The Rays and their nagging attendance problem. Will a new stadium solve that?
- Thread starter soxhop411
- Start date
Yes. Boston’s problem is that the fans are enamored with a 100 year old ball park. Any proposal to build a new park, which I’m sure the owners would love to do, has run into a brick wall of groups that want to preserve the place because of “history.”
Not to mention location.
Where are you putting one now?
Having it right off the T is a huge benefit as well.
The Tribe have had terrible attendance in the 2010s, despite Francona and Co turning the team into consistent winners. They average under 20,000 a game most years.
They’re an interesting story on their own, perhaps being obscured by Tampa Bay. There’s a lot of things going on, not least that their sellout streak happened to coincide with Cleveland not having a football team for the most part, and one of them is Cleveland would not get an expansion or relocated team if it didn’t already have one. It’s a fairly poor market that is losing people to the Sun Belt and other parts of the country. Yet no city from the Golden Age of Baseball (1903-1960, when there were just sixteen teams) has lost baseball for good.
Their TV ratings are still very good but the fact people aren’t going to a nice stadium seems to indicate they might be rich enough to watch on TV, but too poor to go to games. And eventually they’re going to drop cable.
I remember Gammons warning people about this 10 years ago and thinking he was nuts, but he was on to something.
They’re an interesting story on their own, perhaps being obscured by Tampa Bay. There’s a lot of things going on, not least that their sellout streak happened to coincide with Cleveland not having a football team for the most part, and one of them is Cleveland would not get an expansion or relocated team if it didn’t already have one. It’s a fairly poor market that is losing people to the Sun Belt and other parts of the country. Yet no city from the Golden Age of Baseball (1903-1960, when there were just sixteen teams) has lost baseball for good.
Their TV ratings are still very good but the fact people aren’t going to a nice stadium seems to indicate they might be rich enough to watch on TV, but too poor to go to games. And eventually they’re going to drop cable.
I remember Gammons warning people about this 10 years ago and thinking he was nuts, but he was on to something.
It’s a National Historic Landmark, something the Henry group applied for, so no need for quotation marks.
The Henry group campaigned on saving Fenway Park before they purchased the team because they can charge a ton of money to sit in a piece of history and watch a game. And sprucing up the joint cost way less than building a new stadium, and got them concessions from the city they’d have never gotten otherwise, like being able to close down a bunch of streets.
It was good history and good business.
Nice. It really is a great spot for the stadium, given its proximity to just about everything that makes Denver a great city to visit. Also, my sister lived here in 2004-06 and it has been pretty amazing to watch all the infill development happen around the Coors Field/Union Station area. Nice to see that we get urban planning right every now and again.
my point was that there is a clear hierarchy in Denver, 1. Broncos 2. Avs 3. Rockies 4. Nuggets. but it is a city full of transplants with money, with a beautiful stadium downtown so it makes sense. I was just surprised to see them that high up there. The owner did come out and say that they create good ticket packages in order to sell more games so after we have all analyzed it so thoroughly, i guess i shouldnt have been so surprised. There is also a ton of money in Denver right now, so people have the spare cash to go root for the Giants when they come to town. Giants, Dodgers, and Cubs games at Coors are flooded with opposing teams fans. I saw them play the Brewers last year in the NLDS and it didnt really feel like a playoff atmosphere. To be fair, it was the game Erik Kratz singlehandedly beat them, which had to be pretty demoralizing.
View: https://twitter.com/noahpransky/status/1202296207009370114?s=21
This is a mess at this point, they can't move out soon enough.
This is a mess at this point, they can't move out soon enough.
They were gone before today.
I just can't image they will stay there 8 more seasons. Eight! That's a long time and a lot of lost revenue. I know that lease is rock solid but you can't tell me there isn't an amount of money that Manfred/MLB can't pony up to have St. Pete tear up the lease.
The other element of this is that it is holding up expansion because you aren't going to expand until the Oakland and TB situations are resolved so the demand for the cities left without teams is higher. And believe me, MLB wants to expand very badly. The owners want that quick cash. Expansions teams pay a pretty penny to join MLB and it it gets split 30 ways.
That same reporter doesn't seem to think so:
View: https://twitter.com/noahpransky/status/1202298328735768576
I would too, but man, that Sister City concept is going to be a disaster. I can't believe that they're seriously considering it.
