I like this, temporarily Tampa plays in the west, Houston to the Central and Cleveland or Detroit to the East.
Milton DFAs The Trop
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
Yes, which is why they're not talking about repairing it. It's not like it's irreparable. It's just expensive and since it's going to be torn down in four years anyway, they don't want to do it.
You said this eleven posts back and there were some good reasons why this wouldn’t work. Any thoughts on the feedback?
Never going to happen. If the Rays were moving permanently, sure. They're not doing it on a temp basis, and certainly not going to redo the entire 2025 schedule at this stage to accommodate a problem with simpler solutions.
For any lingering Montreal supporters, I think that’s an appalling idea.
Would it be fun/convenient for Boston fans? Sure! But no offense, the world probably doesn’t revolve around us, and the Tampa fan base, modest though it may be, should be the top priority. (Provided a safe playing environment, of which there are plenty within an hour’s drive of the Trop.)
And the Oakland thing is just an amusing thought exercise, right? Nothing about that makes sense except fuck John Fisher.
Would it be fun/convenient for Boston fans? Sure! But no offense, the world probably doesn’t revolve around us, and the Tampa fan base, modest though it may be, should be the top priority. (Provided a safe playing environment, of which there are plenty within an hour’s drive of the Trop.)
And the Oakland thing is just an amusing thought exercise, right? Nothing about that makes sense except fuck John Fisher.
That's probably the best option, but it brings into play the problem with having an MLB team in Florida in the first place: the Summer weather sucks.
The Marlins handled it when they played in what is now Hard Rock Stadium, so they'll be able to slog through it for a couple of years. But there's a reason the Rays and Marlins play in domes.
Montreal isn't happening. Their roof needs repairs and that's going to take three years.
While I agree with your logic completely and know if won't happen, being able to say Fuck John Fisher would almost be enough to make it worth it.
Atlanta climate is likely quite a bit different than Tampa, even in the peak of summer. We are less humid and not as stormy and sometimes get a cold wedge from Appalachians resulting in a cloudy and relatively cool day. I imagine it rains every afternoon in Tampa in summer like it does in Orlando during our Disney trips and doesn't cool down as much in the evenings. I think the reputation as Hotlanta is overblown.
Compare the Climate and Weather in Tampa and Atlanta - Weather Spark
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Could they even play baseball games at Hard Rock with the overhanging canopy (built long after the Marlins left there)? Not sure exactly how the canopy is positioned over what used to be (and would become again) the baseball field. Then again, we've had 26 years of balls hitting the catwalks, haven't we?
I don't think the canopy is over the field itself, which probably means it wouldn't cause cat-walk type problems. I imagine that the renovations that included that overhang undid the modular bleachers/grandstands that allowed the stadium to convert to a baseball configuration. If the Rays were to play any home games in Miami, more likely they'd just share Loan Depot Park with the Marlins than invest in making Hard Rock Stadium baseball ready again.
Frankly, I don't think it will come to that because the Rays really don't need a full MLB stadium whether it's Miami, Atlanta, Oakland or wherever. They're not filling the stadium they've been playing in, they're unlikely to fill one a few hundred/thousand miles from home. As long as the nearby minor league facilities meet MLB standards for lighting and player amenities (Steinbrenner Field and TD Ballpark certainly do), it makes way more sense for them to play there.
St. Petersburg has allocated $6 million for emergency cleanup and repairs, and FEMA is expected to cover additional costs beyond the city’s deductible
https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2024/10/31/tropicana-field-roof-remediation-fema-hurricane-milton-city-council/
https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2024/10/31/tropicana-field-roof-remediation-fema-hurricane-milton-city-council/
St. Petersburg city council: with 55+ million, the field can be repaired in time for 2026. 2025 is now formally impossible.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42349675/rays-hurricane-damaged-home-fixed-55m-ready-26
Again, the rough plan was to demolish the park in 2028. 55+ million for only 2 more years, there's now an opportunity cost analysis to be done.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42349675/rays-hurricane-damaged-home-fixed-55m-ready-26
Again, the rough plan was to demolish the park in 2028. 55+ million for only 2 more years, there's now an opportunity cost analysis to be done.
