MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[GDAWG]

5 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

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.

 

If that happens, we'd have three AL East stadiums hosting a college bowl game with the Fenway Bowl and Pinstripe Bowl.  But also Arizona Bowl and Holiday Bowl for NL West.  

[Dilbert]

So Brewers stadium issue is resolved. The Rays stadium issue is resolved, and the owners are gonna vote on the A's relocation after the season. It's been 84 years but I think we are finally getting somewhere.

[BBTV]

14 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

So Brewers stadium issue is resolved. The Rays stadium issue is resolved, and the owners are gonna vote on the A's relocation after the season. It's been 84 years but I think we are finally getting somewhere.

 

Rays situation isn't going to end, even when this new thing is built.  The same issues will exist, we'll still be harping on their weak support and hearing the same reasons for it, and the only difference is we won't be able to talk about the catwalks and how awful the inside looks like.

 

I wish them the best chance at success - I really do - but this isn't it, and they're committing to decades of the same old thing.

 

Bad day for the Nashville Stars

[The_Admiral]

12 hours ago, TBGKon said:

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

The Rays have an official site with the new ballpark details 

 

Did Robin DeAngelo consult on this? "Not only does everyone hate Tropicana Field because it's such a bad place to watch a game, it was also racist to build it. Therefore, it is anti-racist to replace it. Anyway, I'm a billionaire and I need money."

[Burmy]

8 hours ago, TBGKon said:

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.

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

[dont care]

5 minutes ago, Burmy said:

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

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

[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.

[Dilbert]

14 hours ago, BBTV said:

Bad day for the Nashville Stars

They still have hope. Remember one of the Orioles owners wants to move them to Nashville

[gosioux76]

14 hours ago, BBTV said:

Bad day for the Nashville Stars

 

Is it, though? 

 

A franchise relocation would have certainly been the easier path toward landing a MLB team, but now that the A's and Rays stadium issues seem closer to resolution, the league will almost certainly be on a faster track toward expansion. 

 

So either way you look at it, Nashville won't likely be in a holding pattern for much longer. 

[BBTV]

19 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

 

Is it, though? 

 

A franchise relocation would have certainly been the easier path toward landing a MLB team, but now that the A's and Rays stadium issues seem closer to resolution, the league will almost certainly be on a faster track toward expansion. 

 

So either way you look at it, Nashville won't likely be in a holding pattern for much longer. 

 

That's a good way of looking at it.  This isn't the right thread to debate partner cities to join them (though that's basically what we've spent most of it doing), but I think that's now their main impediment - one that didn't exist had LV and StP not gotten deals done.

 

Their best case would have been for both Oakland and the Rays to stay put, then come in with LV.

[dont care]

I don’t see why the MLB would expand, if anything contract the franchises that haven’t been able to draw fans for decades. Unfortunately 1 of those teams is getting a new stadium to see the same result so they aren’t going away any time soon.

[McCall]

14 minutes ago, dont care said:

I don’t see why the MLB would expand, if anything contract the franchises that haven’t been able to draw fans for decades. Unfortunately 1 of those teams is getting a new stadium to see the same result so they aren’t going away any time soon.

Yeah, I'd love to see you try and sell this (tired) idea to the Players Union.

[GDAWG]

4 hours ago, McCall said:

Yeah, I'd love to see you try and sell this (tired) idea to the Players Union.

 

If anything, the Players Union prefers expansion as it's 50 more players for them.  

[McCall]

49 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

If anything, the Players Union prefers expansion as it's 50 more players for them.  

52 active roster plus minor league players are now union, as well.

[FiddySicks]

I’m sure you’re right about the players union not being for it, but it doesn’t change the fact that we actually have a team or two too many, rather than too few. Like, expansion for Nashville? That’s your big fish? Yikes. That’s bleak. Who’s next? Oklahoma City? 

[GDAWG]

2 hours ago, McCall said:

52 active roster plus minor league players are now union, as well.

