If the Rays stay in St Petersburg, then the team and city MUST invest in public transportation to the location. Like trams, more highways (heck even a toll road and split the money 50/50 with the team and city) and possibly a train station or a fairy for water transport. Or they need to move to Tampa closer to the fans.
Without a doubt, public transportation in the Tampa Bay area is atrocious -- like much of Florida -- and doing with a light rail linking Tampa to St. Pete to Clearwater would solve some of the issues.
@@Brandon-qd2lb toll roads would be perfect for that expansion. Imagine how much income they would make during an All Star game weekend and even the postseason since the Rays are very competitive on a budget.
@@Brandon-qd2lb expanding the lanes might help too, but not much... They also need other alternatives like public transport... There's a planned one from Brightline from Orlando to Tampa... I just hope they're also expanding it to Clearwater and St Pete, thus making a loop of Clearwater-St Pete-Tampa... 🤔🤔🤔
I’m praying for a new stadium on the Tampa side of the Bay. It’d be so much easier to pull people from Orlando and Lakeland. Florida is a massive baseball state, so there’s obviously a market for it. Tampa is a way bigger market than Nashville and Charlotte and Montreal is off the table. They’d also have to build new stadiums with no guarantee of a team. MLB also seems to be committed to keeping the rays in tampa bay.
Florida might be a college baseball state, but attendance to professional games over the last 30 years has been spotty at best. Especially in Tampa/St. Pete.
I don't understand why not just move the rays stadium closer to downtown Tampa? The bolts stadium gets a lot of people. I think one of the main issues with attendance is because of the location of the ball park
The only way Nashville gets the Rays to relocate there is if Stu Sternberg sold the team to the Nashville Stars ownership group that’s been trying to get an expansion team for a few years now. I think Charlotte and Montreal more likely to be a relocation city for the Rays than Nashville. I think putting a new ballpark in a better location could save the Rays but otherwise I think relocation is the only option and keeping them in the East makes the most sense to me.
A couple of your shots at 3:58 and 8:58 are renderings of Portland’s proposed ballpark. Not Tampa’s. I live in Central Florida, but was born in the Portland area, and I’m a big baseball fan. So I’m very familiar with both. The Portland Diamond Project has been a big initiative to bring professional baseball to Portland. They’ve even had sites just north of downtown on the river set for the ballpark that could be perfect. If you’ve ever seen the doc “The Battered Bastards of Baseball”, you know that Portland used to have a minor league team called the Mavericks, who were wildly popular in the 70’s. Kurt Russel even played on the team and his father owned it. But as Tampa goes, or “Tampa Bay”, I could go on and on. Living in the Orlando area, the Trop is my closest MLB venue. But man does it suck, and man is that stretch of I-4 driving over awful. It’s been ranked the most deadly stretch of interstate per mile in the U.S. in fact. Something I sure can attest to. Despite my being a Cubs fan and Tigers fan (having green up in the Midwest), I have no ill will toward the Rays, and I really do hope they can stay, AND finally get a new ballpark. The proposals to build in Ybor City just east of downtown Tampa really make total sense to me. It would be within relative walking distance of downtown Tampa, in view of the skyline. It would be right near the confluence of I-4, I-275, and I-75, and bring on the east side of the city, it would be slightly easier for people in the next largest market, the Orlando area, to come to games. As well as baseball fans who are near Lakeland and go to Tigers spring training games there. But the biggest obstacles to that in my opinion are attendance and fan support. The Rays frequently have low attendance, with many fans not being for the Rays, but the other team. And also simply a lot of Ray’s fan’s attitudes. And I’ve seen lots of passionate Rays fans to be sure. But I frequently see Ray’s fans leave early, or have heard them yell “Hurry up! We want to go home!” in later innings when the Rays are up. What true fans do that?? Can you imagine that at say Fenway or Wrigley? Crap, I’d stay all day at Wrigley if I could.
I put a deposit on the Orlando Baseball Team long ago. I agree that going to a Rays game from Orlando sucks. Rebuilding in the same area makes no sense.
Nice catch. Given how the standings are organized, it'd make more sense for the Athletics to move to Portland, and for Tampa to move to Nashville or another eastern city. I've been to Florida several times, but don't know it that well. Still, sounds like you have some good ideas if the Rays can stick around there. I don't expect the A's to be in Portland, but in order to keep the standings intact, it'd be the far more convenient move compared to Tampa moving there. (Of course, Vegas is another option for the A's and seems to be the clear favorite.)
I'm a Tampa native and easily 70% of the metro population is from NY, Boston or Ohio. Pinellas county is almost entirely transplants. That being said, a move to Tampa attracts more locals and is more accessible to Orlando and Lakeland fans.
@@travisn346 That’s an issue honestly with most all of Florida’s pro sports. Over time as more people do live here year round, as they’ve started to the past 25-30 years especially, and more generations actually grow up here, I really think that will change. But it’s still tough right now. I’m in the “transplant” group myself, having grown up in the Midwest until I was 19. I want to root for the pro sports here, but with that history up north and all my family still there, it’s tough. And I hate being a turncoat and abandoning my teams too.
Much of what you say here is why I expect the Rays will leave Florida entirely when their lease is up at the Trop. There are other reasons why I think that (which I outlined in a separate comment), but you've hit on most of them.
There are many inaccuracies here I like the point them out: You point to an article from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times, saying in his piece that the Rays would add sunshine, palm trees and a nearby creek. Now, if you had dug deeper, you would have discovered that Stu Sternberg is bullish on getting a deal done by the end of this year, either in St. Petersburg or Tampa (most likely St Petersburg). On the statement from Stu, if you dig deeper into that statement from Stu, you’ll notice that this is more negotiations than anything else OK. there was a purpose in Stu’s comments here. And yes, there’s some urgency here but a threat to move to Nashville as you believe it will? No chance this happens. Now, the rendering at the 1:37 Mark and again at the 7:43 and 9:39 mark is the one from Hines that has all the mixed units with housing and business and that’s gonna be across the parking lot of Trop. Here’s another thing you didn’t mention in this video. The one that’s going to develop the new Rays stadium is the same people that the developed Petco Park in San Diego. It’ll seat 30K. At the 3:07 mark of the video and again at 7:05 mark, you talk about the Tampa dome on the Ybor Channel. Again if you dug deeper into that, you would have discovered that Darryl Shaw’s (developer of that land) latest renderings do not have a Rays stadium on it. At the 3:30 mark of the video, you showed the interior of the failed Ybor project for the rays a few years ago. Now you say there’s not a big demand for baseball in Florida. Nothing could be further from the truth on that. You put the location of the stadium in a good spot, and they will show up in droves. You also forget to mention Brightline is coming to Tampa in a couple years near Ybor, with possible for extensions to Clearwater and Saint Petersburg. Now, starting at the 4:00 mark and again at 8:59, you show the Portland stadium thinking it’s Tampa Bay’s and nothing could be further from the truth on that either. At 4:33 mark, you could see another Rays stadium rendering, which was from one of the bidders that didn’t win. At 4:55, 6:38, 8:09, 9:10, 9:45 and 10:10 marks, you show you the failed stadium in Ybor from a couple years ago. You also say that might be the one that is built in Tampa. Let’s be clear that ship sailed already. That’s not the stadium that’s going to get built. At 5:09 mark, you could see the failed stadium at the Al Lang site from 2007. At 5:47 mark, I think the Stadium you were referencing was on the Carrilon site from 2012 that failed. At 6:28 mark, you show the outdoor proposed stadium for the Rays which was going nowhere because that was part of the split city with Montreal that ultimately died. If you had done research, you would’ve known that. Now you say that there is a threat to leave. Let’s be very clear, under Ken Welch’s leadership (Welch is the current mayor of St Petersburg), There is no threat to leave and a deal will get done by the end of this year and you figure ground breaks in ‘24 probably the first quarter. At 10:24 mark, you could see a layout of the area of the new race, stadium and development in the gasworks area. You will notice it is east of 275 and parallel to 175. At the end of the video, you say that that this is gonna be made by the end of the year whether they stay in Tampa or St. Petersburg most likely Saint Petersburg, or move to Nashville. Let’s put the Nashville garbage to bed right now, they are not moving to Nashville. That’s off the table. I just felt when I saw that video that I needed to lay out all the inaccuracies that you put out there on this one.
