OT: Bucs, Rays & Other Florida Sports Teams Thread

[These Are The Days]

To be fair boys the Rays were the biggest swoon I've ever seen. Even bigger than what I have seen for the Lightning and had we been able to sustain our team, baseball would've been King. The problem is the mayor of St. Pete waved that damn lease around for how many years while inflation skyrocketed the price. I get he wanted to defend the interest of his city but it was the shittiest thing anyone could have done and it was years and years of an ugly marriage destined for divorce. I actually do believe it's almost $1 billion. The price of everything is out of control.

Tampa HAS TO foot the bill. I don't know what your careers are but I am relatively certain no one here can afford a $8 million mansion in Davis Island and if you did I know you damn sure aren't gonna buy it outright if you only have $10 million to your name. It works no different with $800 million.

It was not so long ago the man was a hero. Glazer Bros United were slashing the Bucs payroll in 2009 while OK! Hockey was a f***ing embarrassment and Stu was doing everything he could to field a World Champion. We responded with 12,000 people a night.I I'm sorry but WE f***ed up. It's not because Tampa Bay isn't a baseball market it's because our team is stuck in a sardine can that was hastily and poorly built in a bad spot cuz we thought we was getting the Giants or White Sox.

Tampa Bay needs to stop whining about it and acting like it's being robbed by Mr. Big Moneypockets. Only two franchises in pro sports can build their own stadiums and that's the NYY and LAD. If we instuted even a mild hotel tax for out of state visits over 30 years it would foot millions that none of us have to pay. What we DO have to pay is over the course of 30 years being footed by probably 2 million other people.

Some of us drop hundreds and hundreds of dollars even thousands on the Lightning over a small period of time. But we use the word tax to describe a similar and possibly smaller contribution over 30 years for a ballpark and then we're holding up our index fingers in the shape of a crucifix saying "DON'T YOU PUT THAT EVIL ON ME!"


And yet if the Rays are kicking ass like it's 2008 were back to dropping money on it. To make the argument that we should decide how we're taxed is valid but it's hypocritical that we suddenly clutch our wallets the second the owner needs help for a product we want. I do believe the Rays have a future in Tampa but not if Rays fans are gonna drag their feet

I pray to God we never have to replace Amalie or Raymond James. With the way some act about stadiums we would lose all our teams. I'm not saying anyone here either. I'm saying I've seen it over 10 years or more with the Rays

 

[Hoek]

I feel like unlike the Trop, Amalie and RayJay aren't total dumps and can probably be renovated for a lot less. You don't see them constantly tearing down and building new stadiums for these super rich European soccer teams. I don't know why that has become so necessary here.

 

[berlin]

It doesn't work in St. Pete. It doesn't have the population or business base to support the team. Seriously, we're gonna have more people outside Amalie watching the games come playoff time than we get inside in St. Pete. Get them to Tampa and you'll have exponential support


Stu is just being a jagoff trying to get us to foot the bill and we are returning the favor by saying "No you do it" like the dude has $800 million just lying around. If he committed even 1/3 of that he'd probably go belly up in the rest of his business ventures

I don’t think moving to Tampa will do anything. For the first couple of years in a new stadium sure, but after that numbers will dwindle. They’re constantly last in attendance for a pretty good team. I think last season they averaged something like 14,000, I mean come on 14k that’s ridiculous. If people in Tampa really wanted to see them they’d take a 30 minute drive to see their favorite team.

 

[These Are The Days]

I don’t think moving to Tampa will do anything. For the first couple of years in a new stadium sure, but after that numbers will dwindle. They’re constantly last in attendance for a pretty good team. I think last season they averaged something like 14,000, I mean come on 14k that’s ridiculous. If people in Tampa really wanted to see them they’d take a 30 minute drive to see their favorite team.

They already do to see the Lightning. And a lot of the traffic on the Howard Frankland bridge is east bound away from St. Pete. Unless they're gonna stick around til game time you've got how many tens of thousands of people who live in Hillsborough coming back. It's just another reason to build in Hillsborough. Come playoff time the Lightning are gonna have that same 14K outside the arena. There's no reason why they won't show up for baseball.

It simply boils down to the fact that more people live in Hillsborough, about 1.5 million and probably another 500-750k within a 30 minute drive of a potential ballpark. Considering the fact 14K attendance is INCLUDING Hillsborough it just damns the argument even more against Pinellas. There's just not enough people in St. Pete/South Pinellas. It's not anyones fault. But also bridge burnout is absolutely real. You cannot reasonably expect 30k people to make that trek 80 times a year.

I truly believe with all my heart Tampa can and will embrace the Rays. But for now it's gonna be free viewership as our choice because this is like the only Chinese restaurant in town wondering why no one is traveling 30+ minutes to come eat there and they are asking "do people not like Chinese food or what?"

No man... People love your food. But they're freaking hungry. They're not gonna drive 30 damn minutes away for it.

 

[T REX]

Huh? You borrow to fund 400 million of the stadium and you pay it over the course of the loan. Is this serious? You dont gave a clue of how the financing works. Stu has to pony up 400 mill at minimum or they are gone. F him. He's a freaking Mets fan and a jerk. No way Tamoa is going to fund the cost. There's not enough support. Baseball is broken. If they instituted a hard cap...I might get behind it but we are just a farm team for Boston, NY etc.

