split the Marlins between St. Pete and Miami and call them the Florida Flounders. Heck, have them play a few games in Orlando and they could get licensing rights from Disney for this bad boy to appear in their logo:

 

 

Two or three mid-week series a year in Orlando, Jacksonville, SW Florida and Tampa wouldn’t be a bad idea to build support for the team around the state.

[Around the Horn 1,404]

OK after reading the article about the Montreal people and the email from the Rays (thanks @Survival79 for posting) I think it's pretty clear that they do not actually intend to split seasons between Montreal and Tampa Bay but they have to act like they do in order to make one of the two cities bite on a stadium.

 

I would be very interested to see how they reacted if neither city bites by 2027 or whenever and they actually have to go through with this.

[Wings 2,142]

12 hours ago, Maroon said:

Considering two people on this page alone used the word "floundering" to describe the Florida franchises and their attendance, how about move the Rays to Montreal and split the Marlins between St. Pete and Miami and call them the Florida Flounders. Heck, have them play a few games in Orlando and they could get licensing rights from Disney for this bad boy to appear in their logo:

 

 

 

Stu Sternberg's true identity revealed:

 

 

 

[TBGKon 2,594]

22 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

The regional Florida team is probably the best solution, though it’s impossible considering what Miami did for the Marlins in exchange for rebranding themselves as “Miami’s team”. 

Strangely enough, IF a split shared city team had to happen I could be on board with Tampa Bay and Miami sharing.

[rmc523 206]

18 hours ago, Survival79 said:

 

You're welcome! Here's an email the team just sent out.

 

Subject: Tampa Bay Rays Sister City Concept

 

 

 

 

 

We desperately want the Rays to stay in Tampa Bay*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Meanwhile, there is no "plan B" of the Rays staying in the Tampa area full time, and we publicly stated we don't believe the Tampa area can support a team.   But yes, please believe us that we want the Rays to stay in Tampa........

[NicDB 2,934]

On 6/26/2019 at 4:04 PM, CardsFan79 said:

After reading Bronfman's statements, I wonder if he/his group were told that they'd be given a team one way or another if they play along with this joke for the time being?  I can't believe that they've put in all this work to bring baseball back to Montreal to settle for a ridiculous team sharing plan, nor can I believe that they actually think it's a good idea.

 

That's what I'm thinking... this is far from the end game for them. I'll bet all they have to do is prove Montreal can draw more fans to their crappy stadium than Tampa Bay does to their crappy stadium, and MLB suddenly has all the legitimization they need to move the team north.

[NormMacdonald 712]

https://www.wfla.com/news/rays-offering-2-tickets-for-games-against-orioles/

 

Looks like $5 tickets aren't cheap enough to get people to actually go to the trop now that Stu pissed everyone off. Maybe he'll cite "lack of money from ticket sales" as another reason to split games/relocate

[Magic Dynasty 2,382]

14 hours ago, Maroon&Gold said:

https://www.wfla.com/news/rays-offering-2-tickets-for-games-against-orioles/

 

Looks like $5 tickets aren't cheap enough to get people to actually go to the trop now that Stu pissed everyone off. Maybe he'll cite "lack of money from ticket sales" as another reason to split games/relocate

That’s exactly it. Now that the fanbase is alienated, even less people will show up. He’ll then use quickly dwindling attendance to justify getting out as fast as he can.

 

Me? I’m taking advantage of those $5 tickets while they last. I’ll go to a few games over the rest of the summer.

[Scrumptious Ham 584]

That might have been the plan the whole time with this split announcement. No real split was ever expected. But the leak may do its job. Now no one wants to go to the games. Giving more legal ammo to break lease. Meanwhile, Montreal is salivating over the news. It's like a new attractive girl at the workplace. Everyone is excited and buzz is thick in the air. Everyone wants to talk to her. Not thinking about how the glitter will fade, and one day she'll just be another annoying coworker.

[GDAWG 1,786]

Don't the Rays also own the USL's Tampa Bay Rowdies?  Wouldn't they have to sell the team if the Rays move permanently to Montreal?

[RichO 548]

The thing that always kills me about Rays attendance is that their local TV numbers are fine, so it's not like they're completely unsupported. 

[rmc523 206]

29 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

Don't the Rays also own the USL's Tampa Bay Rowdies?  Wouldn't they have to sell the team if the Rays move permanently to Montreal?

 

I don't see why they'd have to sell the Rowdies if they move?

[GDAWG 1,786]

3 hours ago, rmc523 said:

 

I don't see why they'd have to sell the Rowdies if they move?

 

Because I don't think St. Petersburg wants to deal with Sternberg again if the Rays move out of the Tampa area. 

[dfwabel 4,155]

7 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Because I don't think St. Petersburg wants to deal with Sternberg again if the Rays move out of the Tampa area. 

When they bought the Rowdies last October, terms of the sale included keeping the team at Al Lang for five seasons.  The city isn't going to kick them out and lose out on even more tax revenue.

[Marlins93 983]

It is starting to seem like the bizarre Montreal-St. Pete split proposal isn't a ploy to gain leverage for public financing of a new ballpark in the Tampa area, but rather to generate buzz and build momentum for a relocation to Montreal. Why else would Sternberg publicly question the viability of the Tampa market for baseball? How can you walk back on that and expect a deal to be made?

 

The Marlins were publicly exploring relocation circa 2005-2006 when ballpark financing reached a standstill, but I don't recall them throwing the market under the bus. If anything, they were denouncing the local and state governments for not being supportive enough.

[Gothamite 23,689]

5 hours ago, RichO said:

The thing that always kills me about Rays attendance is that their local TV numbers are fine, so it's not like they're completely unsupported. 

 

Being in the AL East, they play an outsized number of games against the Yankees and Red Sox, the two most popular teams in Tampa Bay.  I’ve often wondered how those games skew the Rays’ TV ratings. 

[Sec19Row53 3,745]

6 hours ago, Magic Dynasty said:

That’s exactly it. Now that the fanbase is alienated, even less people will show up. He’ll then use quickly dwindling attendance to justify getting out as fast as he can.

 

Me? I’m taking advantage of those $5 tickets while they last. I’ll go to a few games over the rest of the summer.

Your avatar says 'Save the Rays', but you'll only go to a few games over the rest of the summer?

[Magic Dynasty 2,382]

1 hour ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Your avatar says 'Save the Rays', but you'll only go to a few games over the rest of the summer?

When I have to make a 4 hour roundtrip drive, alongside actually watching the game? Yeah.

[Survival79 2,068]

9 hours ago, Scrumptious Ham said:

Now no one wants to go to the games.

 

Announced attendance for first home game after the Montreal plan was revealed: 13,955.