Yeah, this guy is a clueless RedSox fan who would much rather see them leave Tampa Bay. As someone who keeps up with the situation pretty frequently, you can tell he did like 5, maybe 10 minutes of research on this video. He didn't even realize some of the renderings were of a Portland stadium. But I wouldn't expect much from someone who confidently ranked Fenway as the #1 MLB stadium lmao Anyways thanks for the in-depth comment, this should be at the top, but he would never pin this cause it outlines how lazy and low-effort his videos are.
I am from Florida I like to see this Stadium in Clearwater Beach Florida I agree with you about Nashville they need to have a Baseball Team to the new stadium needs to be bigger I agree with you about the Florida Weather
I don't think there's a land available in Downtown Tampa to use, and since I think Ybor development is already moving on, the closest one from there would be the Fairgrounds and Tampa Bay Downs, but the negotiation for those two will be hard, especially since non of them is in Tampa proper... There's also a site near Ray-Jay though, it's in Tampa proper, but it's mostly Yankees complex... That leaves only St Pete side of the bay basically... 🤔🤔🤔
I love hearing how bad the stadium is from people who've never been there. I've been to 6 different ballparks well 7 including the trop. And the trop isn't as bad as people say. The concourses seen smaller when the stadium is packed. That's it. The rays have done a great job opening the place up. And making it very nice inside. And for people who think the location sucks. Try driving from St Pete to Tampa at 6pm. The drive TO St Pete is much easier. I can tell from your video you've never done it and if so only once. Try driving into tampa and downtown Tampa or the fairgrounds at that time of day. It sucks so much!
Wdym? Most people live around an hour away currently. That’s too far for Public transport to help. Heck I live downtown in Tampa and it’s still 30 mins away. Assuming no bad traffic.
There’s one hidden problem. Baseball depends on corporate ticket sales more than any other sport. They’re the only ones who can afford to buy full season tickets in big quantities. And St. Petersburg has NO corporate base. Tampa at least has some, not enough to fill a stadium every night, but enough for the crowds to not be embarrassing.
I could see either Nashville or Charlotte as a landing spot if The Rays leave town. But if my some miracle they do stay in Tampa, I hope the stadium gets built in Ybor City.
@Garrett Montreal can support a team. They're the 8th largest city in North America, the 6th largest market, and the 2nd fast growing city in North America. Montreal didn't fail the team last time. It was Loria and Selig that put the team in a situation where they had to move. A division of Toronto - Montreal - New York - Boston - Baltimore makes more sense than a division of Toronto - New York - Boston - Baltimore - Nashville. Montreal is hours away from New York and Boston just across the border, making fan commute easy. Montreal already has a stadium that's being maintained by MLB. The Quebec Government has funds put aside for a new ball park for when the MLB returns. Before the pandemic, Montreal had been hosting exhibition games since 2014, which were all sell outs. Stu was ready to do the sister-city plan with Montreal as soon as last year before MLB kiboshed it, and they only kiboshed it because they didn't want it to be something on the table during the last CBA. Otherwise, the TB - Montreal thing would be happening right now. Stu picked Montreal for the sister-city plan, not Nashville. The other owners of the AL East teams would definitely vote for Montreal over Nashville because of the proximity without it affecting their markets. Montreal seems like the perfect situation for the Rays
@@herotomillions4095 Tampa has been one of the fastest (if not the fastest) growing metro area in the US in last 3 years. But therein lies the problem, bc most of the people coming here are from NY, IL, PA, etc. They want to root for the teams of their youth. Florida has always had a difficult time building a fanbase for MLB teams bc of this. You might get hype for a season or two, but simply moving a team to a new metro area doesn't equate to an instant fanbase. It's going to come down to what makes financial sense. TN, like FL, is also a no income tax state. There are a lot of financial incentives for them to be there. The Canadian taxes for the players and executives going to Canada is not a huge incentive. Plus, when they were proposing the dual city idea, people in Montreal were protesting and some group bought a billboard on the interstate next to the Trop saying "We don't want the Rays." I can see we're not going to change each others mind on this.
@Garrett first, Tampa being the fastest growing in the US doesn't say much. Montreal is the 2nd fastest growing city in North America (Toronto is the 1st), not just Canada. Tampa doesn't hold a candle to Montreal. The billboard didn't say "Montreal doesn't want the Rays". The billboard said, "Montreal won't pay for your stadium in Tampa Bay". Montreal will take the Rays, but they don't want to help pay for a stadium in Tampa. Third, Canadian taxes don't matter. Everyone gets most of their money back anyway. It's the nature of it being a socialist system
Damn, with Tampa and St Pete still debating, why won't they make a compromise or something??? Tampa has people, St Pete has money and also land available... If anything they should build one near the bridge connecting both cities to make compromise of both cities... I heard the dog track in Gandy is unused, why not there??? There's also Ybor Channel, but I think lately the developer there is basically giving up or moving on already... Another site that could work is the Tampa Bay Downs, but it's not in Tampa proper and the area there is also underdeveloped, but it's right close between Tampa, Clearwater, and Dunedin... Another one that could be considered is Fairgrounds site, but it'll drive away St Pete audiences, sure they can bet on Brightline getting built from Orlando to Tampa to make it worth the Lakeland and Orlando audiences as replacement... Hope it's gonna worth extending the Brightline until Clearwater and St Pete too... Also, the site isn't in Tampa proper so it's gonna be hard too... 🤔🤔🤔
In other words, if they don't get a deal done by the end of 2023, they're gone. Sternberg (main owner) said as much, trying to couch it in an optimistic way. People I've interacted with who live in the area say that any new ballpark absolutely must be on the Tampa side of the area. Getting across the bridges to St. Pete for a 6:40 pm start time (when most games begin there) is a nightmare, apparently. People from Orlando say that it would also make it easier for them to attend occasionally. Makes sense. Furthermore, there are a lot of transplants throughout Florida who grew up rooting for other teams, so building loyalty for the Rays will be tough, even though they've been around for 25 years as of 2023. Still, they've been trying to get a new ballpark done for over a decade, with every proposal being shot down. Some of that is because Sternberg reportedly wants the public to pay for most of a new ballpark. Why should they if nobody's going to games, especially when the team is so good (undefeated as I write this)? (EDIT: The Rays lost their last game, so they're now 13-1 as I write this. Still pretty amazing.) I don't expect a deal to be done, and I expect the Rays will leave Florida entirely after the 2027 season, when their lease is up at the Trop. Sad.
The 1st interior rendering looks like Loan Depot Park! BTW. Why isn't Orlando a place for the team to move to? Also, where the heck is the Parking for the fans in the renderings??? The worst part right now is that The Rays are really good and it makes my heart break to see the lack of real fan support in Tampa! Reminds me of the flighty fans in Miami!
As a 25 year Orlando resident and big MLB fan, I’d sure like it if we had a team. Some teams even used to have spring training here at Tinker Field and at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. But despite my own love of baseball, I don’t know that it would quite work here. But, I still do wish it. Just like I wish we had other pro sports.
