Tampa Deserves Neither a Stadium nor a Team

[Oddball]

Seriously...Let a real baseball town have this team, if they have to give away tickets to fill up the joint, when they're about to clinch the division.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The first-place Tampa Bay Rays gave away 20,000 tickets for Wednesday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles, packing Tropicana Field for the team's regular-season home finale.

Fans begin lining up outside the domed stadium several hours before gametime. The team said the allotment of free tickets was exhausted about 45 minutes before first pitch.

There were scattered empty seats when the game began, however attendance was announced as 36,973, which is the stadium's listed capacity. That was more than twice the turnout for the first two nights of the three-game series combined.

"Interesting concept. It's definitely fills up the place," Rays manager Joe Maddon said following a 2-0 loss in which Tampa Bay was limited to three hits.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...bUJDfJDXroUy1ASouiwwD9II00P02?docId=D9II00P02

 

[del]

shit. i wouldn't waste my time watching the orioles either.

 

[2Parties]

I pretty much agree, but at the same time what Price and Longoria said really bothered me. If I was a guy who just took his kids to a Rays game, bought them tickets, bought them Rays shirts, bought a program, bought them food, and say I spent $500. Then after the game 2 of the players say their fans suck I'd be thinking "I just dropped a weeks paycheck to cheer on this team with my kids and I suck?"

But as far as a city for a Major League Franchise? I'd agree. Where should they move to though? Salt Lake City? Indianapolis? Charlotte? Just seems they'd be moving from one small market to another.

 

[Oddball]

Shit...The Orioles have been playing good ball since Buck Showalter took over.

The Twins had the crappiest stadium in the league since...well...since they opened the Metrohump, and their fans would show up in force for a game like this.

Screw Tampa...Move the team to Charlotte or Nawlins.

 

[uscitizen]

I have been to see the Durham Bulls play in their old stadium and Atlanta play in their old stadium.

All the baseball I ever wanted.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I think all the MLB teams should be moved to either L.A. or New Yawk. That way all the games will sell out and TV ratings will skyrocket.

Well, that's my plan. You think you got a better one?

 

[JWBooth]

Meh.....AL

 

[uscitizen]

We could use stimulus money to buy baseball tickets for homeless people?

 

[del]

Shit...The Orioles have been playing good ball since Buck Showalter took over.

The Twins had the crappiest stadium in the league since...well...since they opened the Metrohump, and their fans would show up in force for a game like this.

Screw Tampa...Move the team to Charlotte or Nawlins.

63-95 is good ball? i once bought tix to the metrodump for 50% of face value.

when i went in the usher asked me if it was okay to start the game now.

it was '98- i remeber because i got stuck there due to AA being on strike and it was the weekend that fraud maguire hit his 62 *HR*

 

[2Parties]

Shit...The Orioles have been playing good ball since Buck Showalter took over.

The Twins had the crappiest stadium in the league since...well...since they opened the Metrohump, and their fans would show up in force for a game like this.

Screw Tampa...Move the team to Charlotte or Nawlins.

Charlotte probably would be the best bet just because of it's location, and with the cities that surround it. They've also shown they can support an NFL and NBA team (even though their support isn't as strong compared to other franchises), so an MLB team could work as long as it didn't have idiot ownership and management.

 

[2Parties]

63-95 is good ball?

Since his first game with the O's, Showalter has compiled a 30-22 record

^^^

 

[Dr Grump]

Maybe the Tampa folk are a lot more worldly than the rest of the US....ie, they've discovered - like the rest of the world outside the US, Japan and Cuba - that baseball is boring as batshit...;o)

 

[2Parties]

Personally I'm fascinated by Batshit and so are a majority of people occupying the nation of Batshitopia. Speak for yourself.

 

[2Parties]

Just so you know how bad the Twins are Oddball: The Tigers swept the Twins last weekend. The Tigers are now one game away from being swept by the Indians.

 

[Oddball]

Shit...The Orioles have been playing good ball since Buck Showalter took over.

The Twins had the crappiest stadium in the league since...well...since they opened the Metrohump, and their fans would show up in force for a game like this.

Screw Tampa...Move the team to Charlotte or Nawlins.

Charlotte probably would be the best bet just because of it's location, and with the cities that surround it. They've also shown they can support an NFL and NBA team (even though their support isn't as strong compared to other franchises), so an MLB team could work as long as it didn't have idiot ownership and management.

The Carolinas are a baseball hotbed.

You could move the team to Charlotte or Columbia and they'd probably do pretty well.

 

[Oddball]

Just so you know how bad the Twins are Oddball: The Tigers swept the Twins last weekend. The Tigers are now one game away from being swept by the Indians.

Gardenhire has been giving all the Rochester ham-n-egger callups their cups of coffee over the last couple of weeks.

Enough to drive a guy nuts when you want home field.

 

[2Parties]

You know who the most over-rated baseball player is in the last decade?

David Eckstein. You will never see a more slightly below average hitter and fielder get more attention for being a "team player" or "winner".

 

[Dr.House]

We could use stimulus money to buy baseball tickets for homeless people?

Please don't give Barry any more stupid ideas...

 

[Bfgrn]

First of all, Florida has been hit harder than other states by the recession.

Second, did you ever try to drive from Tampa to St Pete?
Unless you have THIS, there are only two options...

And

Tropicana Field is not a great stadium. But the problem with the Trop, however, isn't the atmosphere, but the location.

Tampa Bay has a market size of 3.2 million people - larger than just eight other markets in Major League Baseball.

Only 19 percent of the Tampa Bay market lives within a 30-minute drive of the Trop, however. Seattle, which also has 3.2 million people, has a whopping 63 percent of its market within a 30-minute drive of Safeco Field. And Denver has 79 percent for Coors Field, despite having almost a million fewer residents.

To put it simply: The Tampa Bay area is not fully utilized by the location of the Trop. A central location would increase that 19 percent to as high as 50 percent if a new stadium were built in Tampa's Channelside or Toy Town districts.

If the entirety of the Tampa Bay market is expected to drive to the southern tip of Pinellas County in an already awkwardly designed metropolitan area, the weeknight baseball crowds will suffer.

 

[Toro]

Tampa doesn't have a baseball team. St Petersburg does. Big difference, and one reason for the low attendance.

That's why they talk about moving the team from St Pete to Tampa in the Tampa Bay area.