MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[rmc523]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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?

[PrimalCookie]

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]

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. 

[Sec19Row53]

3 hours ago, Magic Dynasty said:

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

I drive four plus hours round trip 7 times per year for football. Different, yes, but if it meant I might have a role in saving my team, I might plan a few more trips.

[dont care]

11 hours ago, Magic Dynasty said:

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

Just 4 hours? You must live right outside Tampa, for anywhere else it’s possibly 4 hours just one way trying to get to the game.

[BBTV]

12 hours ago, Survival79 said:

 

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

 

Announced attendance is "tickets sold", not "attendance", and obviously most of those tickets were probably sold before the announcement.

[BBTV]

10 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

I drive four plus hours round trip 7 times per year for football. Different, yes, but if it meant I might have a role in saving my team, I might plan a few more trips.

 

Him making multiple 4-hour trips, on weeknights, is relevant to saving his team.  If anything, it's just going to create more grief since he'd be investing more into a relationship that's just going to end with him being a cuckhold watching his wife slurp down some stylish french canadian's rock hard pastrami.

 

 

[Sec19Row53]

4 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Him making multiple 4-hour trips, on weeknights, is relevant to saving his team.  If anything, it's just going to create more grief since he'd be investing more into a relationship that's just going to end with him being a cuckhold watching his wife slurp down some stylish french canadian's rock hard pastrami.

 

 

Sure, but if I were trying to save my team, I would be making more than "a few" trips before the end of the season. Week nights be damned. Four hour trip be damned. 

[BBTV]

3 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Sure, but if I were trying to save my team, I would be making more than "a few" trips before the end of the season. Week nights be damned. Four hour trip be damned. 

 

Easy to say when you're not the one facing the problem.  "I'm leaving work at 4 so I can drive two hours to save my team and then get home at close to 1AM and be crappy at work the next day" simply isn't reasonable.  Your example of traveling to Packers games 7 times a year isn't even in the same ballpark of what we're talking about here.  While I'm not facing it either, my gut reaction would be to say FU and not waste my time.  Of course, this move is so unlikely to happen, and the most likely situation is them staying put for the next 8 years, so it's kind of a moot point.

[IceCap]

21 hours ago, Survival79 said:

 

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

That's still under their season average (which isn't great either).

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

 

Not to mention Vet's right. Immediate post-announcement doesn't mean much. Let's see how it looks a week on.

 

EDIT- lol Miami

Edited June 29, 2019 by Ice_Cap

[DG_ThenNowForever]

1 hour ago, Ice_Cap said:

That's still under their season average (which isn't great either).

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

 

Not to mention Vet's right. Immediate post-announcement doesn't mean much. Let's see how it looks a week on.

 

EDIT- lol Miami

 

Time to contract the Marlins.

 

Interesting to see Seattle in the top 20 there. The team has been so bad for so long, it's amazing people still show up. And I'll say that when Seattle had its hot start, there were really was a lot of buzz in town around the Mariners. People were excited, going to games, and ready to watch winning baseball in the city.

[DEAD!]

I admit, I totally ignored the Mariners after the hot start, and only noticed their record since when they traded Encarnaçion.

[Gothamite]

This popped up on my YouTube feed - interesting to see how Sternberg felt about the prospect of baseball in Montreal as far back as 2013. 

 

 

[SFGiants58]

46 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

This popped up on my YouTube feed - interesting to see how Sternberg felt about the prospect of baseball in Montreal as far back as 2013. 

 

I’ve always figured that Montréal was the most trouble-free relocation in the same way DC was for the MK I Expos (no realignment, decent temporary stadium, etc.). 

[BBTV]

21 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

I’ve always figured that Montréal was the most trouble-free relocation in the same way DC was for the MK I Expos (no realignment, decent temporary stadium, etc.). 

 

Did the Expos really ever compete for good free agents?  Is it fair to ask whether they'd be at a disadvantage for recruiting any star African American players without dramatically overpaying?  I don't think Latin American players would be an issue - in fact some might prefer it, at least for the next 1-5 years, and I don't think most white American-born players would have any issue, as it's a great place despite presenting some extra challenges for their families that might move with them, but would AA players really go for it considering they'd be putting themselves in situations where they're more of a minority than they are anywhere in the states, and from things that I've read (not witnessed personally) it's not known for embracing racial diversity?  Is it fair to ask that, and is it a fair concern?

 

It might be a moot point, since the results of a google search for black MLB players shocked me when I saw how few there were, but the ability to draw FA's in a non-capped sport is usually one of the first things on my mind once the other hurdles (basic start-up) prove to be workable (which, so far, they haven't in MTL's case.)  In capped sports, it doesn't matter as much, since there's limited money to go around and any player will follow the money anywhere, but baseball is different.