@@jonstefanik9400 Ha ha! 😅 Good luck with that. But seriously, if we did have an MLB team, there are still a number of places by downtown that would work. The area west of I-4, that has traditionally been less developed and a little more run down, has had a little of a resurgence the past 10 to 15 years. The new Amway Center where the Magic play, the Orlando City field where our MLS team plays, the UCF medical village where the old O-rena was, and a lot of improvements in the roads, curbs and sidewalks, street lights, and some other businesses and buildings. I’m still hesitant to say that the demand is there, and as long as the Rays are in Tampa I don’t think the MLB would have another team so close in a smaller market. But we can still hope. The southeast in general is so football-centric, that’s it’s hard for pro baseball, hockey, and basketball teams to really be huge.
If the A’s move to vegas they wont be named the Aces because a wnba team goes by that name. I’ve come up with a couple of names if they move to vegas Las Vegas Outlaws or Vegas Bandits Vegas Americans Vegas Rattlesnakes
Florida doesn't support baseball during the summer. They pack the smaller venues for spring training. This is because of the snowbirds being here during ST. They buy the tickets at a sellout rate. But leave when the regular season starts. Rays should move to Nashville. They deserve better and Nashville would support them for sure.
@@anthony_rivera4735 too bad you don’t understand Florida and professional sports. Florida is football, basketball, and even hockey. Now they are supporting soccer. Orlando would never support them Neither Jacksonville. It’s a Florida thing not a City thing. Try to keep up. This conversation for the grownups, who know business.
@@pdg61met I disagree on that. I think the rays should stay in Florida. They have a pretty good fan base, but the problem is that the team plays in the trop. If they had a better stadium with more things that surround it, along with better transportation, then more people would go to games. Have Nashville and Montreal get their own expansion teams.
@@d-manflorida4976 I mean you could be right but nobody wants to pay for the stadium as they already have tried. It becomes a moot point. I don’t think Orlando or Jax would support it
Even if your reason is valid that Florida never support baseball, in no way they're letting Rays move while Marlins stays in Florida... If they're gonna move they're gonna move TOGETHER a la Dodgers and Giants...
American sports fans with "muh attendance". It's all about TV rating and TV markets now. Attendance doesn't mean as much anymore. TV is what dictates where teams are. TV broadcast rights are worth so much money.
If the Rays build a new ballpark, it will not have a retractable roof. It is much cheaper to have a fixed roof. The main issue with fixed roof stadiums is when they don’t let any natural light in. The Rays need a ~30,000 seat stadium with a fixed roof and glass windows in the outfield to let light in.
I love St. Pete, but I agree that Tampa might be a better location. You would have a higher attendance if baseball was a winter sport. Then all the snowbirds would be there. Also, the weather isn't that unpredictable. In the rainy season the storms build over either the Gulf or Atlantic. The wind blows the storm over the land and you get a monster thunderstorm for about an hour. After that the sun comes out and the humidity makes you feel like you need gills to breathe.
Its all about the TV market size. TV broadcast deals. Attendance still maters but not as much anymore Tampa is bigger than Nashville, San Antonio/Austin, Charlotte, Portland. And it's rapidly growing along with Florida. MLB is going to try to keep the Rays there. As for Oakland that Market is dominated by the Giants so they are more willing to let them move. (I don't think Vegas market can support MLB though and think Nashville or Charlotte are better choices. But alas.. Americans love that gambling industry)
None of those cities are larger than Montreal. Montreal is the 8th largest city in North America and 6th largest market. Montreal is also the 2nd fastest growing city in North America after Toronto
If they’re gonna be moved, move them to Jacksonville. The Jumbo Shrimp (AAA) consistently have one of the top attendances in the league. Jacksonville fans have the passion, and the city is currently getting major upgrades along the River. A 4 seasons hotel, a new park, a shopping area, and the Jaguars are almost done with their new training facility
They do have another bridge...the Gandy...they made it all elevated east of the Gandy....all tollway or expressway....wouldnt even need to stop at a light if you came from Brandon....maybe the one light at the dog track.. .thats it....runs through south Tampa
I think the stadium works for where they’re at. Tampa has to have a fixed roof field for the heat, humidity and t-storms. It’s still miles better than the domed stadiums of 80-90s MLB…
I don't think Nashville can afford a MLB stadium. They had to ask the state for $1 billion to fund a new $2 billion retractable roof NFL stadium that now has been pushed back a year. I think Montreal is more realistic for a relocation and return to the Expos. There's been talks about that.
Baseball failed there already though. And it's a foreign nation and a city that speaks French. The MLB has many US markets that want a team. Nashville San Antonio Charlotte. MLB should tell Canada to pound sand and form a Canada only baseball league
I think MLB focus on next expansion is adding new markets, not restoring the old markets... Maybe in the expansion after the next they'll return to Montreal... 🤔🤔🤔
@@HoshizakiYoshimasa lol, my guy The Blue Jays are a wild success here. Plus, Montreal has a lot of history and most people speak English, it’s bilingual. The original team left due to Montreal ultimately lacking provincial support due to the PQ. Nashville is possible, but I’d say Montreal more likely. And it doesn’t make sense when most of the biggest US Markets have a team, while the biggest city in North America without an MLB team, which is Montreal, has 4.3 million people. Maybe you should do some more research next time lol
@@thegamingnetwork896 Toronto and Montreal are 2 completely different cities. Montreal had the Expos, attendance was consistently low. Like an annual avg. of under half capacity. People there didn’t want to go to games, so the team moved to DC. If Montreal had a huge baseball market, they would’ve never moved.
The Lightning have THE best attendance in the NHL, the Rays suffer from playing in St.Petersburg, around 40-50 from downtown Tampa on a good day,not including traffic or parking, learn why and what you are talking about.
I like it...i live 5 miles from Tropicana....have to have a roof because of weather. Who cares if they build a roof or not. Do you go to the games to watch the game being played or look at the sky?
First of all, MLB does not want to leave the Tampa Bay(13) market for lesser markets like Charlotte(21), Portland (22), and Nashville(27). MLB said they would help with funding. MLB is trying to compete with NFL and the NBA for popularity.
32 teams is the perfect number for a pro sports league. Can be divided into 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 and finally 1. Too many teams lowers the probably of champions for all the other teams. It's simple math. MLB expands to Nashville and Charlotte. I don't think MLB wants to leave Tampa's TV market. TV broadcast deals and TV market size mean more than attendance now. Attendance is important but TV is what is driving money to pro sports now.
True but if Tampa's TV market is miniscule to Charlotte & North/South Carolina OR Nashville & Tennessee markets, the Rays are vying their time in West Florida
The issue with the Tampa Bay metro is much like most of Florida. During the Spring & Summer, are you going to spend money on a ballgame OR go fishing on the beach?... The interests just aren't there IMO but if they're committed then it's going to require public transportation access and a nightlife district. When you have nothing but a massive carpark surrounding a carnival dome, no one is going to bother for 81 games per year. If NOT, Charlotte & Nashville have MiLB stadiums ready to go, along with co-signing investors
Rays are coming to Tampa I know what’s been going on behind the shadows. Darryl shaw is the key! Google that name guys that will tell you everything you will need to know and guarantee you will have a better feel to where they will be building the new stadium
There a rendering of the interior of the new stadium but it’s just a bland design. Also one of the rendering you posted is a Portland stadium and not Tampa Bay. St. Pete has many spring training teams nearby, the beaches, theme parks and better outdoor entertainment vs attending a outdated dome. Also there’s a large body of water sitting in the middle of the metro so no matter where the team is located it will be a terrible location in the regards to traffic. St. Pete is the most densely populated county in Florida so people aren’t the problem
It’s Very Simple, If They Want A New Stadium, If They Want To Move, But Don’t Want To Loss Fans In Tampa, Then They Should Move To Orlando, There’s More Interest There For An MLB Team There, Tampa Bay Is Not A Baseball Town, They Get More Fans In Orlando Which Isn’t Too Far Away From Tampa Like 2 Hours Away, I’ve Done Designs For A 3 Arena Building Complex Called “The Thunderdome” where the building is shaped like the state of Florida and includes an 80,000 Football Stadium, A 18,000 Basketball Arena, And A 30,000 Baseball Stadium With Restaurants, Shops, Hotel Rooms, Apartments, A Movie Theater, Waterpark, And Aquarium, With A Lazy River Around The Exterior, The Football Interior Would Be Inspired By Sofi, The Basketball Interior Would Be A Major Upgrade From Where The Magic Play Now, And The Baseball Interior Would Be A Clear Glass Dome With Open Air Windows, With Pools And A Mini Waterpark as there would be no outfield seating with The Rays tank from The Trop, With a fish tank behind home plate I know Jeter removed the marlins tank for “safety” but we all know why he did it, coming from a half marlins half Mets fan, and instead of there being seats in the outfield the press boxes would in where there’s usually an upper deck, if I had the money and I ran the Rays that’s what I would do, Tampa isn’t a place for baseball
The Trop didn't seem like a bad idea at the time of construction. Sure the stadium's design aged poorly, but few could have predicted that when it was built.
