Tampa Bay Rays Exploring Splitting Season Between Tampa and Montreal

[Centrum Hockey]

Again, Kriseman is gone in 2021 due to term limits.

Perhaps the new mayor will allow Tampa Bay to, I dunno, exit the lease early? Perhaps the Rays should invest into politics?

My understanding is the lease in the final years is team-friendly and it might be in St Pete's best interest to work out a deal that would allow the Rays to help pay to redevelop the Trop site. If not St. Pete will face the expense of doing that alone.

Maybe they will work out a deal to play 20-40 games at Olympic stadium for a couple years before moving full time into a new Montreal Stadium.

 

[KevFu]

This has ploy written all over it.

They want a new stadium BEFORE 2028 because the Trop was old when they moved in -- the Rays started in 1998, but the Stadium was designed in the early 80s, and they broke ground in 1986. It's like "a slightly newer Metrodome" which the Twins moved out of 8 years ago.

When the politicians won't budge because you're locked into a lease, the only way to get any traction is threaten to leave.

MLB lost a ton of money with the pandemic, and we have another thread here on the form talking about leagues expanding to get that expansion fee $$$ to offset their pandemic losses.

Why is Tampa ownership saying something EIGHT YEARS OUT? Because MLB can't expand until one of Tampa/Oakland resolve their stadium issues and get a shovel in the ground on a new stadium.

There are three cities making efforts to get an MLB team right now: Montreal, Portland and Nashville.

With those three and 30 MLB teams, Tampa makes a threat and if they don't get a stadium, they're 100% capable of going to Montreal (or Nashville).
With those three and 30 MLB teams, Oakland makes a threat and if they don't get a stadium, they're 100% capable of going to Portland, or Nashville (where they have a relationship from having their PCL team there for a few years).

But if MLB finalizes a deal with Montreal and Nashville for expansion, Tampa and Oakland are lobbying politicians to a new stadium and have only a 50% chance they can follow through on it, because if Oakland moves, there's no where for Tampa to bolt to.

So Tampa is making noise NOW so the second they get a stadium deal approved, MLB can award expansion franchises and they can get those $$$ fees.

I would bet that in 2028, there will be a baseball team playing in Montreal, but it will be the Expos 2.0 expansion team with the Rays' stadium issue being addressed.

 

[oknazevad]

This has ploy written all over it.

They want a new stadium BEFORE 2028 because the Trop was old when they moved in -- the Rays started in 1998, but the Stadium was designed in the early 80s, and they broke ground in 1986. It's like "a slightly newer Metrodome" which the Twins moved out of 8 years ago.

When the politicians won't budge because you're locked into a lease, the only way to get any traction is threaten to leave.

MLB lost a ton of money with the pandemic, and we have another thread here on the form talking about leagues expanding to get that expansion fee $$$ to offset their pandemic losses.

Why is Tampa ownership saying something EIGHT YEARS OUT? Because MLB can't expand until one of Tampa/Oakland resolve their stadium issues and get a shovel in the ground on a new stadium.

There are three cities making efforts to get an MLB team right now: Montreal, Portland and Nashville.

With those three and 30 MLB teams, Tampa makes a threat and if they don't get a stadium, they're 100% capable of going to Montreal (or Nashville).
With those three and 30 MLB teams, Oakland makes a threat and if they don't get a stadium, they're 100% capable of going to Portland, or Nashville (where they have a relationship from having their PCL team there for a few years).

But if MLB finalizes a deal with Montreal and Nashville for expansion, Tampa and Oakland are lobbying politicians to a new stadium and have only a 50% chance they can follow through on it, because if Oakland moves, there's no where for Tampa to bolt to.

So Tampa is making noise NOW so the second they get a stadium deal approved, MLB can award expansion franchises and they can get those $$$ fees.

I would bet that in 2028, there will be a baseball team playing in Montreal, but it will be the Expos 2.0 expansion team with the Rays' stadium issue being addressed.

You sum it up well. Bottom line is one of the Rays or A's is likely going to move. And expansion teams have to be as a pair as unlike hockey or basketball, baseball can't have an odd number of teams because they essentially play every day and can't schedule around an odd number with off days. So you've essentially got five markets looking at 4 teams, and one of those markets already has another team that is consistently more popular and established. So my money is on the A's going to Portland; despite their efforts, the Howard Terminal proposal seems to be losing traction already, as jobs at the port may not be glamorous but they are good paying union jobs and there's been a lot of pushback against losing any port jobs at all, especially in exchange for low-paying stadium vendor gigs. And the alternative of building a ballpark at the Coliseum site doesn't seem like something the team is interested in; for all its history the Coliseum has never been in a good location for a ballpark. therefore

Therefore Nashville and Montreal are likely to be the expansion teams. Montreal because there's a strong push to get something done, and because even the MLB brain trust admits they screwed up with their treatment of the Expos.

And Nashville because the city is not only showing strong interest, they've proven themselves a great sports town across the board. Football in the south is a shoe-in, sure, but they proved hockey in the south can work, and the Sounds are one of the best supported teams in MiLB.

So the Rays have to get something done in the Tampa Bay Area. As has long been identified, the team actually does well in TV ratings (better than half the majors), but big issues with their stadium (dated from the day it opened, and a location that puts over half of the 50-mile radius either in the Gulf of Mexico or covered by the bay itself) have always kept them from drawing well at the gate. Maybe with the changes in municipal government over the sext couple of years they can actually get something in Tampa.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Oakland/Alameda County may not be in danger now that they've acquired the land that the Oakland Arena sits on if they've requested damages from the Warriors when they moved and built Chase Center

 

[oknazevad]

Oakland/Alameda County may not be in danger now that they've acquired the land that the Oakland Arena sits on if they've requested damages from the Warriors when they moved and built Chase Center

The A's acquired the land so they can tear down the Coliseum (which needs to be torn down before it falls down on its own) and build housing on the site, which is the real money maker. Having to use some of that for a ballpark (and parking!) instead kills the financial benefit.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

The A's acquired the land so they can tear down the Coliseum (which needs to be torn down before it falls down on its own) and build housing on the site, which is the real money maker. Having to use some of that for a ballpark (and parking!) instead kills the financial benefit.

A's likely aren't leaving Oakland is the point.

 

[oknazevad]

And I'm saying that I think they're putting on a good show, but ultimately they want a ballpark that they can't have there and will be gone.