Oh yeah, two cities on opposite ends of a coast? It's completely nuts. What fans want to emotionally invest in a part-time team? I just expect them to move to Montreal full time at some point soon. As long as I can eat poutine in the stands and maybe get a smoked meat sandwich, I'm all in.
Exactly. And for players it would be like a double Spring Training, "We're leaving Florida, for Northern Florida and after a few months we're going to Montreal." It's so insane. There are so many logistical questions. This isn't like when the NBA had the Kings split time between Kansas City and Omaha or the Hornets in New Orleans and OKC. I don't think that this is precedented in any of the five major sports.
I think Buffalo played a few games in Toronto a decade or so ago, but it was just one a year and I think that was mostly to nail down regional rights in case of an expansion. Or maybe set up a move there because their ownership situation was going to change and lots of people expected them to move somewhere. I know the Celtics used to play one or two regular season games in Hartford every year to keep the regional rights, and other NBA teams did similar regional games. But these were all nearby places and relatively small amounts of games. Going to the other end of a coast for half a season seems pretty unprecedented.
I forgot about Buffalo and Toronto, but I remember the Celts and Hartford. But like you said, these were one or two games a season in a place that was pretty close to their home arenas. It's not like Larry Bird had to rent an apartment in Hartford for the two games that the Celts were playing at the Mall. But for Rays players, they're going to have to rent a place in Montreal and Tampa and truck their families around.
I wonder if the Player's Union will have something to say about that. Actually scratch out "I wonder if" and replace with "I'm sure that".
Also, where will they play post-season games? Was that discussed? It seems pretty shitty to a fan base that you ask them to support a team through the not-so-exciting parts of a baseball season and yank the rug from out under one of them when it comes to the more thrilling games.
I can't believe that the TB ownership is sincere in this plan.
I wonder if the Player's Union will have something to say about that. Actually scratch out "I wonder if" and replace with "I'm sure that".
Also, where will they play post-season games? Was that discussed? It seems pretty shitty to a fan base that you ask them to support a team through the not-so-exciting parts of a baseball season and yank the rug from out under one of them when it comes to the more thrilling games.
I can't believe that the TB ownership is sincere in this plan.
Love the bagels. And Dieu DU Ciel is a great brew pub. A St Viateur - Dieu Du Ciel - Schwartz's trifecta would be a good way to spend a few hours before a game. I wonder if they'd build an entirely new ball park for them and where would it be?
They wouldn’t move twice. They’d combine spring training and early season into one location. So you ditch Port Charlotte, move spring training into the TB Area, and use the new, small open air stadium (probably an extensive renovation of Al Lang, which the Rays acquired recently) for both spring training and early season games. So players are in TB Feb-May and in MTL June-Sept. Basically it becomes a Montreal team that does an extended spring training in TB. The players are all going to live in FL, where most of them live off-season anyway, so they’re basically home the whole year and then go spend the summer in MTL. It’s not really that crazy from a logistical standpoint. Fans in Montreal will love it, because they get the summer and late-season and playoffs and who really wants to go to outdoor baseball games in April and May in Canada, anyways. It’s really TB fans who get boned, because they get demoted to Grapefruit League status, but you don’t show up and support the team and that’s what you get.
Shitting on the fanbase that you will share a team with is totally a sound strategy to win them over
/s
View: https://twitter.com/TBTimes_Rays/status/1225802712379535360
CC @VORP Speed
/s
View: https://twitter.com/TBTimes_Rays/status/1225802712379535360
CC @VORP Speed
If Montreal can't manage a team for an entire season, it shouldn't have one
If Tampa Bay can't manage a team for an entire season, it shouldn't have one.
I'm surprised Manfred is actually going along with this plan.
If Tampa Bay can't manage a team for an entire season, it shouldn't have one.
I'm surprised Manfred is actually going along with this plan.
Ironically, the Expos played 22 games each in Puerto Rico in 2003-04.
Interesting new ticket plan. Maybe designed so visiting Sox fans can get some free tix??
View: https://twitter.com/tbtimes_rays/status/1230208906443579394?s=21
View: https://twitter.com/tbtimes_rays/status/1230208906443579394?s=21