Also, you mention moving the rays to a bigger market. But the Tampa bat metro area is 2,977,000. While Nashville metro is only 1,989,519. Tampa Bay is a big market. Just need a better stadium . The Trop sucks
As an Orlando native is much rather the rays stay in Tampa Bay. I really don’t think MLB baseball would work in Orlando. I’d like to see them move here for spring training full time though.
AS someone that put a deposit on a possible Orlando Baseball team 25 years ago, I would love a team in Orlando. Put it in a dome and let all the visitors watch their team play. They can schedule vacations around it. Why would you rebuild in St. Pete.
@@ralphkuhn2291 the metro is tighter however in terms of relative distance. But thank you for the actual researched response. That’s rare these days lol
Too small of a TV market.. And TV dictates where Teams are now. Attendance doesn't mean as much anymore. Besides, Charlotte North Carolina makes more sense
All these cities that want teams Nashville Vegas Portland Charlotte Montreal need to build new parks a lot of money 💰 is going to have to be ponied up when there is no assurance of a team yet
I would go to way more games like condsider season tickets if they were in tampa. Everyone I know including myself hate that the stadiums in st pete. And its a dump
MLB will not let baseball leave Tampa Bay. It’s too strong of a market to lose. (Attendance does not equal market viability). TV numbers are strong. Fastest growing area in the state (whether us locals like it or not). MLB sent out a poll last year to Rays insiders. A lot of conspiracy theories that they are running Rays marketing this year (Attendance up 20%) Everybody knows the stadium is best served in Tampa. Building on the current Trop site would just lead to a shiny new stadium with the same attendance problems. Manfred has even come out and said that MLB would give $150 million if they put the ballpark in Tampa. Stu’s words are full of crap, and he’s been using St. Pete for leverage against Tampa for them to budge on giving him more public money towards a new ballpark. St. Pete is essentially their fallback plan if Tampa doesn’t cave. The Ybor project in 2018 would’ve been completed this year if Stu put up his share of the deal. He cited “lack of corporate sponsors,” which was bologna. They put together a contingency of 100 local corporate sponsors called Rays 2020. Everyone was so pissed when that deal fell through. The sail design you showed, was the first new stadium proposal back in 2007. The St. Pete voters rejected a tax referendum 33% to 67%. This time around, the St. Pete city council, the mayor, Pinellas commissioners and Stu are negotiating behind closed doors. Pinellas has already committed $300million to the Phillies and they have more money for a ballpark than Tampa.
Like either the A’s , this park and others parks like the Marlins ! You don’t need big stands i the outfield no more ! Smaller park hare cool ! If you don’t have have a big fan base ?
They should move to actually tampa and not saint pete, im telling you as someone who used to live there the market for the rays in tampa is more of that in nashville, attendence would be so far up if they would move to tampa
@@anthony_rivera4735 there is no appetite for pro-baseball in Florida. As mentioned in this video, the Marlins and Rays are near the bottom for attendance every year. Moving the Rays to another city in Florida and spending tax dollars on a new stadium would be a waste.
@@Drummer8282 as long as Marlins stays in Florida there's no need for Rays to move out from Florida... And as the other comment said, Marlins just need to be good and Rays just need a good location of the stadium... Also, even if they're gonna move out from Florida, they're gonna move out TOGETHER...
@@ddddirge why do you feel that both franchises are tied together? Why can’t the Marlins be the lone team in FL and go back to being the Florida Marlins?
@@Drummer8282 there is lmfao, if the rays moved to tampa the attendence would be SO far up, I used to live there and tampa loves their sports, rays would lose every fan and not recover for years if they move to montreal
I don't think MLB should have any Canada teams. Like NFL, MLB should tell Canada to go pound sand and form their own Baseball league. Kick the Blue Jays out of MLB and force them to be a charter franchise of the new Canadian Baseball League
OK then the nhl should force every US hockey team out is what your saying. Because the USA is not really a hockey country nor do they show the support. I love hockey and watch high school, college, minor league, and the pros. I don't care about the nfl or the nba. Have not watched the nba since the mid 90's and gave up the NFl 15 years ago. These leagues are about expanding their product. So according to you these leagues should not show nfl, nhl, mlb, nba games outside of America. You are a fool.
Rays will not rebuild in same area. Terrible attendance. Difficult to get to. State not going to give a dime for anything that will promote the "woke" MLB after what they did with the All Star game. I would be shocked if they stay in Florida.
The attendence would be so high if they moved to tampa as someone who used to live there, tell me yoh dont know anything about tampa without telling me you know nothing about tampa
Lightning have the highest attendence in the nhl, bucs rates are booming and will stay at that level now that we have a newfound reason to love the team
I expect the team to move. The Trop is the worst in baseball.. you disagree, but You can't see past mount Davis... this toilet sucks for Fans, and players alike... Oakland has quite a few players that love playing there.. I don't see Tampa/St. Pete ever building anything for the Rays... They'd get better fan attendance in Buffalo in their minor league part right now and that park is ready to be expanded to MLB capable in short order. hell, they'd probably draw better if they moved to the Yankee spring training facility...
Moving Rays is basically giving up of Tampa Bay market... Unlike a certain team with similar problem, since there's another team occupying the same market area as them...
Literally everybody in tampa wants a team but they want one in TAMPA, the market is bigger if they move to tampa vs Nashville as someone who used to live in tampa and has been to nashville multiple times
Move the Rays to Montreal in 2028 (when Trop lease expires) so they will be in the same division as the Blue Jays. Move the Chicago White Sox to Nashville. Move the A’s to Austin. Expansion teams in Charlotte and Portland. If you want to learn about A’s stadium process listen to Brodie Brazil You Tube channel.
Agree with everything except Portland because that's a ugly, far left city ruled by communists. Portland doesn't deserve MLB. Tampa and it's large TV market deserve their team more.
@@anthony_rivera4735 or move them to TAMPA which is the biggest market for them, its the st pete rays right now, tampa has a huge baseball market, we love our sports so much, the lightning have the highest attendence in hockey and the buccaneers ratings are finally booming again and they will be higher for good now, same would happen with the rays
If the Rays stay in St Petersburg, then the team and city MUST invest in public transportation to the location. Like trams, more highways (heck even a toll road and split the money 50/50 with the team and city) and possibly a train station or a fairy for water transport. Or they need to move to Tampa closer to the fans.
