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MLB Tropicana Field loses roof to hurricane

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LadyStanley said:


Hillsborough county willing to work with team if Pinellas county deal dead.
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I actually didn't consider this but the counter offer by the Rays needs to be not fixing Tropicana Field at all. Just play at Steinbrenner until the new park is ready and on schedule. No more fighting about funds for a busted ass ballpark no one wants to fix. Either St. Pete takes that deal or they take a hike.

This is the only way forward for that deal. Otherwise, they probably have legal grounds to break the lease
 
Tomorrow baby. Tell St. Pete to pound sand. This is classic I DIDN'T VOTE FOR THIS!! by the new brass in St. Pete. They are hiding behind the language of the contract and the Rays ghosting them as they saw this coming. Claiming that they did nothing wrong. This was a blatant act of a poor showing of faith by a city council that has stalled for almost 18 years to replace a stadium that is absolutely worthless now. What did they think was gonna happen when they did this? Get it done Ken Hagan. St. Pete has spent 4, almost 5 decades whining that they are little brother and I'll be damned if they aren't acting like it

A council that takes 9 f***ing weeks to vote for anything wants clarification by December 1st. Get the f*** out. You have no intention of paying for this ballpark. This is city gaslighting to make the team say they are causing the break up
 
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aqib said:
Montreal, Charlotte, Nashville, Portland, and Salt Lake City are the top tier. Followed by San Antonio, Orlando, Vancouer, and Mexico City in the long-shot tier.
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The more I look at market saturation, the more I think Charlotte and Nashville are bad ideas.

I know that they want a Southeast team like those two markets; but both of them have TWO of the Big Four teams already and are probably "too small" to adequately support a third that isn't the cheapest of the lot.

NBA and MLB teams cost a lot of money from fans to be league-average revenue; and with the NFL coming first in both markets already, that just doesn't seem like baseball would be robust there.

I mean, the Marlins were the third team in Miami and they're incredibly not lucrative; so markets a third of the size are going to do better? The Rays are Tampa Bay's third team, third in venue location certainly, and they're not doing great financially, prompting relocation talk.

If the Rays move, it should be to Orlando, so the two markets 90 miles apart split the four teams 2 and 2, with the 1st and 4th most expensive in one market, and the 2nd and 3rd in the other. That makes total sense.

And then expansion should be Raleigh AL and Montreal NL (although I think they should go with Four Leagues, AL, NL, Pacific and Southern; which would put Raleigh in the South).
 
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KevFu said:
The more I look at market saturation, the more I think Charlotte and Nashville are bad ideas.

I know that they want a Southeast team like those two markets; but both of them have TWO of the Big Four teams already and are probably "too small" to adequately support a third that isn't the cheapest of the lot.

NBA and MLB teams cost a lot of money from fans to be league-average revenue; and with the NFL coming first in both markets already, that just doesn't seem like baseball would be robust there.

I mean, the Marlins were the third team in Miami and they're incredibly not lucrative; so markets a third of the size are going to do better? The Rays are Tampa Bay's third team, third in venue location certainly, and they're not doing great financially, prompting relocation talk.

If the Rays move, it should be to Orlando, so the two markets 90 miles apart split the four teams 2 and 2, with the 1st and 4th most expensive in one market, and the 2nd and 3rd in the other. That makes total sense.

And then expansion should be Raleigh AL and Montreal NL (although I think they should go with Four Leagues, AL, NL, Pacific and Southern; which would put Raleigh in the South).
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The problem both the Marlins and Rays have is that worth spring training you can see all the MLB players for a fraction of the cost of a regular season ticket. Yes I know spring training isn't a real game but unlike NFL preseason I'm not paying full price.
 


They said the agreement is still in place. But 2025 schedule is crazy... majority of home games early in season and then on the road for most of Hurricane season/rest of MLB season.

And really won't fly for 2026.
 
Lmao @ the Rays for just punting the ball back at St. Pete after saying the deal is dead. They're basically gonna stone face this until the city council says "No stadium for you!" -not that the new members were going to support it anyway
 
aqib said:
The problem both the Marlins and Rays have is that worth spring training you can see all the MLB players for a fraction of the cost of a regular season ticket. Yes I know spring training isn't a real game but unlike NFL preseason I'm not paying full price.
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That's definitely true, but also just part of the problem....

The spring training tickets aren't just cheaper, they're ridiculously intimate ballparks which is night and day difference compared to most the MLB experience. (That's one of the massive appeals of minor league baseball, and college basketball).

And most the people in Florida had a team based off which MLB team trained in their town. if your pre-existing favorite team comes to town in February through the end of March and you have intimate up-close views, why are you switching to Tampa or Miami's MLB team and big venues far from the action at triple the price?



LadyStanley said:
But 2025 schedule is crazy... majority of home games early in season and then on the road for most of Hurricane season/rest of MLB season.

