Stadium/Arena Saga Omnibus

[dont care]

On 10/26/2023 at 11:08 PM, Dilbert said:

At a St Petersburg council meeting, the Rays gave a presentation on the new stadium development project. Apparently part of the agreement is the Rays play one game, wearing "St Petersburg Rays" jerseys (pending MLB approval).  To me this just screams the whole "Anaheim" schtick, that city forced the Angels to do, where the city didnt want to be little brother to Los Angeles so the team compromised with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim bs. St Pete doesnt want to play little brother to Tampa. I mean, theres a reason why its called Tampa Bay and not St Petersburg Bay. Not to mention the 4+1 rule for jerseys now. Would the St Petersburg jersey be considered a special jersey like the Boston Patriots Day jersey or the Jays Canada Day jersey?

 

 

 

They would probably make it the city connect jersey. I don’t know what special holiday St. Petersburg could connect to themselves to justify a special jersey, not even gasparilla which is a Tampa holiday. 

[The_Admiral]

I think the window for St. Petersburg representation has loudly slammed shut. For one thing, the city is named after the old capital of Russia, a country that everyone hates. "Tampa Bay" has fully superseded the old "Tampa-St. Pete" as the nickname for the whole metropolitan area* such that even the St. Petersburg Times started going by Tampa Bay instead. Maybe there was a time when branding as a St. Pete team rather than a Tampa team would have made sense, and an StP mongram would have looked neat on a cap, but that time was 1998 or 2008, and not now. 

 

*

Spoiler

I'll never be on board with "the Metroplex" for Dallas-Ft. Worth. That just sounds like a mid-tier office park, even if that's what Dallas kind of is.

 

[Digby]

I still think about the ads for “St. Petersburg-Clearwater” that their tourism board used to constantly push during the Boston televised sports events of decades ago. Though that maybe primed me to forever thing of it as a dorky tourist town and not a proper city with an MLB team. 

[TBGKon]

On 10/28/2023 at 8:16 PM, Digby said:

I still think about the ads for “St. Petersburg-Clearwater” that their tourism board used to constantly push during the Boston televised sports events of decades ago. Though that maybe primed me to forever thing of it as a dorky tourist town and not a proper city with an MLB team. 

It's still an organization, but it's focused on the Pinellas County (beachside) area.  Tampa proper has it's own board.

 

Living in the area for over 25 years, there's definitely a bit of a rivalry between the sides of the bay, and branding any team to one city vs the other would alienate the other one big time.  Tampa Bay is a proper locale identifier since the Rowdies and Buccaneers began using it almost 50 years ago.

[GhostOfNormMacdonald]

       It’s made all the more stupid that the team’s named after a freaking  state and could just have easily been the Minneapolis Vikings if not to appease Little Brother Across the Mississippi.                           I tried to quote @LMU but the     mobile site is messed up  and keeps randomly deleting stuff.                  as a fan of the first two teams to use a state for its name, I'm fine with teams choosing their geographic marker                As long as it's obvious what state(s*) the team is in                     * see Carolina Panthers            

[Walk-Off]

Weekend link dump:

 

Ballpark Digest: Rays unveil St. Petersburg ballpark plan, ask for swift consideration from the city

 

Athletics Nation: Elephant Rumblings: Oakland Invites A's Fans to Tuesday Press Conference Urging Team to "STAY"

[BBTV]

Would be a lot nicer if more of the outfield wall was glass, like the area where the flag and retired numbers are.  It's obviously leagues better than the Trop, but still has a little bit of the warehouse vibe with that gray wall.

 

Remind me - is that the SoFi clear roof material?  If so, then cool - that's going to be a cool lighting scheme.  If it's plain white, then it could really make things look artificial.

 

Also looks like they're not leaving themselves much room to expand the scoreboard, which every team seems to do every decade.  Overall not bad for what it is.

 

[GDAWG]

A's fans want John Fisher to sell, but he's not going to do that because he's a cheapskate.  I think the only way he sells is if he does a "Daniel Snyder" and either he sells the team or MLB forces him to because of it.  Not spending money on the actual team won't make Fisher sell the team.  

[McCall]

35 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

A's fans want John Fisher to sell, but he's not going to do that because he's a cheapskate.  I think the only way he sells is if he does a "Daniel Snyder" and either he sells the team or MLB forces him to because of it.  Not spending money on the actual team won't make Fisher sell the team.  

Nobody has any cause to force him to sell, so I see no chance of him doing so unless the Vegas deal just utterly falls completely apart and he just wants to be rid of the team. That seems like it has little to no chance of happening at this point.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

A's fans want John Fisher to sell, but he's not going to do that because he's a cheapskate. 

 

I agree that Fisher is not going to sell. But his refusal to sell cannot be on account of his being a "cheapskate", as a sale would get him about $1 billion in profit as compared to his purchase price.

[GDAWG]

31 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

I agree that Fisher is not going to sell. But his refusal to sell cannot be on account of his being a "cheapskate", as a sale would get him about $1 billion in profit as compared to his purchase price.

 

True, but if he keeps the team I have serious doubts that he'll spend any money for high profile players, even after the move to Las Vegas.  Vegas probably hopes he spends but I have my doubts. 

[Walk-Off]

Las Vegas Sun: Oakland passes resolution to keep A's as MLB vote on move to Las Vegas looms

[McCall]

17 minutes ago, Walk-Off said:

Las Vegas Sun: Oakland passes resolution to keep A's as MLB vote on move to Las Vegas looms

Hypothetically, even if they succeeded in him selling the A's (and getting an expansion team in Vegas in return), in about 10-15 years, you could probably copy and paste this article, swapping out "Las Vegas" with whichever city they're trying to relocate to to get out of the Coliseum.

[dont care]

13 minutes ago, McCall said:

Hypothetically, even if they succeeded in him selling the A's (and getting an expansion team in Vegas in return), in about 10-15 years, you could probably copy and paste this article, swapping out "Las Vegas" with whichever city they're trying to relocate to to get out of the Coliseum.

If they are still in the coliseum in that time it will be filled to the brim in human feces.

[McCall]

Just now, dont care said:

If they are still in the coliseum in that time it will still be filled to the brim in human feces.

FTFY

[LMU]

Amazing how quickly the city can whip up and approve this piece of meaningless legislation yet it and Alameda County have been stalling and dragging their feet on legislation that would have actually accomplished this for decades.

[McCall]

9 minutes ago, LMU said:

Amazing how quickly the city can whip up an approve this piece of meaningless legislation yet it and Alameda County have been stalling and dragging their feet on legislation that would have actually accomplished this for decades.

Yeah, I mean, the "A's relocation" possibility has been there for about 20 years now, at least. Yet nothing has ever come to fruition IN Oakland. I think there are people who are generally against relocation who may actually not side with Oakland here. It's getting a little old and repetitive.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

The city and the team were on the verge of a deal when the team showed bad faith by blindsiding the city with an announcement of a "binding" agreement on the first Las Vegas site back in April.

[McCall]

21 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

The city and the team were on the verge of an deal when the team showed bad faith by blindsiding the city with an announcement of a "binding" agreement on the first Las Vegas site back in April.

Where did you see that?

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

22 minutes ago, McCall said:

43 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

The city and the team were on the verge of a deal when the team showed bad faith by blindsiding the city with an announcement of a "binding" agreement on the first Las Vegas site back in April.

Where did you see that?

 

In every report by Brodie Brazil and Casey Pratt, and in the Oakland mayor's comments to Pratt.