Without a doubt, public transportation in the Tampa Bay area is atrocious -- like much of Florida -- and doing with a light rail linking Tampa to St. Pete to Clearwater would solve some of the issues.
They are expanding the bridge across the water by 2025 some express lanes will be added
@@Brandon-qd2lb toll roads would be perfect for that expansion. Imagine how much income they would make during an All Star game weekend and even the postseason since the Rays are very competitive on a budget.
@@Brandon-qd2lb expanding the lanes might help too, but not much... They also need other alternatives like public transport... There's a planned one from Brightline from Orlando to Tampa... I just hope they're also expanding it to Clearwater and St Pete, thus making a loop of Clearwater-St Pete-Tampa...
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@@ddddirge Very smart, I never thought about them adding a stop in St.Pete for the Brightline.
I’m praying for a new stadium on the Tampa side of the Bay. It’d be so much easier to pull people from Orlando and Lakeland. Florida is a massive baseball state, so there’s obviously a market for it. Tampa is a way bigger market than Nashville and Charlotte and Montreal is off the table. They’d also have to build new stadiums with no guarantee of a team. MLB also seems to be committed to keeping the rays in tampa bay.
Florida might be a college baseball state, but attendance to professional games over the last 30 years has been spotty at best. Especially in Tampa/St. Pete.
I don't understand why the Ray's haven't considered building a stadium on the site of Tampa Stadium, which is next to Raymond James Stadium
It was a retractable 11 tours and 6 judges and Bucs game going on well ir won’t April fools
I'm gonna bet Yankees gonna block it, right across the street is their affiliate stadium...
That complex is basically Yankees stronghold...
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Cuz they made it a big park
Parking is my guess
It’s literally across the street from the Yankees facility. I don’t know if they’re even allowed to build there lol.
I don't understand why not just move the rays stadium closer to downtown Tampa? The bolts stadium gets a lot of people. I think one of the main issues with attendance is because of the location of the ball park
Thanks!
The only way Nashville gets the Rays to relocate there is if Stu Sternberg sold the team to the Nashville Stars ownership group that’s been trying to get an expansion team for a few years now. I think Charlotte and Montreal more likely to be a relocation city for the Rays than Nashville. I think putting a new ballpark in a better location could save the Rays but otherwise I think relocation is the only option and keeping them in the East makes the most sense to me.
A couple of your shots at 3:58 and 8:58 are renderings of Portland’s proposed ballpark. Not Tampa’s. I live in Central Florida, but was born in the Portland area, and I’m a big baseball fan. So I’m very familiar with both. The Portland Diamond Project has been a big initiative to bring professional baseball to Portland. They’ve even had sites just north of downtown on the river set for the ballpark that could be perfect. If you’ve ever seen the doc “The Battered Bastards of Baseball”, you know that Portland used to have a minor league team called the Mavericks, who were wildly popular in the 70’s. Kurt Russel even played on the team and his father owned it. But as Tampa goes, or “Tampa Bay”, I could go on and on. Living in the Orlando area, the Trop is my closest MLB venue. But man does it suck, and man is that stretch of I-4 driving over awful. It’s been ranked the most deadly stretch of interstate per mile in the U.S. in fact. Something I sure can attest to. Despite my being a Cubs fan and Tigers fan (having green up in the Midwest), I have no ill will toward the Rays, and I really do hope they can stay, AND finally get a new ballpark. The proposals to build in Ybor City just east of downtown Tampa really make total sense to me. It would be within relative walking distance of downtown Tampa, in view of the skyline. It would be right near the confluence of I-4, I-275, and I-75, and bring on the east side of the city, it would be slightly easier for people in the next largest market, the Orlando area, to come to games. As well as baseball fans who are near Lakeland and go to Tigers spring training games there. But the biggest obstacles to that in my opinion are attendance and fan support. The Rays frequently have low attendance, with many fans not being for the Rays, but the other team. And also simply a lot of Ray’s fan’s attitudes. And I’ve seen lots of passionate Rays fans to be sure. But I frequently see Ray’s fans leave early, or have heard them yell “Hurry up! We want to go home!” in later innings when the Rays are up. What true fans do that?? Can you imagine that at say Fenway or Wrigley? Crap, I’d stay all day at Wrigley if I could.
I put a deposit on the Orlando Baseball Team long ago. I agree that going to a Rays game from Orlando sucks. Rebuilding in the same area makes no sense.
Nice catch. Given how the standings are organized, it'd make more sense for the Athletics to move to Portland, and for Tampa to move to Nashville or another eastern city. I've been to Florida several times, but don't know it that well. Still, sounds like you have some good ideas if the Rays can stick around there. I don't expect the A's to be in Portland, but in order to keep the standings intact, it'd be the far more convenient move compared to Tampa moving there. (Of course, Vegas is another option for the A's and seems to be the clear favorite.)
I'm a Tampa native and easily 70% of the metro population is from NY, Boston or Ohio. Pinellas county is almost entirely transplants. That being said, a move to Tampa attracts more locals and is more accessible to Orlando and Lakeland fans.
@@travisn346 That’s an issue honestly with most all of Florida’s pro sports. Over time as more people do live here year round, as they’ve started to the past 25-30 years especially, and more generations actually grow up here, I really think that will change. But it’s still tough right now. I’m in the “transplant” group myself, having grown up in the Midwest until I was 19. I want to root for the pro sports here, but with that history up north and all my family still there, it’s tough. And I hate being a turncoat and abandoning my teams too.
Much of what you say here is why I expect the Rays will leave Florida entirely when their lease is up at the Trop. There are other reasons why I think that (which I outlined in a separate comment), but you've hit on most of them.
The rays need to come to tampa, their attendance would certainly go up
There are many inaccuracies here I like the point them out:
You point to an article from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times, saying in his piece that the Rays would add sunshine, palm trees and a nearby creek. Now, if you had dug deeper, you would have discovered that Stu Sternberg is bullish on getting a deal done by the end of this year, either in St. Petersburg or Tampa (most likely St Petersburg).
On the statement from Stu, if you dig deeper into that statement from Stu, you’ll notice that this is more negotiations than anything else OK. there was a purpose in Stu’s comments here. And yes, there’s some urgency here but a threat to move to Nashville as you believe it will? No chance this happens.
Now, the rendering at the 1:37 Mark and again at the 7:43 and 9:39 mark is the one from Hines that has all the mixed units with housing and business and that’s gonna be across the parking lot of Trop. Here’s another thing you didn’t mention in this video. The one that’s going to develop the new Rays stadium is the same people that the developed Petco Park in San Diego. It’ll seat 30K.
At the 3:07 mark of the video and again at 7:05 mark, you talk about the Tampa dome on the Ybor Channel. Again if you dug deeper into that, you would have discovered that Darryl Shaw’s (developer of that land) latest renderings do not have a Rays stadium on it.
At the 3:30 mark of the video, you showed the interior of the failed Ybor project for the rays a few years ago. Now you say there’s not a big demand for baseball in Florida. Nothing could be further from the truth on that. You put the location of the stadium in a good spot, and they will show up in droves. You also forget to mention Brightline is coming to Tampa in a couple years near Ybor, with possible for extensions to Clearwater and Saint Petersburg.
Now, starting at the 4:00 mark and again at 8:59, you show the Portland stadium thinking it’s Tampa Bay’s and nothing could be further from the truth on that either.
At 4:33 mark, you could see another Rays stadium rendering, which was from one of the bidders that didn’t win.
At 4:55, 6:38, 8:09, 9:10, 9:45 and 10:10 marks, you show you the failed stadium in Ybor from a couple years ago. You also say that might be the one that is built in Tampa. Let’s be clear that ship sailed already. That’s not the stadium that’s going to get built.
At 5:09 mark, you could see the failed stadium at the Al Lang site from 2007.