And really won't fly for 2026.
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It really sounds crazier than it is because of sample sizes. The headlines cherry picked random stretches -- which is generally true for all teams -- and MLB only flipped like four (IIRC) series to create this.
 
St. Petersburg to vote on the bonds tomorrow

www.sportsnet.ca

Report: St. Petersburg Council to vote on bonds for new Rays stadium on Thursday

The St. Petersburg City Council is set for an important vote this week regarding the future of a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays.
www.sportsnet.ca www.sportsnet.ca

Council just found out it's on the agenda this morning. City needs to get approved before the new council with the 2 no votes come in on January 10.
 
Mightygoose said:
St. Petersburg to vote on the bonds tomorrow

www.sportsnet.ca

Report: St. Petersburg Council to vote on bonds for new Rays stadium on Thursday

The St. Petersburg City Council is set for an important vote this week regarding the future of a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays.
www.sportsnet.ca www.sportsnet.ca

Council just found out it's on the agenda this morning. City needs to get approved before the new council with the 2 no votes come in on January 10.
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They have had 18 years to build the damn thing and I don't expect anything to be any different in a month
 
St. Pete is so inept they had no idea the vote was today until it was added to the agenda a few days back. The deal is as good as dead come January once 2 of the "yes" votes leave office
 
Mightygoose said:
Bonds in St. Pete's pass 4-3



Country is up next on December 17. That's the one that's uncertain
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You can't blame the Rays if it fails. The only thing they did wrong was not show up for a vote that everyone and their grandma knew was delaying voting and funding. I almost hope it falls through because St. Pete has proven utterly incapable at doing anything right when it comes to ballparks going as far back as the 80s
 
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KevFu said:
The more I look at market saturation, the more I think Charlotte and Nashville are bad ideas.

I know that they want a Southeast team like those two markets; but both of them have TWO of the Big Four teams already and are probably "too small" to adequately support a third that isn't the cheapest of the lot.

NBA and MLB teams cost a lot of money from fans to be league-average revenue; and with the NFL coming first in both markets already, that just doesn't seem like baseball would be robust there.

I mean, the Marlins were the third team in Miami and they're incredibly not lucrative; so markets a third of the size are going to do better? The Rays are Tampa Bay's third team, third in venue location certainly, and they're not doing great financially, prompting relocation talk.

If the Rays move, it should be to Orlando, so the two markets 90 miles apart split the four teams 2 and 2, with the 1st and 4th most expensive in one market, and the 2nd and 3rd in the other. That makes total sense.

And then expansion should be Raleigh AL and Montreal NL (although I think they should go with Four Leagues, AL, NL, Pacific and Southern; which would put Raleigh in the South).
Click to expand...
Here's the problem with Orlando; you would be trading one indifferent market for another. They're worlds apart, and Orlando hasn't had any baseball since the Orlando Rays left in 2004 after poor attendance their whole existence and the Brevard County Manatees beame the most incompetent franchise ever in the Florida Fire Frogs.

The area also just isn't sports crazy, as the Magic regularly underperform and Orlando City just exists. They only finally got a championship with the NWSL club this year. Plus with the Rays historically never keeping talent the moment their value goes up, it would be difficult to build a community around the team.
 
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GindyDraws said:
Here's the problem with Orlando; you would be trading one indifferent market for another. They're worlds apart, and Orlando hasn't had any baseball since the Orlando Rays left in 2004 after poor attendance their whole existence and the Brevard County Manatees beame the most incompetent franchise ever in the Florida Fire Frogs.

The area also just isn't sports crazy, as the Magic regularly underperform and Orlando City just exists. They only finally got a championship with the NWSL club this year. Plus with the Rays historically never keeping talent the moment their value goes up, it would be difficult to build a community around the team.
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I think it's difficult to build a fan base in a new place period, simply because fans have allegiances and in this day and age of streaming, you just don't have to give that up. I've moved all over the place, and sometimes I take on watching the local team in addition to mine; but I'm not giving up my team (although the New Orleans Saints made it hard since I was down there post Katrina).

It takes generations to build a fan base, simply because the people who GREW UP rooting for a team as a kid, became an adult, have an empty nest and can now buy season tickets... just can't exist yet for teams born in the 1990s.

But that's going to be true basically anywhere, so you need to go to a place that's either incredibly isolated from other teams -- like the Colorado Rockies were, and now Salt Lake in hockey and maybe baseball), or Raleigh or Nashville -- or an old market that still has fans from back in the day like Montreal or Oakland.
 
Pinellas County approves their portion of the bonds



Yet the team goes on another being unable to take on the extra costs on their own..... this saga finds a way to continue
 
Oh cool. Instead of celebrating a new home and one of the happiest days in team history, we are gonna get Stu rattling pennies in a cup. You folks have no idea how f***ing exhausting it is to be a fan of this team. When as soon as we have something nice we have to see it taken from us by the team and listen to them spin whatever reason for it
 
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