Tampa metro supports the Rays by nearly a 3x rate per capita of the Yanks get from NYC metro. Just saying. And yanks have a 100 year head start and an amazing park.
Wasn't commenting on the Rays, just responding to a comment on Marlins playoff attendance. Btw all rounds of the Marlins WS runs were well attended. As for ur comment, seems like u have a beef with MLB or the network. As an ex Marlin fan I will say the MLB has never done the Marlins any favors, including stealing the all star game out of miami to Atlanta after the Marlins had won the WS. Plus saddling the franchise with Loria an owner that had run the Montreal franchise into the ground. Perhaps the Rays get similar treatment, don't know.
I guess we will find out in a few years. I just know I talk to people who are sports minded working out in my gym(yes I know a small sample size) and have yet to find someone excited about the new stadium. These are people who watch the games on our TVs when broadcast. We were watching the last two days and no one said the new stadium will get them to more games. All think the team needs to be on our side of the bay.
Baltimore held an on field workout for fans mid afternoon, mid week and drew more fans than the Rays did for their actual games. I bought tickets in St. Pete for ALDS game 3 last weekend and could have sat wherever I wanted. That new stadium needs to be built off of I-4 near Ybor.
Everyone agrees Tampa would be better. But baseball is a business and only ine coty came to the plate.
I think the main problem with the Rays is its a little too much business, its a well run team, they rarely do stupid things, but they also don't throw money at difference makers that might get them over the hump in October and draw fans.
A lot of Truth to that. I love so much about that franchise. John Romano had a very similar column this week. It made a lot of sense
I think the long deal for Franco was a move in the right direction. That may end up looking bad, but it was the right move. Young superstar that fans love, locked up for a decade. Now we wait. Meanwhile I root for Longo to get his ring (big underdog) and focus on the puck dropping at Amalie on Tuesday night.
The Rays will be fine in the new stadium in St Pete, getting significant money from the development rights too. No, they won't be setting attendance records, but they'll do well enough. St Pete is a boom town, construction cranes everywhere. The Rays are playing the long game here.
Maybe I don't really understand the economics of baseball, but why is every stadium like 40,000+? Makes sense in some markets I guess, but other than football, pretty much every major sport operates at below 25K seats with a few exceptions.
Maybe, but if you are the Rays building a new stadium, why in gods name would you make the capacity more than 30k? Is the overhead the same in a 25k stadium as a 45k stadium? I'm sure teams with legacy stadiums like Wrigley or Fenway would love to have more seats but they have less capacity than typical demand. Like I said, I dont understand the economics, but maybe its not completely economic, since you are basically getting freebies from the local and state government, why not build bigger?
If you are doing a big capacity show over an arena, why wouldn't Raymond James be the location? Maybe there is a concert sweet spot between 21k at the Lightning arena and 70k at RayJay? I guess St. Pete is its own thing, but still.
Most concerts are at Amalie Arena and large acts are at RayJay. And the Amphitheater by Hard Rock also gets a ton of shows. St. Pete is a hard place for people coming from Orlando to get to. Almost impossible to get to Tampa these days under 2 hours almost any time of the day.
I agree with you. Raymond James absolutely makes the most sense for a big crowd even. My 15 year old is in love with Morgan Wallen so we entered the lottery to get tickets. I ended up getting tickets in Denver as we were allowed to put three sites as choices. We all put Tampa but none of us got Tampa. My plan was to sell Denver and buy Tampa. But we might make a family trip out of it. With that said...Raymond James is getting old and like you mention. St Pete is its own thing and maybe they want to compete with a better facility. At the end of the day the new stadium is going to be far more up to date than Raymond James whether it is in St Pete or Tampa. But I think we would both agree the Rays are going to struggle to sell out a large capacity stadium most of the time regardless of Tampa or St Pete.
