Stadium/Arena Saga Omnibus

[FrutigerAero]

Why not Marins Park (loanDepot). It's new and has a roof. And is in Florida.

[tp49]

I think they'll just play at the Trop, blue tarp it the Army Corp way, and call it a day.

[BBTV]

1 minute ago, FrutigerAero said:

Why not Marins Park (loanDepot). It's new and has a roof. And is in Florida.

 

for one thing, the schedule has already been made and sharing a major-league park would require a significant redo, including ensuring that hotels were available for all of the dates that weren't previously scheduled in Miami.  It's not as easy as simply saying that they're playing the same schedule just in a different stadium.  Redoing a schedule that involves lots of cross-country travel with a restriction like the Rays would have (i.e. "can't schedule home games on these 81 days") would be difficult. 

 

It's doable... but probably a lot more difficult than it sounds.

 

 

[VampyrRabbit]

7 minutes ago, tp49 said:

I think they'll just play at the Trop, blue tarp it the Army Corp way, and call it a day.

There could be a lot more damaged at the Ballpark, which isn't long for this world anyway if the Rays manage to get the deal done on a new home.  They aren't going to spend money on doing repairs on a place that is going to be torn down by the end of the decade if all goes to plan.
 

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

for one thing, the schedule has already been made and sharing a major-league park would require a significant redo, including ensuring that hotels were available for all of the dates that weren't previously scheduled in Miami.  It's not as easy as simply saying that they're playing the same schedule just in a different stadium.  Redoing a schedule that involves lots of cross-country travel with a restriction like the Rays would have (i.e. "can't schedule home games on these 81 days") would be difficult. 

 

It's doable... but probably a lot more difficult than it sounds.

 

If this is indeed a wrap on the Trop, I would expect them to boot a series or two to Miami (surely any games against the Marlins themselves) next year with more to come in 2026 and 2027, but I think we also have to remember that the whole point of this new stadium is not, in fact, hosting a Final Four but rather giving the Rays the market certainty they've lacked since their sailboat-roof stadium concept got shot down in 2008. To that end, you can't build up to the team being anchored in Tampa Bay by having them not be there for three years--out of sight, out of mind, and they're barely in mind as it is. There's going to have to be some Tampa Bay aspect to their schedule in the meantime, even if it's just spring training parks or wedging a field into Raymond James for a series or something.

[who do you think]

6 hours ago, FrutigerAero said:

Why not Marins Park (loanDepot). It's new and has a roof. And is in Florida.

 

Two useless franchises that nobody likes sharing one useless stadium that nobody wanted built. I like it. Most economical solution short of just wiping them both out and turning Marlins Park into a giant casino (which there seems to be a lot of around here for some reason).

[SFGiants58]

Spreading out across the Spring Training parks in the area and maybe Al Lang Field seems to be the ideal solution (should the Trop be done for). It’s not amazing, but it’d fit in with the Sacramento A’s in how it tests the resolve of the MLBPA to put up with temporary stadiums.

[BBTV]

15 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

Spreading out across the Spring Training parks in the area and maybe Al Lang Field seems to be the ideal solution (should the Trop be done for). It’s not amazing, but it’d fit in with the Sacramento A’s in how it tests the resolve of the MLBPA to put up with temporary stadiums.

 

That's probably what it'll be, along with maybe a series or two in PR or some other potential market.

 

Not that the Rays are competitive for free agents anyway, but there's no way anyone with options is going to sign there knowing that they're going to be in minor-league clubhouses / facilities for the next three years.

 

I kinda hope that one of these years is when they win the World Series, and the final pitch is thrown at some 10k-capacity ballpark with terrible lighting and that's where the celebration occurs, and the networks don't even have all the camera angles.

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

Not that the Rays are competitive for free agents anyway, but there's no way anyone with options is going to sign there knowing that they're going to be in minor-league clubhouses / facilities for the next three years.

 

Doesn't Orlando have MLB-level clubhouses for some reason? I think that's how the Rays were able to get away with sticking some games there without the union making a stink. I'd expect them to get the majority of the home slate in 2025, leaning harder on Miami once they can prepare for it.

