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MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside


So_Fla

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If you placed te Rays organization, as they are, in a new or serviceable stadium in a good market, you'd immediately have one of the top franchises in baseball. While the stadium and fanbase problems are big issues, they are out of te team's control. They have done everything in their power to be successful. So why would you rather take a new expansion team starting from scratch over an already established and very good team that just needs a new home?

It's called logic.

What part of "the Rays are doomed to the ball and chain known as Tropicana Field until the late 2020s" isn't clicking with you? Do I need to go into microsoft paint and make a diagram for you using the virtual spray can? Central Florida can be salvaged, but it's out of reach for the Rays. They're cooked from a business standpoint (and baseball is a business).

On another note, to whoever it may concern, the quote function on this site makes me want to grow my pubic hair back in so I can yank it out in frustration.

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I don't trust Vancouver with baseball. Yeah, hockey works, because it's Canada and hockey can't possibly fail in a Canadian city with sufficient population as long as the dollar is up to par, but the Grizzlies lasted six years there. Baseball requires double the capacity and plays twice as many home games. If the Rays somehow got out from under Tropicana and moved there they might have a prayer, but otherwise they'd be the baseball Grizzlies in a league that's more tilted toward big markets than any other. No bueno.

Virginia Beach is right next door to Baltimore and Washington. Not happening, Angelos would go postal. NBA only, maybe NHL if they go out trying to find the next Nashville or something (top of my head comparison, I haven't been to either place so I have little clue how they compare with each other).

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If you placed te Rays organization, as they are, in a new or serviceable stadium in a good market, you'd immediately have one of the top franchises in baseball. While the stadium and fanbase problems are big issues, they are out of te team's control. They have done everything in their power to be successful. So why would you rather take a new expansion team starting from scratch over an already established and very good team that just needs a new home?

It's called logic.

What part of "the Rays are doomed to the ball and chain known as Tropicana Field until the late 2020s" isn't clicking with you? Do I need to go into microsoft paint and make a diagram for you using the virtual spray can? Central Florida can be salvaged, but it's out of reach for the Rays. They're cooked from a business standpoint (and baseball is a business).

On another note, to whoever it may concern, the quote function on this site makes me want to grow my pubic hair back in so I can yank it out in frustration.

With relocation you have to negotiate out of the lease of the current location and then find a new one. Very tough, yes.

With contraction, you have to negotiate out of the current lease, find a new place, get approval from the players union (yeah, good luck with that), find a new ownership group (umm, you already have a competent and successful one in place) go through a dispersal draft, have an expansion draft (seems kind of pointless when there's already a competitive and winning team that you just disbanded), re-establish a minor league system....

I'll just stop there.

So what makes more sense, going through 2 steps, however difficult they may be, OR go through those same 2 steps plus numerous additional steps that in turn takes away a successful franchise and causes many potential legal issues?

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The Rays are the least valuable team in baseball. Yeah, real successful.

If the players union got wind beforehand that those jobs would be coming right back, methinks they'd mellow a bit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the team responsible for the lease if they're relocating, whereas MLB would be responsibe in event of contraction (the franchise being wiped out against their will)? If so, MLB probably has a lot more resources to terminate that lease than the 30th most valuable franchise in baseball Tampa Bay Rays would.

Dispersal/expansion is a rather tedious charade, agreed, but it's for the greater good.

Can't help but notice that you don't seem to be at all bent out of shape about the idea of the Marlins being contracted/replaced.

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The Rays are the least valuable team in baseball. Yeah, real successful.

If the players union got wind beforehand that those jobs would be coming right back, methinks they'd mellow a bit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the team responsible for the lease if they're relocating, whereas MLB would be responsibe in event of contraction (the franchise being wiped out against their will)? If so, MLB probably has a lot more resources to terminate that lease than the 30th most valuable franchise in baseball Tampa Bay Rays would.

Dispersal/expansion is a rather tedious charade, agreed, but it's for the greater good.

Can't help but notice that you don't seem to be at all bent out of shape about the idea of the Marlins being contracted/replaced.

Yeah, but you aren't going to get all 30 owners to agree to buying out said lease. Hell, you might not get sufficient agreement on re-expansion, which means the union has every right to be concerned. Also the Federales and the sacred anti-trust exemption might come up again.

Personally I think the Sawx shelling out a small portion of the lordly sums they rake in is for more of the greater good.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

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A move to the New York City area would be a disaster

Depends where they put them. Long Island? Disaster. The Bronx? Disaster. Brooklyn? They become a top-5 team in attendance and merchandise sales.

It's not going to happen, but that one would be an easy home run. And the renamed Rays would finally have a market worthy of them.

Brooklyn Atlantics does ring well.

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Oh what could have been....

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The Rays are the least valuable team in baseball. Yeah, real successful.

No it's not the fault of the franchise. They are tied to the Trop and the market due to the original ownership and the league. The current ownership had nothing to do with the original deal. Since they have taken over they have built a consistent contender top notch organization. The only 2 issues, I repeat, are the 2 they have little to no control over. They have tried to make improvements to the stadium that they are bound to. Out of their hands. They have made said improvements and fielded a winning ballclub with a great model that many other teams are now trying to emulate building up and stocking the farm system. Yet the fans still don't come out. Why? Because of the market, not the team. They have done everything asked of them within their powers to make a successful team. If they're failing, it's not on them. You place this exact organization in a better market, and they'll be one of the most successful in the game.

The Marlins you can't do either, but you can look for someway to force Loria out. Unlikely, but still a better shot than contraction. It's not as easy as you seem to delusionally believe.

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There's no way contraction flies in this day and age. Yeah, they flirted with the idea years ago, but it was realistically never going to happen. Not only would you have to deal with the unions, but contraction is a PR nightmare.

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  • 7 months later...

I remember seeing sketches and computer models for a new A's ballpark (though I can't remember where they planned on putting it- I think they left it in Oakland) called Cisco Park. They looked like pretty complete renderings from an architecture firm that designed a whole ballpark. They had even designed it to fit in with a downtown district, with a street beyond the outfield wall that closed on gameday. It looked pretty cool, and wasn't even remotely comparable to the crappy football field they play on now. What a waste.

It's _____________ and Toledo still sucks.


[insert time here]

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I remember seeing sketches and computer models for a new A's ballpark (though I can't remember where they planned on putting it- I think they left it in Oakland) called Cisco Park. They looked like pretty complete renderings from an architecture firm that designed a whole ballpark. They had even designed it to fit in with a downtown district, with a street beyond the outfield wall that closed on gameday. It looked pretty cool, and wasn't even remotely comparable to the crappy football field they play on now. What a waste.

They put it in San Jose, and it is a widely known concept that didn't happen because territorial rights.

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No, it was going to be in Fremont, which was as close to San Jose as they could build.

This is great news. The Oakland Coliseum is one of my favorite ballparks for the way it deviates from the postage stamps of foul ground most parks have now. I like when parks really change the game. And Oakland gave us Tower of Power, Why?, and ghost-riding the whip. Viva Oakland.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Ah the good 'ol days

OCM_OaklandColiseumMatinee.jpg

And full of steroids.

If approved by both the city and county, which it still needs to be, this extension is pretty much symbolic.

I'm talking about how nice the stadium used to be and the great view of the Oakland hills.

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So maybe they'll do something about all that raw sewage now? And no, I don't mean Raiders fans.

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On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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