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Tampa Bay Rays --Tropicana Field

Yabadabado1 said:
The Devil Rays, simply Rays now, did not exist when I was growing up there in the 60s but The Yankees training facility was there so got taken to a few exhibition games there. As a default, many Tampa Bay kids rooted for the Yankees as the "hometown" team.
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I am pretty sure the Yankees trained in Fort Lauderdale until the 1990's when Steinbrenner Field was built. Tampa I think was Reds training ground. The Mets and especially the Cardinals trained in St Petersburg. The big reason the Rays played in Tropicana Field instead of Tampa is that Pinellas County has a pile of cash from tourist bed taxes, and Tampa/Hillsborough doesn't. Unless private money steps forward to build a stadium in Tampa, and they couldn't find that after a year of looking once before, they are probably going to need to relocate. The San Francisco Bay Area has 6 million people and an MLB stadium ready NOW, and an abandoned Oakland fan base that will be grateful to be back in the bigs. Market 4 is big enough to support two teams. Unless Tampa money is found (Jeannie, Jeannie), or unless Pinellas has a change of heart over committing tax dollars to the less-than-straight-shooting Rays ownership, relocation somewhere else is very likely.

Bringing it back to Radio - do cities that lose teams have any support or broadcasting on their radio partners left behind? Will whoever carried the Oakland A's continue to run the Sacramento A's? Did St Louis have a station carrying the LA Rams for any period of time?
 
SCMcKinney said:
I am pretty sure the Yankees trained in Fort Lauderdale until the 1990's when Steinbrenner Field was built. Tampa I think was Reds training ground. The Mets and especially the Cardinals trained in St Petersburg. The big reason the Rays played in Tropicana Field instead of Tampa is that Pinellas County has a pile of cash from tourist bed taxes, and Tampa/Hillsborough doesn't. Unless private money steps forward to build a stadium in Tampa, and they couldn't find that after a year of looking once before, they are probably going to need to relocate. The San Francisco Bay Area has 6 million people and an MLB stadium ready NOW, and an abandoned Oakland fan base that will be grateful to be back in the bigs. Market 4 is big enough to support two teams. Unless Tampa money is found (Jeannie, Jeannie), or unless Pinellas has a change of heart over committing tax dollars to the less-than-straight-shooting Rays ownership, relocation somewhere else is very likely.

Bringing it back to Radio - do cities that lose teams have any support or broadcasting on their radio partners left behind? Will whoever carried the Oakland A's continue to run the Sacramento A's? Did St Louis have a station carrying the LA Rams for any period of time?
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All I can remember was the old man taking me to Al Lang Field for Yankee's pre-season games back in the 60s. I was more interested in the fireworks and other shenanigans going on then the game itself. I was beginning to get more interested in soccer at that point thanks to all the Cuban refugee kids playing it and teaching it to me. It was something I was way better at than baseball. What sealed the deal for soccer for me was getting hit in the head by a pitch during a Little League game and being knocked out. When I came to, I grabbed my bat & glove tossed them in my bike basket and pedaled my ass home and announced to my parents that I was NEVER playing baseball again.
 
FrankF said:
Continuing with this non-radio discussion of the Rays, looks like some of their home games next year on the schedule will be swapped with the away team's stadium in order to avoid the heat and humidity (not to mention thunderstorms) of July & August. There's still allot of that going on in June and September too.
sports.yahoo.com

MLB swaps Rays' July, August home dates with Angels, Twins due to Tampa Bay's move to Steinbrenner Field

Rather than play home games in summer humidity and rain, MLB has heavily back-loaded the Rays' schedule with road games.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
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Weather is why the Rays had a domed stadium. Between the Summer heat/humidity/rain, it's not possible to play outside there. For years, the Rangers played only night Summer games in Arlington for the same reason. Too hot for day baseball. The Miami Marlins have a retractable roof stadium.

Without a new dome, I cannot see how major league baseball would want the Rays to stay there...
 
tbolt909 said:
Weather is why the Rays had a domed stadium. Between the Summer heat/humidity/rain, it's not possible to play outside there. For years, the Rangers played only night Summer games in Arlington for the same reason. Too hot for day baseball. The Miami Marlins have a retractable roof stadium.

Without a new dome, I cannot see how major league baseball would want the Rays to stay there...
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And now the Browns [well, owner Jimmy "Carpetbagger" Haslam] wants a domed stadium for the Browns in a suburb of Cleveland and, as usual, wants the citizens taxed to pay for it. The squawking from some fans are "Screw you, pay for it yourself, you sold your truck stop company for billions!" and the ones screaming "No dome! Football was meant to be played outside in cold weather. So what if it's 15 below and icicles are hanging from every orifice on our bodies!, play it OUTSIDE!" Myself, don't care. I don't go to football games. Didn't grow up with the sport, have no interest in it.
 
