OT: Bucs, Rays & Other Florida Sports Teams Thread

[2020 Cup Champions]

Super excited for this! Hope we can get it done.

Why won't this end up like the Rays?

 

[Hoek]

Why won't this end up like the Rays?

Put it this way, as awful as the Rays attendance has been (averaging 15,878 last season), it's still twice what's needed to pack Al Lang currently and just shy of what its new capacity would be. I think a Rowdies team in Major League Soccer can manage that and better easily with mostly only weekend games and much fewer of them total than the Rays need to fill. Season tickets would be vastly more affordable. Also soccer is just a much better fit demographically these days. Pretty much every expansion team lately has been selling tickets like hotcakes. It's almost can't miss at this point. Not to mention the stadium would be entirely privately funded so it wouldn't be the city's boondoggle like the Rays.

But the great thing is we can test the market now and find out. The Rowdies were already the 3rd highest attended team at their level last year, with nearly 6000 per game (in a 7000 seat stadium) even though they were minor league and didn't make the playoffs. Let's see what they do now that they have something to aim for.

 

[Hoek]

Bucs win their fifth game in a row.

Clearly they stole the Lightning's mojo.

 

[These Are The Days]

Why won't this end up like the Rays?

Only because of St. Pete but that doesn't mean they'll get a team.

 

[These Are The Days]

Just did some read up. An 18,000 seater for a stadium isn't going to be big enough. Build it in Tampa. You're gonna want to double that if you expect to compete with the big boys. Either that you're going to need one HELL of a TV deal. There's no way in hell you're gonna compete with a Toronto payroll of $20+ million when you're gonna be lucky to pull a fraction of that.

Ohhhh boy

 

[Hoek]

Just did some read up. An 18,000 seater for a stadium isn't going to be big enough. Build it in Tampa. You're gonna want to double that if you expect to compete with the big boys. Either that you're going to need one HELL of a TV deal. There's no way in hell you're gonna compete with a Toronto payroll of $20+ million when you're gonna be lucky to pull a fraction of that.

Ohhhh boy

FC Dallas had the best regular season and probably would've won the whole thing if Mauro Diaz didn't get injured. They play in a small 20K stadium and don't have any expensive players, just a great academy that churns out home grown talent that is well coached.

If the Rowdies are going to play in Tampa because they want vastly more than 20K a game they might as well play in Raymond James. It's actually built with soccer in mind already. Some MLS teams play some of their playoff/rivalry games in a bigger venue so that could still be in the cards with a St. Pete bid.

I'm saying this as someone who would rather the team be in Tampa, but when more than half of the battle is getting some land and the approval to build a stadium (see the Rays and Beckham's struggles in Miami), the Al Lang plan is a huge advantage.

 

[These Are The Days]

FC Dallas had the best regular season and probably would've won the whole thing if Mauro Diaz didn't get injured. They play in a small 20K stadium and don't have any expensive players, just a great academy that churns out home grown talent that is well coached.

If the Rowdies are going to play in Tampa because they want vastly more than 20K a game they might as well play in Raymond James. It's actually built with soccer in mind already. Some MLS teams play some of their playoff/rivalry games in a bigger venue so that could still be in the cards with a St. Pete bid.

I confess, I follow the EPL (Go LFC!) far more closely than MLS and just know that Toronto tried to outspend everyone 20 to 1. If our guys don't figure out the moneyball formula like FC Dallas it may be just a sweet honeymoon. It makes me sick that teams like the Yankees and Red Sox can literally just do whatever they want while the Rays are signing Wilson Ramos hoping that the 8th time will be the charm at catcher when all we had to do was draft Buster freaking Posey with the 1st pick. But we chickened out because we were scared of mean old Scott Boras. A Rowdies team that is constrained financially will not sit well in a St. Pete market.

The other reason I say "double it" is because we routinely drew 35,000 a game in the golden years of the 1970's and 1980's and if that kind of market exists then by God you exploit it. If you build it... they WILL come. Soccer/football is little more a gloried game of hockey on grass with 11 players instead of 5. People are going to absolutely nuts over it. Don't limit yourself to a $80 million renovation in a market that outright refuses to give the Rays a new home. The source of funding seems ambiguous at best.

You know it's funny... I went to a Mutiny game when I was a kid and Raymond James would be great. You'd just have to tarp the hell out of the upper decks to make a big red barn feel like home for a team in green and yellow

 

[These Are The Days]

And Hoek I can think of one edge for Tampa that would be game-set-match. Since the Rays are currently looking for a new place to play, they and the St. Pete group could always get together and combine their finances (apparently since this $80 million is pledged not to come from public funding) and you're looking at roughly half the bill it would take to build a stadium that could be used for both football/soccer and baseball.