At 5:47 mark, I think the Stadium you were referencing was on the Carrilon site from 2012 that failed.
At 6:28 mark, you show the outdoor proposed stadium for the Rays which was going nowhere because that was part of the split city with Montreal that ultimately died. If you had done research, you would’ve known that.
Now you say that there is a threat to leave. Let’s be very clear, under Ken Welch’s leadership (Welch is the current mayor of St Petersburg), There is no threat to leave and a deal will get done by the end of this year and you figure ground breaks in ‘24 probably the first quarter.
At 10:24 mark, you could see a layout of the area of the new race, stadium and development in the gasworks area. You will notice it is east of 275 and parallel to 175. At the end of the video, you say that that this is gonna be made by the end of the year whether they stay in Tampa or St. Petersburg most likely Saint Petersburg, or move to Nashville. Let’s put the Nashville garbage to bed right now, they are not moving to Nashville. That’s off the table.
I just felt when I saw that video that I needed to lay out all the inaccuracies that you put out there on this one.
Yeah, this guy is a clueless RedSox fan who would much rather see them leave Tampa Bay. As someone who keeps up with the situation pretty frequently, you can tell he did like 5, maybe 10 minutes of research on this video. He didn't even realize some of the renderings were of a Portland stadium. But I wouldn't expect much from someone who confidently ranked Fenway as the #1 MLB stadium lmao
Anyways thanks for the in-depth comment, this should be at the top, but he would never pin this cause it outlines how lazy and low-effort his videos are.
I am from Florida I like to see this Stadium in Clearwater Beach Florida I agree with you about Nashville they need to have a Baseball Team to the new stadium needs to be bigger I agree with you about the Florida Weather
I vote The Rays Stadium next to Amalie Oil Arena
Lack of location available in downtown. With Water Street being built, it’s knocked any dream of Amalie-esk location.
I don't think there's a land available in Downtown Tampa to use, and since I think Ybor development is already moving on, the closest one from there would be the Fairgrounds and Tampa Bay Downs, but the negotiation for those two will be hard, especially since non of them is in Tampa proper...
There's also a site near Ray-Jay though, it's in Tampa proper, but it's mostly Yankees complex...
That leaves only St Pete side of the bay basically...
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In the area of Ybor would have been awesome. But as a long time Ray's fan, it's not looking good currently.
Oakland is going to Vegas and Tampa to Montreal
Tampa not going Anywhere .
I love hearing how bad the stadium is from people who've never been there. I've been to 6 different ballparks well 7 including the trop. And the trop isn't as bad as people say. The concourses seen smaller when the stadium is packed. That's it. The rays have done a great job opening the place up. And making it very nice inside.
And for people who think the location sucks. Try driving from St Pete to Tampa at 6pm. The drive TO St Pete is much easier. I can tell from your video you've never done it and if so only once. Try driving into tampa and downtown Tampa or the fairgrounds at that time of day. It sucks so much!
Everyone saying they need to move doesn’t understand the problem of the stadium location or lack of public transportation and it shows
Wdym? Most people live around an hour away currently. That’s too far for Public transport to help. Heck I live downtown in Tampa and it’s still 30 mins away. Assuming no bad traffic.
There’s one hidden problem. Baseball depends on corporate ticket sales more than any other sport. They’re the only ones who can afford to buy full season tickets in big quantities. And St. Petersburg has NO corporate base. Tampa at least has some, not enough to fill a stadium every night, but enough for the crowds to not be embarrassing.
I could see either Nashville or Charlotte as a landing spot if The Rays leave town. But if my some miracle they do stay in Tampa, I hope the stadium gets built in Ybor City.
*Montreal
@@herotomillions4095 Not going to happen. Montreal couldn't support a team to begin with. If the Rays leave, they'll end up in Nashville or Charlotte.
@Garrett Montreal can support a team. They're the 8th largest city in North America, the 6th largest market, and the 2nd fast growing city in North America. Montreal didn't fail the team last time. It was Loria and Selig that put the team in a situation where they had to move. A division of Toronto - Montreal - New York - Boston - Baltimore makes more sense than a division of Toronto - New York - Boston - Baltimore - Nashville. Montreal is hours away from New York and Boston just across the border, making fan commute easy. Montreal already has a stadium that's being maintained by MLB. The Quebec Government has funds put aside for a new ball park for when the MLB returns. Before the pandemic, Montreal had been hosting exhibition games since 2014, which were all sell outs. Stu was ready to do the sister-city plan with Montreal as soon as last year before MLB kiboshed it, and they only kiboshed it because they didn't want it to be something on the table during the last CBA. Otherwise, the TB - Montreal thing would be happening right now. Stu picked Montreal for the sister-city plan, not Nashville. The other owners of the AL East teams would definitely vote for Montreal over Nashville because of the proximity without it affecting their markets. Montreal seems like the perfect situation for the Rays
@@herotomillions4095 Tampa has been one of the fastest (if not the fastest) growing metro area in the US in last 3 years. But therein lies the problem, bc most of the people coming here are from NY, IL, PA, etc. They want to root for the teams of their youth. Florida has always had a difficult time building a fanbase for MLB teams bc of this. You might get hype for a season or two, but simply moving a team to a new metro area doesn't equate to an instant fanbase. It's going to come down to what makes financial sense. TN, like FL, is also a no income tax state. There are a lot of financial incentives for them to be there. The Canadian taxes for the players and executives going to Canada is not a huge incentive. Plus, when they were proposing the dual city idea, people in Montreal were protesting and some group bought a billboard on the interstate next to the Trop saying "We don't want the Rays."
I can see we're not going to change each others mind on this.
@Garrett first, Tampa being the fastest growing in the US doesn't say much. Montreal is the 2nd fastest growing city in North America (Toronto is the 1st), not just Canada. Tampa doesn't hold a candle to Montreal. The billboard didn't say "Montreal doesn't want the Rays". The billboard said, "Montreal won't pay for your stadium in Tampa Bay". Montreal will take the Rays, but they don't want to help pay for a stadium in Tampa. Third, Canadian taxes don't matter. Everyone gets most of their money back anyway. It's the nature of it being a socialist system
I just hope they keep the ray pit
At 3:59 is a proposed stadium in Portland Oregon. Having a clear glass roof in Tampa would basically be cruel and unusual punishment.
Damn, with Tampa and St Pete still debating, why won't they make a compromise or something??? Tampa has people, St Pete has money and also land available... If anything they should build one near the bridge connecting both cities to make compromise of both cities...
I heard the dog track in Gandy is unused, why not there???
There's also Ybor Channel, but I think lately the developer there is basically giving up or moving on already...
Another site that could work is the Tampa Bay Downs, but it's not in Tampa proper and the area there is also underdeveloped, but it's right close between Tampa, Clearwater, and Dunedin...
Another one that could be considered is Fairgrounds site, but it'll drive away St Pete audiences, sure they can bet on Brightline getting built from Orlando to Tampa to make it worth the Lakeland and Orlando audiences as replacement... Hope it's gonna worth extending the Brightline until Clearwater and St Pete too... Also, the site isn't in Tampa proper so it's gonna be hard too...
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Can you rank college football Rings
In other words, if they don't get a deal done by the end of 2023, they're gone. Sternberg (main owner) said as much, trying to couch it in an optimistic way.
People I've interacted with who live in the area say that any new ballpark absolutely must be on the Tampa side of the area. Getting across the bridges to St. Pete for a 6:40 pm start time (when most games begin there) is a nightmare, apparently. People from Orlando say that it would also make it easier for them to attend occasionally. Makes sense.