Baseball is dying. Check out of the fan age numbers. It's real. Why do you think they are trying to change all these rules? Because the millennials aren't watching 4 hour snooze fests.

Forget stu.

 

[meatwad4343]

Huh? You borrow to fund 400 million of the stadium and you pay it over the course of the loan. Is this serious? You dont gave a clue of how the financing works. Stu has to pony up 400 mill at minimum or they are gone. F him. He's a freaking Mets fan and a jerk. No way Tamoa is going to fund the cost. There's not enough support. Baseball is broken. If they instituted a hard cap...I might get behind it but we are just a farm team for Boston, NY etc.

Baseball is dying. Check out of the fan age numbers. It's real. Why do you think they are trying to change all these rules? Because the millennials aren't watching 4 hour snooze fests.

Forget stu.

this is exactly why i dont watch baseball, besides it being boring af. it needs a salary cap. its really disheartening when you watch all your players walk because your team can't afford to pay them. it'll be the same in a couple of years when we trade snell and all the other young guys because they are priced out of Tampa. theres more to it as to why people won't attend the games, but i don't spend money on a team that's a farm system for larger markets. institute a cap and i'd be way more of a fan and go to games, that being said, i think they have a good shot at a wild card spot this year. while the young guys are still under team control. we spend like 50 or 60m on players while large market teams are paying hundreds of millions. it's pathetic.

 

[J T Money]

If it makes people feel better, the Magic won a playoff game before the Lightning did.

 

[BoltsFanPinellasPark]

Check it out, Rays are off to their best start ever! On pace to tie the Mariners all time win record!!!!111@@!!#!$######ohgodnoplease!!!!

 

[Hoek]

Too bad I don't care about basketball and baseball.

Rowdies are undefeated so far. I care about that at least!

 

[LightningStrikes]

 

[These Are The Days]

Jason Licht f***ing sucks. We are on our 3rd coach with him, our OL sucks, our DL sucks, we don't have a run game and we are out of money. Bravo dude.... Bravo. At least we can replace your replacements at corner

If we go 6-10 I will be amazed. How in God's name is Arians supposed to succeed

 

[Hoek]

Seriously how many times has everyone in the world harped on building up our O line and D line and Licht just blatantly ignores it... every. f***ing. time.

 

[These Are The Days]

Seriously how many times has everyone in the world harped on building up our O line and D line and Licht just blatantly ignores it... every. ****ing. time.

We are going on years of this now. I suspect we allowed Todd Bowles a good deal of authority on this draft and to be perfectly blunt that's exactly what you'd want. But the problem is there's so many other issues caused by fact that Licht has attempted to address the trenches without success so many times and only worsened by our coaching staff not developing any of the corners we've taken over the years to any success either.

I am at the point where I can't even hold Arians responsible for what happens because to top it all off we've hitched our wagon to the most inconsistent QB in the NFL

 

[Stormbreaker]

The only reason Licht didn't get his walking papers was because he's buddies with Arians. The biggest issue with the Bucs starts up top, the Glazer boys don't know what they're doing at all. **** will continue to be thrown at the wall to see what sticks in the meantime.

 

[berlin]

I think the Glazers want to win and they spend to the cap. The problem is they make bad decisions when hiring, Licht is a buffoon and should never have been hired.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Jason f***ing Licht, baby, woo!

He feels more inspired by Jameis every day!

 

[Stormbreaker]

Jason ****ing Licht, baby, woo!

He feels more inspired by Jameis every day!

I can't believe he had the audacity to draft another ****ing kicker.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

I can't believe he had the audacity to draft another ****ing kicker.

Really? Can't believe it? This is Jason f***ing Licht.

 

[Stormbreaker]

Really? Can't believe it? This is Jason ****ing Licht.

This is true, I've wanted him gone for some time now.

 

[Stormbreaker]

Sooooooo JPP potientially has a fractured neck from the car wreck he was in last week. Good thing Licht drafted some pass rush help...oh wait. #ItsABucsLife.

 

[Hoek]

Like someone commented on Twitter, playing football seems to be the least dangerous thing that guy does.

 

[These Are The Days]

Oh thank GOD we passed on Josh Allen right?

I mean.... With better cap management we could've just kept Kwon Alexander, had a gem land in our laps and then addressed the secondary. I was mad about our picks but I got over it because it's clear Todd Bowles is unhappy with our players. You don't take that many guys if he's happy with what he's seen. Arians is an elite offensive coach and I gather he thinks he can coach our offense to be better. But you know I'm worried. I really am. I am at the point where I'm not sure if an elite coaching staff can fix our problems. So much talent has been squandered and God knows we already traded out McCoy which would have been disastrous. If Arians is honest to God committed to a long haul like 5-8 years then we need better management than Licht. I don't see how Arians has the tools to succeed beyond a 7 win season. And this IS an elite coach. That is not likely to change even if his no risk it no biscuit philosophy backfires

But really it all boils down to that our front office has failed for years to deliver the right talent on the field.

 

[J T Money]

The Bucs are the Edmonton Oilers of the NFL...except they don't have a top 3 player in the world.

 

[T REX]

Arians has one playoff win. Overrated. He'll re-retire in a year.

 

[Stormbreaker]

Well this is at least a little promising.