[Digby]

42 minutes ago, The_Admiral said:

Doesn't Orlando have MLB-level clubhouses for some reason? I think that's how the Rays were able to get away with sticking some games there without the union making a stink. I'd expect them to get the majority of the home slate in 2025, leaning harder on Miami once they can prepare for it.

 

My aforementioned childhood memory of seeing a single-A team there was that it was comically overbuilt, but this was also the time period when I was used to the dumpy ancient stadiums of the PawSox and the short-season leagues of rust-belty upstate New York, so maybe it's not as much an outlier anymore. But it's always seemed to me like the fields of that complex are all way overbuilt, presumably for TV events (and why it worked out nicely for Covid bubbles).

 

3 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

Spreading out across the Spring Training parks in the area and maybe Al Lang Field seems to be the ideal solution (should the Trop be done for). It’s not amazing, but it’d fit in with the Sacramento A’s in how it tests the resolve of the MLBPA to put up with temporary stadiums.

 

How permanent are Al Lang's soccer renovations, though? I know their MLS franchise plan (which was way rad and underrated, IMHO) would have definitely precluded baseball usage. As it stands, the newer bleachers are definitely bang on top of where left-center field would be. Not sure how permanent they made that stand given the lighter-touch reno for minor-league Rowdies but that's gonna have to move to fit any Rays games in there.

[VampyrRabbit]

The big takeaway I got from this video is that bits of tarp from the Trop are now on sale on Ebay.

[SFGiants58]

I’d print the entirety of Stadium for Rent on the tarp pieces.

[Digby]

Really not fond of the YouTuber format of writing a declarative sentence that may or may not be true, adding something ALL-CAPS for emphasis, but then just adding a single question mark at the end of this sentence to have plausible deniability. 

[The_Admiral]

There's an SEO sameness that has settled into every single youtube video thumbnail. It used to be hack work to do 

 

 

but now everyone has to do it.

 

As for the Brodie Brazil video, I got about 15 seconds to "this can go one of two ways." Yeah, they either play in Tropicana Field or they don't. Thanks, genius.

[VampyrRabbit]

I just thought it was important that they've started selling bits of the stadium before it's even been demolished.

Another thing that I've not seen mentioned - is the touch tank and everything in it okay?

[tp49]

1 hour ago, VampyrRabbit said:

I just thought it was important that they've started selling bits of the stadium before it's even been demolished.

Another thing that I've not seen mentioned - is the touch tank and everything in it okay?

I'm pretty sure the rays in the touch tank were moved back to the manatee viewing center in Apollo Beach after the final home game where they live during the off-season.  I'd also figure they were evacuated from Apollo Beach to the Florida Aquarium before Milton arrived.

[tp49]

I stand corrected.  They rode it out at The Trop.

 

 

[BBTV]

NJ has upped their offer for the Sixers to >$800M plus land + exclusive developmnent rights.

 

I kinda think this was the long game the whole time.  $1.5B out of pocket, or less than that - $800M out of pocket, with significantly more land given to them (land that includes existing dilapidated row/crack homes, but still.)

 

The councilperson whose district it's in (who is my councilperson too) is in a very tough and unenvious spot here, as this is a re-election-impacting decision.  Does he change at the last minute to push for "no", knowing that means the Sixers are moving, or does he say "yes", knowing that a sizable portion his democratic base will abandon him?

 

The easy way out is for the Sixers to add another poison-pill to the deal that makes it so he has to vote no, without reproductions.

 

I now feel that it's 52-48 that the Sixers are moving to NJ.

[GhostOfNormMacdonald]

Philadelphia 76ers of New Jersey

[McCall]

If the Sixers move into New Jersey, the state will host 5 teams across the 5 major sports league (MLB being the only league not present in the Garden State). 4 of those 5 teams will identify as either New York or Philadelphia.

 

You can't really deny the fact that New Jersey is the b***h of the Atlantic coast Cities any longer.