The Montreal-Tampa Rays?

[neo_prankster 3,393]

Not much good will come out of this...or is there?

[gosioux76 2,381]

This is so transparent, and also pretty creative.

 

This is just a fresh application of a club using another market as leverage for a new stadium, only this time they're hoping to do it while becoming the anti-Kroenkes.

 

The Rays have yet to come up with a suitable stadium situation that they can finance. So instead of threatening to leave, the come up with this completely bonkers two-city scenario in which they'd have to develop not one, BUT TWO new stadiums. When the Tampa one inevitably fails to materialize, they'll at least be able to say "we tried our best, Tampa." 

 

It's crazy and brilliant all at the same time.

[Brian in Boston 2,689]

Why stop at Tampa and Montreal? Let's throw Charlotte, Las Vegas, Mexico City, Nashville, Portland, and Vancouver into the mix. After all, imagine how sought after tickets would be if a Major League Baseball team's 81-game home schedule was divided amongst eight home markets? Think about the ticket scarcity when your team is only in town for ten* "home" games a season!

I give you... The Bingo Sternberg Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings!!!

* Whichever market sells out its guaranteed ten game regular-season ticket inventory the quickest is awarded the opportunity... to foist the 81st "home" date of the season onto one of the other seven cities.       

[Gothamite 24,089]

The telling thing here is that MLB is saying baseball in Tampa Bay can't work out even with a new stadium.  Yikes.

[Magic Dynasty 2,402]

1 minute ago, Gothamite said:

The telling thing here is that MLB is saying baseball in Tampa Bay can't work out even with a new stadium.  Yikes.

On top of that, they're also saying they don't fully believe in Montreal's ability to support a team.

 

They've somehow found a solution that's made both Rays fans and old/potential Expos fans angry. Now that's a yikes.

[dfwabel 4,155]

13 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

 

Even a weaker players’ union would tell MLB and Stu to get bent with this idea. One of the biggest themes I noticed when researching the Expos’ San Juan games was how thoroughly the players hated it. No way that this gets approved.

 

It’s stadium blackmail after the Ybor City failure.

Yep. Tampa just inaugurated its new mayor last month, so it's putting pressure on her to adjust her opinion on tax payer funds for it. Then again, the county is needed more and the Hillsborough County tax rate is now 8.5%, the highest in the state

[WSU151 9,765]

18 minutes ago, VDizzle12 said:

Not only will fans hate it, but how terrible would this be for the players and employees of the organization? Imagine having to move your family 1500 miles away to a different country in the middle of the baseball season.

 

Pretty sure all the spouses and kids would stay in Tampa if they live there at all.

 

It's not unusual for players to maintain primary residences far away from the city they play in. 

[McCall 1,392]

Let Jeter and Co. take the Marlins wherever and move the Rays personnel (Players, Ownership, FO, etc) to Miami to become the “new” Marlins. They at least have a well run organization and thus may be the only hope of saving baseball in Florida. And the league can’t abandon Miami altogether after finally getting a new stadium. This way the better of the two is playing in it and fans will finally have a reason to show up and watch.

[TBGKon 2,652]

4 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

Yep. Tampa just inaugurated its new mayor last month, so it's putting pressure on her to adjust her opinion on tax payer funds for it. Then again, the county is needed more and the Hillsborough County tax rate is now 8.5%, the highest in the state

If taxes are used, I’d say it’s highly unlikely it’ll be sales tax.  There are hotel taxes and other tourist taxes that would likely be targeted.

 

The Buccaneers burned any chance of using sales tax back in the mid 90s

[GDAWG 1,804]

Huh.....Tampa spent most of the 80's trying to lure Major League Baseball to their city.  They finally get one in 1998 and two decades later, that team wants out. 

[kimball 5,179]

I like the idea of the Rays merging with the Marlins, rebrand to back to the Florida Marlins and play home games throughout the state -- Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami, etc. That's the only way I see Florida baseball working. They can't carry the load of a 162 game season.

 

With the extra spot -- I'd then expand to Montreal.

