D-Rays Owner: M.L.B. no Longer Believes in Tampa Bay Area

[Can_of_corn]

http://shadowofthestadium.blogspot.com/2013/01/important-disclosure-on-zimbalists-rays.html

Last week, the Tampa Bay Times posted a Q and A on the Rays Stadium Saga with leading sports economist Andrew Zimbalist. I questioned a few of his statements, such as:

Downtown Tampa is the hub of regional business (Westshore has more office space);

St. Pete should offer the Rays a buy-out;

MLB could contract the Rays if no new stadium is built.

Then, after the Rays essentially echoed many of Zimbalist's sentiments on Thursday, I made a discovery:

Andrew Zimbalist is currently paid as an MLB consultant.

:scratchchinhmm:

[incubus]

Puerto Rico would be very interesting, I hadn't thought of that. Especially given their recent politics regarding statehood, I think they would be very interested in a baseball team.

Yeah, the Expos sold out every game they played in San Juan. That would have been my first choice to put the Expos. Supposedly there were people outside of the stadium as well, because it was filled to capacity.

[incubus]

St Pete wouldn't offer them a buyout, they have no reason to. If everyone remembers a few years ago when they wanted to contract the Expos and the Twins, the Twins were still in a lease with the metrodome, to contract the Twins would have been a breach of the terms of their Lease. That is essentially what saved both teams from contraction as MLB does not want to have an uneven amount of teams.

Basically, St Pete and the Trop have all the cards in their hand.

[incubus]

I think you would lose the argument.

I said one could argue, not me. I wouldn't take that side of that debate. But supposedly there was pressure put on the local govt to build Camden yards to prevent another Colts incident.

[incubus]

I had to drive it on a scouting trip last spring -- it's pretty terrible.

Yeah it seems like a world away from downtown Tampa and when you get there it's surrounded by a bunch of houses. It's not like around Camden Yards where there are 50 bars within walking distance.

[Can_of_corn]

I said one could argue, not me. I wouldn't take that side of that debate. But supposedly there was pressure put on the local govt to build Camden yards to prevent another Colts incident.

If the local government believed for a second that MLB would pull entirely out of the Balt/Wash market they were high.

I do think that the specter of a Colts like move was used by the team to scare residents.

[Stotle]

Yeah, the Expos sold out every game they played in San Juan. That would have been my first choice to put the Expos. Supposedly there were people outside of the stadium as well, because it was filled to capacity.

I have played at Hiram Bithorn -- crowds were crazy into it and they were just amateur games.

[Crazysilver03]

Yeah, the Expos sold out every game they played in San Juan. That would have been my first choice to put the Expos. Supposedly there were people outside of the stadium as well, because it was filled to capacity.

Isn't the stadium in San Juan the size of a AAA stadium though?

[OFFNY]

Isn't the stadium in San Juan the size of a AAA stadium though?

A little larger than most AAA stadiums, with a capacity of 18,000.

So yes, it would be interesting to see if they expanded the capacity to 30 or 35 thousand, and see how that went.

.

[The Wedge]

Yeah it seems like a world away from downtown Tampa and when you get there it's surrounded by a bunch of houses. It's not like around Camden Yards where there are 50 bars within walking distance.

And there's this weird culture in Tampa that makes them adverse to going anywhere that takes more than 10 or 15 minutes. I have an old friend who grew up around here but moved down there, and she has to be talked in to going out to eat in Baltimore or Annapolis because they're "so far away." I mock her for this all the time, but to her credit, she knows its stupid. She's fallen victim to the mentality anyway. So you put a crappy dome a town over and make it one of the worst traffic creating locales ever, and you'll get a lot of even the most die hard fans having to think more than twice about going.

[Can_of_corn]

And there's this weird culture in Tampa that makes them adverse to going anywhere that takes more than 10 or 15 minutes. I have an old friend who grew up around here but moved down there, and she has to be talked in to going out to eat in Baltimore or Annapolis because they're "so far away." I mock her for this all the time, but to her credit, she knows its stupid. She's fallen victim to the mentality anyway. So you put a crappy dome a town over and make it one of the worst traffic creating locales ever, and you'll get a lot of even the most die hard fans having to think more than twice about going.

If you drive more then 10 miles or so with the flasher blinking it really puts a drain on the battery.

[Barnaby Graves]

Baltimore residents (read: taxpayers) should be grateful that at least their baseball team won't be building a new stadium for several decades if ever.

[Crazysilver03]

And there's this weird culture in Tampa that makes them adverse to going anywhere that takes more than 10 or 15 minutes. I have an old friend who grew up around here but moved down there, and she has to be talked in to going out to eat in Baltimore or Annapolis because they're "so far away." I mock her for this all the time, but to her credit, she knows its stupid. She's fallen victim to the mentality anyway. So you put a crappy dome a town over and make it one of the worst traffic creating locales ever, and you'll get a lot of even the most die hard fans having to think more than twice about going.

Hah we have that mentality at the beach. I live in Rehoboth and the next town north is Lewes, maximum of 4 miles away but about 8 minutes with traffic lights. They have a Superfresh but I never go because it's "too far away."

[Blizzard1090]

The location of the stadium is horrible. That's a huge reason baseball isn't working there right now.

[isestrex]

The location of the stadium is horrible. That's a huge reason baseball isn't working there right now.

The condition of the stadium doesn't help either. I would love to embrace the notion that a new stadium in a better part of town would change everything, but the memory of the Marlins' season still echos a virulent setting. I don't have any greater trust in Tampa's baseball commendation (or the ability to foster it), than I would in Miami. The crowds initially thronged when everything was new and flashy, but once tribulation hit the fans went back to the night clubs.