Why is it then that MLS owners have been able to cough up 100% of the costs for their stadiums (some of them more than the $150 million the Rays are rumored to put up) with revenues far lower than MLB? I don't know. This story is gettng old. Stadiums have been proven time and again not to boost local economies, only drive other money out. Well at least if they tax tourists and developers for it, won't be directly on us. I still question the viability of the franchise here even with the stadium and a winning team. That World Series appearance wore off pretty quick. I think the core issue is people here aren't affluent enough to afford going to so many major league sports.
To answer the original question, probably because it's to cover the whole cost of the stadium as opposed to a fraction. That extra discrepancy is a little more affordable because you are finishing the entire project for the cost of say $200 million project as opposed to just putting down $150 million that's a drop in the bucket. You can put more down but it's not gonna help. As for the viability of the Rays product, the fever of 2008 through 2011 was comparable to what the Lightning are experiencing right now. The Rays were the sweetheart of the Tampa Bay market but the problem was that hours before game time, the larger population of Tampa was commuting EAST on the Howard Frankland Bridge in the opposite direction of the ballpark while the rest of the majority of the fanbase was better than half an hour away from a cavernous tuna can ballpark that half the population would openly laugh at. Meanwhile Mr. Mayor was stonewalling a new stadium at every turn to keep it in a community that can barely churn out better than 11,000 people a night and steadfastly refused to build a new one because the Trop was already standing. At that time you put that team in an acceptable ballpark minutes from Amalie and I'd show you attendance figures similar to today's Lightning if not better.God this team was so starved for a winner by 2009 the Bucs were in shambles and the clown show of Lightning ownership was getting relocation whispers going.
In the end I don't think it's so much a matter of Tampa Bay fans being affluent enough to afford so many leagues, I think it has more to do with that fact that we're not going to pay for a losing product when all 3 of our teams have had arguably some of the worst ownership in history at different stages of its life whether it was Nameoli, Culverhouse, OK! Hockey, the Japanese Mafia and Glazer Trust Fund United. Every time we ditch the teams they come back from the dead. Right now the Bucs are kinda TRYING to do it but we'll have to see. The Rays can strike out and be relocated who the hell knows where and MLB will give us another team in the next expansion because they can't afford to not have us as a television market. And whoever that team is will have one hell of a sweet honeymoon