[GDAWG 1,804]

34 minutes ago, Magic Dynasty said:

This reminds me of the Jaguars proposal to half relocate to London a few years back, where they would have a "US base" in Jacksonville and play their playoff and primetime games there, and every other game in London. It was dumb then, and it's still dumb now.

 

Didn't the Jaguars end up reducing their London games to one? 

[McCall 1,392]

3 minutes ago, kimball said:

I like the idea of the Rays merging with the Marlins, rebrand to back to the Florida Marlins and play home games throughout the state -- Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami, etc. That's the only way I see Florida baseball working. They can't carry the load of a 162 game season.

 

With the extra spot -- I'd then expand to Montreal.

At that point, there’d be no sense of merging and expanding, but rather just relocating one of the two.

[gosioux76 2,381]

21 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

The telling thing here is that MLB is saying baseball in Tampa Bay can't work out even with a new stadium.  Yikes.

My suspicion is that neither the Rays ownership nor Major League Baseball actually expects this scenario to play out as described. It's a long and complicated scheme to solve the league's Tampa problem, bring baseball back to Montreal, and finally start Manfred's long-awaited league expansion process. 

[GDAWG 1,804]

2 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

My suspicion is that neither the Rays ownership nor Major League Baseball actually expects this scenario to play out as described. It's a long and complicated scheme to solve the league's Tampa problem, bring baseball back to Montreal, and finally start Manfred's long-awaited league expansion process. 

 

Once Tampa solves their stadium issue, MLB isn't going to expand.  They won't until Oakland solves their own stadium issues.

[gosioux76 2,381]

2 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Once Tampa solves their stadium issue, MLB isn't going to expand.  They won't until Oakland solves their own stadium issues.

From the sounds of it, Oakland is on far firmer ground than they've ever been. Their waterfront ballpark plan still has skeptics, but it's gaining in public support. 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Oakland-council-taking-its-time-wants-answers-13969521.php?psid=aQkeR

 

[Magic Dynasty 2,402]

8 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Didn't the Jaguars end up reducing their London games to one? 

They've always had one London game since the program started. However, one year (IIRC, 2012), there was a proposal to have the Jaguars become a dual-city team - they would have a "base" in Jacksonville so that players, coaches, etc. wouldn't have to live in the UK (and thus pay UK taxes), while also playing primetime and playoff games there (they would never be able to have a night game in London due to the time difference, and teams wouldn't have to make the jump across the Atlantic if the Jaguars ever had a home playoff game). All other games would be in London.

 

I'm pretty sure that the Jaguars at least considered it before the idea fell through.

[DG_ThenNowForever 15,961]

This just reads to me like baseball is a mess.

[Survival79 2,109]

34 minutes ago, McCall said:

Let Jeter and Co. take the Marlins wherever and move the Rays personnel (Players, Ownership, FO, etc) to Miami to become the “new” Marlins. They at least have a well run organization and thus may be the only hope of saving baseball in Florida. And the league can’t abandon Miami altogether after finally getting a new stadium. This way the better of the two is playing in it and fans will finally have a reason to show up and watch.

 

16 minutes ago, kimball said:

I like the idea of the Rays merging with the Marlins, rebrand to back to the Florida Marlins and play home games throughout the state -- Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami, etc. That's the only way I see Florida baseball working. They can't carry the load of a 162 game season.

 

Step 1: Move the Marlins to Montreal.

Step 2: Split the Rays between Tampa Bay and Miami.

Step 3: The Florida Rays.

 

OR

 

Step 1: Move the Rays to Montreal.

Step 2: Split the Marlins between Miami and Tampa Bay.

Step 3: The Florida Marlins.

 

OR

 

Step 1: Move the Rays or Marlins to Montreal.

Step 2: Move whichever team is left to Orlando.

Step 3: The Florida Rays or the Florida Marlins.

 

[gosioux76 2,381]

Beyond the physical logistics of this hair-brained scheme, how would you even start the branding discussion? You've got two cities each with legacy franchise brands. Would Montreal really support a team not called the Expos, if it came to that? This whole thing is just mind-boggling.