Tampa Bay Rays should be moved to a new city

[easyliving]

http://www2.tbo.com/news/rays-report/2013/jan/23/15/tampa-bay-rays-hillsborough-commissioners-to-discu-ar-615307/

playing in 1 of the best divisions in baseball, hosting yankees and red sox 18 times at home per year and they still can't sell out games, not to mention the amount of talent the team possesses. Its not like their rebuilding they had the Cy Young winner last year and Longoria is one of the better players in baseball. It is clear that the team is doomed and a new stadium isn't the answer. The team should be relocated in the long term but I doubt it will happen.

[face]

stadium is in st. pete and they want to move it to tampa. the two cities are close together.

[daneblazer]

Their stadium is in a pretty bad spot. People in Florida don't get a crap about baseball outside of the spring though.

[easyliving]

Their stadium is in a pretty bad spot. People in Florida don't get a crap about baseball outside of the spring though.

I've been following the story fairly closely and it seems like moving the stadium won't make much of a difference. Its clear that the people don't care as you said. Their too good of a team to be playing to empty seats. At this rate within a few years they will be the worst team in baseball as they would need to keep decreasing payroll and losing out players. losing shields and Upton will hurt them but they still have the talent to compete and they should be given the chance.

[doublej95]

contraction is the better choice than moving the team.

[Art Vandelay]

Miami is the first FLA team that should move. That new stadium is in a bad spot and that team is already dismantled. What a joke...

[capitalist pig]

I like going to Tropicana Field, IMO the inside of the stadium is nice. I will agree though that its in a bad area of town, but whole area of St Pete has gone downhill,JMO.

later

[qsilver335]

The Rays do need a new stadium in Tampa, not St. Pete. Baseball ticket sales often live off of the box suite sales. Corporate sales are a large part of this, and in the Tampa area all the corporate money is on the Tampa side. In fact almost all the money is on the Tampa side, suburbs included. The baseball culture is very young, just now are young adults who can pay their own way in of age to have grown up rooting for the team. Where as NY or Boston have generations of fans who live in the area.....If anything the Marlins should be the first to go, well before the Rays. Not even a new stadium can save them it appears.

[TobiasFunke]

Pro sports in florida suck

[TheStandard.ag]

It is odd that Florida doesn't like baseball. The Marlins said "build it and they will come" but they didn't. I've heard that the Tampa stadium is a pain to get too, but get the feeling that people won't show up regardless. Seems like with the large population in Florida and relative large amount of free time that many of their retired citizens have that baseball would be a popular thing to do there. Not sure what they should do, contraction will never happen with the amount of money that baseball rakes in. Maybe moving to another market, but not many good options. My vote is for Vegas. That will be the day.

[You mad bro]

what makes it a bad area for a field? im in NY so i really dont know the whole aspect of the location or anything

[lunchbawks]

They should move to Vancouver

[Big Bear]

move them to Myrtle Beach SC

[Nicky Santoro]

and here's the incredible thing that i can't figure out.

Rays are great, exciting to watch, and competitive.. baseball is big in Florida, yet they can't draw.. meanwhile, no one plays hockey in the state of Florida, there's no snow or ice, yet Tampa is averaging 19,204 a game and drawing just under 100% capacity. And Tampa is not even a playoff team.

GO FIGURE.

[TheStandard.ag]

what makes it a bad area for a field? im in NY so i really dont know the whole aspect of the location or anything

The Trop is in St. Petersburg, a fairly good distance through heavy traffic from Tampa, where a good portion of the population center of the market is. Tampa residents do not particularly like the drive to the ballpark from what I’ve read, which can take a long time during rush hour…which, in theory, is when everyone would be going.

[Jimmy0607]

Ive gone to 3 Lightning games already , I am a Bucs season ticket holder , and last year I think I went to one Rays game, watching baseball sucks

[Fishhead]

The Lightning forum is fantastic for hockey.

Get rid of the cow bells at the Trop, ridiculous and retarded, kept me from many a game, annoying as hell.

Women love hockey in Tampa, much more than baseball.

[You mad bro]

The Trop is in St. Petersburg, a fairly good distance through heavy traffic from Tampa, where a good portion of the population center of the market is. Tampa residents do not particularly like the drive to the ballpark from what I’ve read, which can take a long time during rush hour…which, in theory, is when everyone would be going.

thanks man .. and that sucks for the baseball fans out there

[Jimmy0607]

Driving to st pete in rush hour is a pain in the ass takes about an hour or so

[Fishhead]

Driving to st pete in rush hour is a pain in the ass takes about an hour or so

[Mitchell88]

what makes it a bad area for a field? im in NY so i really dont know the whole aspect of the location or anything

i used to live right there and it is on the north side of ST. Petersburg which is as ghetto as it gets. real bad area

[You mad bro]

i used to live right there and it is on the north side of ST. Petersburg which is as ghetto as it gets. real bad area

that sucks ... the bronx here is ghetto in NY but the yankees pretty much sell out regardless

[qsilver335]

and here's the incredible thing that i can't figure out.

Rays are great, exciting to watch, and competitive.. baseball is big in Florida, yet they can't draw.. meanwhile, no one plays hockey in the state of Florida, there's no snow or ice, yet Tampa is averaging 19,204 a game and drawing just under 100% capacity. And Tampa is not even a playoff team.

GO FIGURE.