Furthermore, there are a lot of transplants throughout Florida who grew up rooting for other teams, so building loyalty for the Rays will be tough, even though they've been around for 25 years as of 2023. Still, they've been trying to get a new ballpark done for over a decade, with every proposal being shot down. Some of that is because Sternberg reportedly wants the public to pay for most of a new ballpark. Why should they if nobody's going to games, especially when the team is so good (undefeated as I write this)? (EDIT: The Rays lost their last game, so they're now 13-1 as I write this. Still pretty amazing.)
I don't expect a deal to be done, and I expect the Rays will leave Florida entirely after the 2027 season, when their lease is up at the Trop. Sad.
The 1st interior rendering looks like Loan Depot Park! BTW.
Why isn't Orlando a place for the team to move to?
Also, where the heck is the Parking for the fans in the renderings???
The worst part right now is that The Rays are really good and it makes my heart break to see the lack of real fan support in Tampa!
Reminds me of the flighty fans in Miami!
As a 25 year Orlando resident and big MLB fan, I’d sure like it if we had a team. Some teams even used to have spring training here at Tinker Field and at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. But despite my own love of baseball, I don’t know that it would quite work here. But, I still do wish it. Just like I wish we had other pro sports.
Orlando actually makes sense. However they would obviously have to demolish the entire Disney's Wide World of Sports.
@@jonstefanik9400 From what I'm hearing they already are!
@@jonstefanik9400 Ha ha! 😅 Good luck with that. But seriously, if we did have an MLB team, there are still a number of places by downtown that would work. The area west of I-4, that has traditionally been less developed and a little more run down, has had a little of a resurgence the past 10 to 15 years. The new Amway Center where the Magic play, the Orlando City field where our MLS team plays, the UCF medical village where the old O-rena was, and a lot of improvements in the roads, curbs and sidewalks, street lights, and some other businesses and buildings. I’m still hesitant to say that the demand is there, and as long as the Rays are in Tampa I don’t think the MLB would have another team so close in a smaller market. But we can still hope. The southeast in general is so football-centric, that’s it’s hard for pro baseball, hockey, and basketball teams to really be huge.
@@cgimovieman If the Rays move to Orlando and there's undeveloped land to potentially build another ballpark, it's a win win.
If the A's move to Vegas, can i just suggest right now that they change their name to the "Aces"... so still the A's
If the A’s move to vegas they wont be named the Aces because a wnba team goes by that name. I’ve come up with a couple of names if they move to vegas Las Vegas Outlaws or Vegas Bandits Vegas Americans Vegas Rattlesnakes
I like Vegas Kings.
A few years ago there was talk of them moving to Montreal
Florida doesn't support baseball during the summer. They pack the smaller venues for spring training. This is because of the snowbirds being here during ST. They buy the tickets at a sellout rate. But leave when the regular season starts. Rays should move to Nashville. They deserve better and Nashville would support them for sure.
@@anthony_rivera4735 too bad you don’t understand Florida and professional sports. Florida is football, basketball, and even hockey. Now they are supporting soccer. Orlando would never support them Neither Jacksonville. It’s a Florida thing not a City thing. Try to keep up. This conversation for the grownups, who know business.
@@pdg61met I disagree on that. I think the rays should stay in Florida. They have a pretty good fan base, but the problem is that the team plays in the trop. If they had a better stadium with more things that surround it, along with better transportation, then more people would go to games. Have Nashville and Montreal get their own expansion teams.
@@d-manflorida4976 I mean you could be right but nobody wants to pay for the stadium as they already have tried. It becomes a moot point. I don’t think Orlando or Jax would support it
Even if your reason is valid that Florida never support baseball, in no way they're letting Rays move while Marlins stays in Florida... If they're gonna move they're gonna move TOGETHER a la Dodgers and Giants...
American sports fans with "muh attendance". It's all about TV rating and TV markets now. Attendance doesn't mean as much anymore. TV is what dictates where teams are. TV broadcast rights are worth so much money.
If the Rays build a new ballpark, it will not have a retractable roof. It is much cheaper to have a fixed roof. The main issue with fixed roof stadiums is when they don’t let any natural light in. The Rays need a ~30,000 seat stadium with a fixed roof and glass windows in the outfield to let light in.
If Rays move, it's most likely going to be Montreal. Stu wants Montreal
I love St. Pete, but I agree that Tampa might be a better location. You would have a higher attendance if baseball was a winter sport. Then all the snowbirds would be there. Also, the weather isn't that unpredictable. In the rainy season the storms build over either the Gulf or Atlantic. The wind blows the storm over the land and you get a monster thunderstorm for about an hour. After that the sun comes out and the humidity makes you feel like you need gills to breathe.
Its all about the TV market size. TV broadcast deals. Attendance still maters but not as much anymore Tampa is bigger than Nashville, San Antonio/Austin, Charlotte, Portland. And it's rapidly growing along with Florida.
MLB is going to try to keep the Rays there. As for Oakland that Market is dominated by the Giants so they are more willing to let them move. (I don't think Vegas market can support MLB though and think Nashville or Charlotte are better choices. But alas.. Americans love that gambling industry)
None of those cities are larger than Montreal. Montreal is the 8th largest city in North America and 6th largest market. Montreal is also the 2nd fastest growing city in North America after Toronto
They need to move because there's a graveyard under Tropicana Stadium
If they’re gonna be moved, move them to Jacksonville. The Jumbo Shrimp (AAA) consistently have one of the top attendances in the league. Jacksonville fans have the passion, and the city is currently getting major upgrades along the River. A 4 seasons hotel, a new park, a shopping area, and the Jaguars are almost done with their new training facility
Tampa metro population is nearly 3x larger than Jax.
They’re staying in Florida if Tampa doesn’t work regardless
They do have another bridge...the Gandy...they made it all elevated east of the Gandy....all tollway or expressway....wouldnt even need to stop at a light if you came from Brandon....maybe the one light at the dog track.. .thats it....runs through south Tampa
I think the stadium works for where they’re at. Tampa has to have a fixed roof field for the heat, humidity and t-storms. It’s still miles better than the domed stadiums of 80-90s MLB…
The Orioles are rumored to be looking at Nashville
St.pete isn't a terrible destination at all. Just needs a better stadium and better public transit
I don't think Nashville can afford a MLB stadium. They had to ask the state for $1 billion to fund a new $2 billion retractable roof NFL stadium that now has been pushed back a year. I think Montreal is more realistic for a relocation and return to the Expos. There's been talks about that.
Baseball failed there already though. And it's a foreign nation and a city that speaks French. The MLB has many US markets that want a team. Nashville San Antonio Charlotte.
MLB should tell Canada to pound sand and form a Canada only baseball league
I think MLB focus on next expansion is adding new markets, not restoring the old markets... Maybe in the expansion after the next they'll return to Montreal...
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@@HoshizakiYoshimasa lol, my guy
The Blue Jays are a wild success here.
Plus, Montreal has a lot of history and most people speak English, it’s bilingual. The original team left due to Montreal ultimately lacking provincial support due to the PQ. Nashville is possible, but I’d say Montreal more likely.
And it doesn’t make sense when most of the biggest US Markets have a team, while the biggest city in North America without an MLB team, which is Montreal, has 4.3 million people.
Maybe you should do some more research next time lol
@@thegamingnetwork896 Montreal would be so much cooler and the fan base is already built in!
@@thegamingnetwork896 Toronto and Montreal are 2 completely different cities. Montreal had the Expos, attendance was consistently low. Like an annual avg. of under half capacity. People there didn’t want to go to games, so the team moved to DC. If Montreal had a huge baseball market, they would’ve never moved.
Tampa Bay is the most disrespectful to a good baseball team and a good hockey team
The Lightning have THE best attendance in the NHL, the Rays suffer from playing in St.Petersburg, around 40-50 from downtown Tampa on a good day,not including traffic or parking, learn why and what you are talking about.