There's a company in Orlando, FL that wants to have a major league baseball team located there.
The working name is the Orlando Dreamers.
Their plan A was to try and lure the Rays up Interstate 4 to play here when their contract expires, but when the plans for a new stadium in St. Petersburg came about earlier this year, they were going to go with plan B which was to try and get an expansion team.
Now it seems that a new stadium for the Ray's may not happen, perhaps the Orlando Dreamers can go back to plan A.
I would welcome that for I don't live too far from the proposed site and would attend more games there instead of the 1 game a year I go to in St. Pete.
orlandodreamers.com

Bringing Major League Baseball to Orlando | Orlando Dreamers

Orlando Dreamers
orlandodreamers.com
 
tbolt909 said:
Weather is why the Rays had a domed stadium. Between the Summer heat/humidity/rain, it's not possible to play outside there. For years, the Rangers played only night Summer games in Arlington for the same reason. Too hot for day baseball. The Miami Marlins have a retractable roof stadium.
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The Houston Astros say ā€œWelcome to 1965.ā€
FrankF said:
There's a company in Orlando, FL that wants to have a major league baseball team located there.
The working name is the Orlando Dreamers.
Click to expand...
One little problem: The key person behind the effort died this past July.

ā€œDreamersā€ may be an appropriate nickname.
 
FrankF said:
There's a company in Orlando, FL that wants to have a major league baseball team located there.
The working name is the Orlando Dreamers.
Their plan A was to try and lure the Rays up Interstate 4 to play here when their contract expires, but when the plans for a new stadium in St. Petersburg came about earlier this year, they were going to go with plan B which was to try and get an expansion team.
Now it seems that a new stadium for the Ray's may not happen, perhaps the Orlando Dreamers can go back to plan A.
I would welcome that for I don't live too far from the proposed site and would attend more games there instead of the 1 game a year I go to in St. Pete.
orlandodreamers.com

Bringing Major League Baseball to Orlando | Orlando Dreamers

Orlando Dreamers
orlandodreamers.com
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I don't think MLB honchos would allow it [if the Rays stay]. Too darn close to each other. It's only a 2 hour trip between each other and if the Rays move across the bay to Tampa it cuts it down to an hour and a half, they'd cannibalize each other's fan base. It'd be a lot easier for people on the east side of Hillsborough county, heck, any county east of Tampa Bay to hop on I-4 and get to Orlando and I-4 has enough damn traffic already.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
I don't think MLB honchos would allow it [if the Rays stay]. Too darn close to each other. It's only a 2 hour trip between each other and if the Rays move across the bay to Tampa it cuts it down to an hour and a half, they'd cannibalize each other's fan base. It'd be a lot easier for people on the east side of Hillsborough county, heck, any county east of Tampa Bay to hop on I-4 and get to Orlando and I-4 has enough damn traffic already.
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FYI It's 30 minutes from Baltimore to DC. Yet there are baseball teams in each city. Lots of other examples.
 
TheBigA said:
FYI It's 30 minutes from Baltimore to DC. Yet there are baseball teams in each city. Lots of other examples.
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And most of the cities have populations that dwarf the population of other towns. NYC I can see, LA I can see, Chicago I can see having two or more teams. DC, yeah, because the politicians and their rich team owner buddies want a team there, they're going to get a team there because gotta keep them politicians happy otherwise they'll pass some antitrust law or some other law they may cause them some financial stress, you know, like passing some law saying you can't hold cities hostages by threatening to move the team out if the citizens don't pay for their new stadium.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
One little problem: The key person behind the effort died this past July.

ā€œDreamersā€ may be an appropriate nickname.
Click to expand...
orlandodreamers.com

Orlando Dreamers' Push to Bring MLB to Central Florida Continues After Founder Pat Williams' Passing

The inspirational Founder spearheaded the effort to bring Major League Baseball to Orlando, advancing the process to the final stages The Orlando Dreamers' leadership team, in conjunction with the Williams' family, announce that the MLB initiative will continue; Pat's dream remains alive...
orlandodreamers.com
 
TheBigA said:
FYI It's 30 minutes from Baltimore to DC. Yet there are baseball teams in each city. Lots of other examples.
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I seriously doubt that baseball would have teams in Tampa AND Orlando. The Rays have a tepid fan base even during playoff years. Tropicana Field has been part of the problem. The I-95 corridor from DC to Baltimore to Philadelphia is a huge population area. Those places have major league baseball teams, NFL, NBA, NHL (Baltimore doesn't have NHL or NBA teams)...
 
This just in...the Tampa Bay Rays approved a new $55 million renovation of Tropicana Field:

abcnews.go.com

Rays commit to Tropicana Field repairs, but time is ticking for 2026 opener

After some uncertainty, the Tampa Bay Rays now support a $55.7 million city plan to repair hurricane-shredded Tropicana Field in time for the 2026 season opener while the team prepares to play this year at the New York Yankeesā€™ spring training home in ...
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

They hope it'll be ready for opening day 2026.
 
tbolt909 said:
The A's owner screwed the Oakland fan base. Tropicana Field was damaged by a hurricane. 2 different situations, but I suppose no viable options existed for other venues. The Rays had small crowds at Tropicana anyway, so a minor league park will suffice...
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The real problem for MLB is if either team makes the postseason. It's a real long shot for the A's, although they have spent money this off-season and should be improved, but the Rays will be getting several valuable pitchers back from injuries and could be in the wild card picture if they can add anything to their weak offense. I recall a few instances in which minor league playoff series have been contested at one team's ballpark, but those were cases in which one franchise was being sold or moved and the owners didn't want the expense of hosting additional games. Would MLB consider moving the Rays' or A's' home games in a hypothetical series to the other team's stadium? What if (gasp!) either team were to reach the World Series?
 


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