I beg to differ that Tampa Bay (Lightning) won't be a playoff team this year. They are off to a hot start, and have good talent that should see them through to the playoffs....The Yanks didn't sell out last year, in fact they had open sections during the playoffs, not just seats. So it isn't just Tampa. That being said even if a new stadium was built on the Tampa side you still wouldn't see sell outs. The fan base just isn't that big compared to the population. The greater Tampa area is small compared to many sports markets.

[ronald]

The Lightning forum is fantastic for hockey.

Get rid of the cow bells at the Trop, ridiculous and retarded, kept me from many a game, annoying as hell.

Women love hockey in Tampa, much more than baseball.

Lured NO LESS than 3 girls up to a game from outside Andreychuk's a few years back.

Took one of them back to the hotel.

Scored an empty net goal.

[CanuckG]

and here's the incredible thing that i can't figure out.

Rays are great, exciting to watch, and competitive.. baseball is big in Florida, yet they can't draw.. meanwhile, no one plays hockey in the state of Florida, there's no snow or ice, yet Tampa is averaging 19,204 a game and drawing just under 100% capacity. And Tampa is not even a playoff team.



GO FIGURE.

[pdx107]

and here's the incredible thing that i can't figure out.

Rays are great, exciting to watch, and competitive.. baseball is big in Florida, yet they can't draw.. meanwhile, no one plays hockey in the state of Florida, there's no snow or ice, yet Tampa is averaging 19,204 a game and drawing just under 100% capacity. And Tampa is not even a playoff team.

GO FIGURE.

Not a playoff team? Leading their division....

[Mr KLC]

I know 10 guys off the top of my head (including me) that would buy season tickets if they moved to Nashville. That's about double what they have in Tampa now, right?

[Mr KLC]

One of the ongoing narratives in baseball is that, for the Tampa Bay Rays to have sustained success, they will need to relocate outside of the Tampa Bay area. Rob Manfred continues to disagree with that assessment.

Over the years, the Tampa Bay area has gained the reputation as being a baseball wasteland. Casual fans see the empty seats at Tropicana Field, and automatically assume that the Tampa Bay Rays do not have any support. Add in their payroll limitations, and one can see why those outside of the region would suspect that the Rays are hindered by the area.

In a way, this assessment is correct, at least in the Rays current situation. Tropicana Field has been outdated since even before the Rays came into existence, a dinosaur from another time. Add in the difficulties involved in getting to the stadium, due to its rather inconvenient location, and the Rays are in a difficult situation.

However, that does not mean that baseball in the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area cannot work. In fact, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred still has hopes for baseball to be successful in the region, saying that be believes that Tampa Bay is a viable major league market. At least, that is the case for now.

Of course, Manfred belives that, for baseball to be viable in Tampa Bay, the Rays need a new stadium. This is something that has seen some progress after years of nothingness, with the franchise looking for possible locations to build. The hope, obviously, is that the new stadium will be able to allow the Rays to have much more financial flexibility and let them keep some of their home grown stars.

Yet, even with that optimism, Manfred is not ruling out relocation. That would be a last resort, something that would take place years down the road. Every other avenue would be explored first, especially as Manfred is seemingly adamant about proving that baseball can succeed in the market.

[jjgold]

Florida's a terrible baseball state

[daneblazer]

The stadium is a pain in the ass go get to. They need to actually be in Tampa

[lom bylyri]

Yet the TV ratings for the Rays are on or around the top of the MLB every year. The greedy pigs that own the team should come to accept the fact that they never gonna average more than 20,000. The reasons are all of the above, more or less. Stadium location, I don't think matters much. Trop is right on the edge of the ghetto, but also very close to downtown St.Pete, which is booming with night life, activity, restaurants etc. Stu Sternberg knows that none of the alleged relocation cities are much more promising, or he would've left by now. I know one thing for sure, new stadium or not, Pinellas side ( St.Pete ) or Hillsborough (Tampa) , the cheap bastard better start thinking how he's going to finance that thing. Because nobody wants to hear about public financing around here, especially after that Miami stadium debacle. The mood pretty much is :Take this team and shove it.

[MinnesotaFats]

Their stadium is in a pretty bad spot. People in Florida don't get a crap about baseball outside of the spring though.

I love down here, it's not that people don't care, it's economics.

The retiree crowd leaves every April and returns each November. During the season the population of SWFL simple doesn't have the discretionary income to take the family to the ball game, subsequently the lack of a diversified business scene or multiple fortune 500 companies means lack of corporate ticket sales.

Not sure where you could move the team to where economics would play out better. Everyone says Charlotte, but the tickets would be opressed there as well based on employment and demographics, thou there are better business sponsors to hook into.

[Crusherrr]

I don't know what ticket prices go for but these professional teams gotta come down on prices. Especially if they aren't filling the stadium. For the top franchises who fill their stadiums in expensive cities by all means charge whatever you can get but no reason an average family in other small markets can't bring their kids to the ballpark for cheap.

[daneblazer]

I love down here, it's not that people don't care, it's economics.

The retiree crowd leaves every April and returns each November. During the season the population of SWFL simple doesn't have the discretionary income to take the family to the ball game, subsequently the lack of a diversified business scene or multiple fortune 500 companies means lack of corporate ticket sales.

Not sure where you could move the team to where economics would play out better. Everyone says Charlotte, but the tickets would be opressed there as well based on employment and demographics, thou there are better business sponsors to hook into.

I wrote that 4 years ago. My opinion has changed slightly since. I think the Rays can make it in Tampa, but you have to move their stadium across the bridge. They have a large following in Orlando as well. There's more than enough TV interest to make it. That have to get out of st Pete tho

[jjgold]

Orlando probably a better place

Less retired people