It's more like riding with Sonny Corleone because you have change for the toll at the causeway.
The Rays' new stadium might not be a go. According to Craig Calcaterra from today's newsletter:
Not sure that’s a curse, since it seems to be an act of an awful person, not a natural disaster or even a Reggie Lewis/Jose Fernandez kind of ”curse”.
Signing one of the best players in MLB to an 11 yr contract only to have him out of baseball a year later for a reason nobody would have ever predicted I'd say is pretty bad luck from the team's standpoint, regardless of what that reason is. Having a hurricane sent to destroy your stadium as punishment for his wickedness, Sodom and Gomorrah style, just at the moment when you finally got approval for a new stadium but before the financing was 100% locked in and now the city/county maybe don't want to pay anymore takes it to curse level.
Looks like it’s going to be Steinbrenner Field. It will be interesting to see how they plan to navigate around the minor league schedule.
It is about 11,000 capacity, Rays sold an average of 16,000 tickets last year but that includes no-shows.
mlbtr: With regard to the regular season, Tim Kephart of the Associated Press reports that the Tarpons will use other fields at the spring facility.
My parents spend half the year in Clearwater, so I usually go to a Rays game or two a year. This seems like it might be a fun change of pace over the Trop.
I generally spend spring training in Clearwater, so see plenty of Phillies and some Blue Jays in Dunedin, plus Frort Myers of course, but have never been able to bring myself to get over to Tampa for the Yanks.
There's enough excitement around my groups of friends for Steinbrenner Field that we're discussing sharing season tix. This is gonna be the thing that finally convinces Stu Sternberg that he will get more value from moving the team to Tampa, even if he has to finance a bit more of the funding up front. Or, you know, 2024 will continue to shit on Tampa into 2025.
Tampa circle jerked itself when it came to hosting MLB. Don't shit on St; Pete for at lest getting the team.
Stu can fuck himself, if he is considering this, and so can Tampa (the Ybor plan sucked) and the I-4 east bound boo-hoo brigade.
If anyone needs a refresher on MLB and Tampa Bay... watch this
https://www.pbs.org/video/rise-of-the-rays-a-devil-of-a-story-ld02xk/
I was at two of the press conferences in the Trop for teams that were never coming.
Stu can fuck himself, if he is considering this, and so can Tampa (the Ybor plan sucked) and the I-4 east bound boo-hoo brigade.
If anyone needs a refresher on MLB and Tampa Bay... watch this
https://www.pbs.org/video/rise-of-the-rays-a-devil-of-a-story-ld02xk/
I was at two of the press conferences in the Trop for teams that were never coming.
Yeah I've learned that.
However, I'm still a Montreal supporter. They drew bigger crowds (in the NL) than Tampa, even in years when the Expos sucked.
I believe an AL east team in Montreal would do better than anywhere else.
Edit: to clarify that I mean a former Tampa team.
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That's not really true. 6 of the final 7 years for the Expos were under a million total attendance and the one that was over was only just over a million. Attendance was basically comparable to the A's post-Rona.
View: https://twitter.com/tbtimes_rays/status/1857761493183287446?s=46&t=VOPklDq0ggmwM6zlZRv9_g
It’s all fucked. Milton didn’t just DFA the Trop, it DFA’d the Rays.
It’s all fucked. Milton didn’t just DFA the Trop, it DFA’d the Rays.
I was thinking more like a place with a bay and a bridge that people could complain about having to drive over. Just to make the team feel more at home.
The re-alignment this would necessitate could be fun to watch. Who goes to the East, Cleveland or Detroit? Who goes to the Central, the Astros or the Rangers?
San Antonio and Austin have a plan for a team in Buda and from what I’ve heard MLB would grant it. The hang up is SA wants more money than Austin so they have to figure that out.