Sternberg throws in the $100 million out of pocket he's always promised
Rowdies throw in $80 million out of pocket
Tampa foots about $200 million publicly

And if you ever got Jeff Vinik in on this it would be the biggest thing to ever happen in the history of Tampa sports.

The only kicker is to get it to happen in time for expansion and if the pitch can survive being in the midst of a baseball field

 

[Hoek]

Multi use stadiums went out of style decades ago. It's especially hard to cram baseball into the same stadium as football or soccer unless you do something crazy like the Sapporo Dome in Japan which has a retractable, rotating field. Otherwise you have to put up with weird field dimensions and ill suited viewing angles like NYCFC in Yankee Stadium.

Also Toronto isn't outspending other teams 20:1. Each team can only have two Designated Players (cap exempt) maximum.

http://www.spotrac.com/mls/cap/

You can see while there are some haves and have nots, there's only a handful of real outliers and they didn't do that much better overall. The aforementioned FC Dallas were bottom of the league in spending. Last year's MLS Cup winners Portland were smack in the middle, and their co-finalist the Crew were also a cheap team. Even then we're talking really small amounts. Most of the league spends under $10 million and the highest amount is $22 million. That's pennies compared to even the Rays. The stratification isn't near as bad as baseball. Also Edwards has been a big spender at the NASL level at least, so he hasn't been miserly with his money so far.

 

[These Are The Days]

Well if what you're saying is true then I digress on all my previous remarks and I hope with all my heart that the owner is as good as you say he is. Like I said, I follow the EPL where the correlation between spending and talent is undeniable... especially as a LFC supporter. As it comes to the Rowdies I've just checked on them every couple of months and I was happy for them when they won the NASL championship. It really set the tone for the fan support that has followed over the past few years.

All I can say for soccer/football in Tampa Bay is "build it and they will come" because between the Spanish demographic and hockey demographic and I know with all my heart that one day you'll be able to put a game in Raymond James and you'll get 40,000 screaming supporters just like the old days.

If the Rowdies are allowed to do that for a playoff game then go for it. You'll scare the heck out of opposing teams with that much noise

 

[RDTBay4]

Here's a great youtube channel I found that covers Tampa Bay sports. No commentary, just highlights/interviews etc. Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFvVQ3snyFGiK21WDcUCLig?feature=autonav

 

[Stormbreaker]

It's sounding like the Bucs will be featured on Hard Knocks this year. A "major" announcement is scheduled for tomorrow at One Buc Place.

 

[Stormbreaker]

 

[King Mapes]

Couple questions. Going to Florida Thursday until May 8th. We were going to go to the Jays/Rays May 6th but when we looked at tickets I noticed a 7.11 special for May 5th so chance of plans. It says you need to pick up a coupon at 711 stores. Can I get them in Orlando or is it only in Tampa? It says upper bowl, can that be 200s or only 300s?

Also what time does practice start for the visiting team?

How hard is it too get parking?

Thanks!

 

[These Are The Days]

Couple questions. Going to Florida Thursday until May 8th. We were going to go to the Jays/Rays May 6th but when we looked at tickets I noticed a 7.11 special for May 5th so chance of plans. It says you need to pick up a coupon at 711 stores. Can I get them in Orlando or is it only in Tampa? It says upper bowl, can that be 200s or only 300s?

Also what time does practice start for the visiting team?

How hard is it too get parking?

Thanks!

Parking is easy as can be. It's right in front of the park. I'm not sure about the 7.11 deal but I think you can place a call to the ticket office to find out about the coupon. I'm pretty sure they're talking about 300's level. But to be honest it's so damn empty there all the time that you might just be able to sneak down to the outfield seats partway though the game. I don't ever move seats but some people do

 

[Jabba The Hutton]

Excited for the Bucs to draft tonight. Guys I would love Bucs to get in the first round: Malik Hooker, David Njoku, Taco Charlton

 

[Stormbreaker]

Excited for the Bucs to draft tonight. Guys I would love Bucs to get in the first round: Malik Hooker, David Njoku, Taco Charlton

As long as they don't draft anymore kickers and punters I'm satisfied.

 

[RDTBay4]

I hope the Bucs draft a defensive back. I'd say O-line but from what I've read there's not many top quality ones around this year.

 

[Stormbreaker]

Winston has a LOT of weapons now, exciting stuff.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

I had a Dalvin Cook dream, but I didn't know anything about the kinds of trouble he's been in.

 

[These Are The Days]

Gonna LOL hard when the Lakers win the NBA draft lottery. You know Adam Silver and the boys got that **** rigged and ready to go

 

[Stormbreaker]

 

[Master P]

How about them rays?

 

[These Are The Days]

How about them rays?

They needed to make a move for bullpen help a month ago. It's truly incredible the position that we are in given how many games we've lost late.

 

[These Are The Days]

And I must say this is the best we've been offensively in a decade. I fully expect us to be able to hit our way to the ALCS provided that we pitch averagely