 

The Players Association isn't going to turn down 52 new jobs for players, which is why I suspect that they are 100% on board with expansion.  The MLBPA is said to be the strongest of these sports unions anyways.  

[Ridleylash]

51 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

I’m sure you’re right about the players union not being for it, but it doesn’t change the fact that we actually have a team or two too many, rather than too few. Like, expansion for Nashville? That’s your big fish? Yikes. That’s bleak. Who’s next? Oklahoma City? 

You mean the market not that much smaller than Cleveland, bigger than Milwaukee and that is growing rapidly is attracting the eye of the MLB? Shocking. Next, we'll find out they're interested in Vegas or something, or want a team in the second-biggest city in Canada.

 

Nashville absolutely fits in the scope of MLB expansion, and in terms of market it is definitely desirable; it's a very notable city in the Southeast US for a reason.

[FiddySicks]

2 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

Nashville absolutely fits in the scope of MLB expansion, and in terms of market it is definitely desirable; it's a very notable city in the Southeast US for a reason.

Lol no it doesn’t, because truth of the matter is there isn’t ANY city left that fits that category. This is a sport that’s been actively hemorrhaging fans for around the last four decades. We really don’t need any more MLB teams. Especially when the only “viable” (and I use that term loosely) locations left are places like Nashville and Portland. 

[SFGiants58]

Portland chose their MLS club over AAA baseball. That alone should tell MLB expansion folk to back off and leave the city alone.

[FiddySicks]

All you really have to do is look at the two most recent rounds of expansion to let you know how it’ll probably go in places like Nashville, Portland, or (lol) Orlando. 
 

1993: Denver and Miami

 

1998: Phoenix and Tampa/St. Pete

 

You could very easily make the argument that at least three of those are the three weakest markets and most precarious situations in MLB (I’m not including Oakland/the A’s in this because their whole situation requires a lot more nuance to understand why it got so FUBARd. Plus, it sounds like that’ll be moot because the A’s are now moving to a market that’s… Somehow even worse than Portland, Nashville, or Orlando. I’ve gone over my skepticism on Vegas a million times here though, so I’ll spare the details on that for now). 
 

Miami: A market that, despite the team having some early success, has NEVER worked, and is only currently viable because the previous ownership group absolutely fleeced the city for a new park. 
 

Denver: Easily the best of the four, but still tempered due to the Rockies almost always being unwatchable. 
 

Tampa: Disaster of a situation and the team has had talks of leaving the area basically ever since they began play. New stadium is great, but they’re probably going to have a lot of the same problems they had before drawing a crowd. 

Phoenix: just a huge area with a ton of baseball history, and it’s still one of the most anemic markets in pro sports. 

And the worst part is all four of those cities have the same thing in common. They’re absolutely enormous. Despite that, the success has been pretty limited. 
 

So with all of that, I have a very hard time wrapping my head around the idea of MLB putting an expansion team in a city that has like 1/10 the population, basically zero history with baseball fandom (I’m sure Nashville has a nice minor league history that had a good following, just as every other moderately sized city in the US does. And I’m sure they think their history is “special”, just like all of those other moderately sized cities do, too), and has enough markets close enough that they’ll compete for eyes with teams that have a century and a half head start on them. 
 

I’ll even go this far. If a team decides it has to move, Nashville may be a somewhat decent market for them if they play that situation perfectly. It’ll be the weakest market in the league and everyone will know that, but at least in that circumstance they’ll have a chance, albeit far fetched. But an expansion team? Lol, come on. Can we at least try to keep things realistic?
 

And I say all that not meant as a put down, but as the guy who thought (foolishly) for DECADES that Sacramento would be a viable market for a MLB team. 
 

There’s a reason we haven’t had expansion in nearly 30 years. It’s because there isn’t anywhere left that actually makes sense. There’s currently two or three markets they already have that don’t make sense.