This has been going on forever.Back the trucks up and move to a city that appreciates baseball.
I like it...i live 5 miles from Tropicana....have to have a roof because of weather. Who cares if they build a roof or not. Do you go to the games to watch the game being played or look at the sky?
Just move to Orlando and call them the Florida rays.. you will get the attendance with us being the 4 most visited city in the nation
First of all, MLB does not want to leave the Tampa Bay(13) market for lesser markets like Charlotte(21), Portland (22), and Nashville(27). MLB said they would help with funding. MLB is trying to compete with NFL and the NBA for popularity.
32 teams is the perfect number for a pro sports league. Can be divided into 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 and finally 1. Too many teams lowers the probably of champions for all the other teams. It's simple math.
MLB expands to Nashville and Charlotte.
I don't think MLB wants to leave Tampa's TV market. TV broadcast deals and TV market size mean more than attendance now. Attendance is important but TV is what is driving money to pro sports now.
True but if Tampa's TV market is miniscule to Charlotte & North/South Carolina OR Nashville & Tennessee markets, the Rays are vying their time in West Florida
two weeks after video upload okland looks to be moving
4:42 Let's hope the new stadium doesn't turn out looking like a giant toilet seat...
The issue with the Tampa Bay metro is much like most of Florida. During the Spring & Summer, are you going to spend money on a ballgame OR go fishing on the beach?...
The interests just aren't there IMO but if they're committed then it's going to require public transportation access and a nightlife district. When you have nothing but a massive carpark surrounding a carnival dome, no one is going to bother for 81 games per year.
If NOT, Charlotte & Nashville have MiLB stadiums ready to go, along with co-signing investors
Neither Charlotte nor Nashville have a ballpark. Omaha and Buffalo do.
Charlotte for The Rays
Haven’t they been planning a stadium for over 10 years now? They said they were gonna have a new stadium by 2012. Wtf is taking so long
Funding and location.
US is poor these days, no money
It's not good for fan building when the Yankees spring train in tampa and the Ray's are in pinellas county.
Rays are coming to Tampa I know what’s been going on behind the shadows. Darryl shaw is the key! Google that name guys that will tell you everything you will need to know and guarantee you will have a better feel to where they will be building the new stadium
There a rendering of the interior of the new stadium but it’s just a bland design. Also one of the rendering you posted is a Portland stadium and not Tampa Bay. St. Pete has many spring training teams nearby, the beaches, theme parks and better outdoor entertainment vs attending a outdated dome. Also there’s a large body of water sitting in the middle of the metro so no matter where the team is located it will be a terrible location in the regards to traffic. St. Pete is the most densely populated county in Florida so people aren’t the problem
It’s Very Simple, If They Want A New Stadium, If They Want To Move, But Don’t Want To Loss Fans In Tampa, Then They Should Move To Orlando, There’s More Interest There For An MLB Team There, Tampa Bay Is Not A Baseball Town, They Get More Fans In Orlando Which Isn’t Too Far Away From Tampa Like 2 Hours Away, I’ve Done Designs For A 3 Arena Building Complex Called “The Thunderdome” where the building is shaped like the state of Florida and includes an 80,000 Football Stadium, A 18,000 Basketball Arena, And A 30,000 Baseball Stadium With Restaurants, Shops, Hotel Rooms, Apartments, A Movie Theater, Waterpark, And Aquarium, With A Lazy River Around The Exterior, The Football Interior Would Be Inspired By Sofi, The Basketball Interior Would Be A Major Upgrade From Where The Magic Play Now, And The Baseball Interior Would Be A Clear Glass Dome With Open Air Windows, With Pools And A Mini Waterpark as there would be no outfield seating with The Rays tank from The Trop, With a fish tank behind home plate I know Jeter removed the marlins tank for “safety” but we all know why he did it, coming from a half marlins half Mets fan, and instead of there being seats in the outfield the press boxes would in where there’s usually an upper deck, if I had the money and I ran the Rays that’s what I would do, Tampa isn’t a place for baseball
Just curious, how do you decide on what letter to capitalize? Jesus the education system in this country is failing us..
Rays have to move to the city of Tampa. Lightning have the best attendance in the nhl yet the rays are consistently at the bottom of attendance
Yep people dont understand how much tampa citizens love sports if the rays were in tampa the attendence wont even be comparable to oakland
This team will end up in Montreal.
rays up
Cities: *Builds quite literally the worst stadium*
Teams complain
Cities: 😯😯😯
The Trop didn't seem like a bad idea at the time of construction. Sure the stadium's design aged poorly, but few could have predicted that when it was built.
Also, you mention moving the rays to a bigger market. But the Tampa bat metro area is 2,977,000. While Nashville metro is only 1,989,519. Tampa Bay is a big market. Just need a better stadium . The Trop sucks
Move them to Orlando!
As an Orlando native is much rather the rays stay in Tampa Bay. I really don’t think MLB baseball would work in Orlando. I’d like to see them move here for spring training full time though.
AS someone that put a deposit on a possible Orlando Baseball team 25 years ago, I would love a team in Orlando. Put it in a dome and let all the visitors watch their team play. They can schedule vacations around it. Why would you rebuild in St. Pete.
Tampa has more population. They just need to move to actual Tampa
@@kyledodson2992 only 300k population difference between Tampa MSA 2.9 million vs Orlando MSA 2.6 million
@@ralphkuhn2291 the metro is tighter however in terms of relative distance. But thank you for the actual researched response. That’s rare these days lol
Move them to austin… the rays are gonna have a brand new stadium that is empty like the marlins, and nobody wants to see that happen
Too small of a TV market.. And TV dictates where Teams are now. Attendance doesn't mean as much anymore. Besides, Charlotte North Carolina makes more sense
The most recent rendering looks pretty cool, but where is the parking going to be?
Downtown ballparks don’t have parking lots
@@brettfriedman587 Haha, yes, you are right!👍
I think that Tropicana Field is worse that RingCentral Coliseum. At least RingCentral is outdoors on real grass.
All these cities that want teams Nashville Vegas Portland Charlotte Montreal need to build new parks a lot of money 💰 is going to have to be ponied up when there is no assurance of a team yet
2023 was always the deadline
I would go to way more games like condsider season tickets if they were in tampa. Everyone I know including myself hate that the stadiums in st pete. And its a dump
MLB will not let baseball leave Tampa Bay. It’s too strong of a market to lose. (Attendance does not equal market viability). TV numbers are strong. Fastest growing area in the state (whether us locals like it or not).
MLB sent out a poll last year to Rays insiders. A lot of conspiracy theories that they are running Rays marketing this year (Attendance up 20%)
Everybody knows the stadium is best served in Tampa. Building on the current Trop site would just lead to a shiny new stadium with the same attendance problems. Manfred has even come out and said that MLB would give $150 million if they put the ballpark in Tampa. Stu’s words are full of crap, and he’s been using St. Pete for leverage against Tampa for them to budge on giving him more public money towards a new ballpark. St. Pete is essentially their fallback plan if Tampa doesn’t cave.
The Ybor project in 2018 would’ve been completed this year if Stu put up his share of the deal. He cited “lack of corporate sponsors,” which was bologna. They put together a contingency of 100 local corporate sponsors called Rays 2020. Everyone was so pissed when that deal fell through.
The sail design you showed, was the first new stadium proposal back in 2007. The St. Pete voters rejected a tax referendum 33% to 67%. This time around, the St. Pete city council, the mayor, Pinellas commissioners and Stu are negotiating behind closed doors. Pinellas has already committed $300million to the Phillies and they have more money for a ballpark than Tampa.
Rays should just relocate to Nashville
You know yesterday was April 1, right??
They aren't building a ballpark in Tampa Bay, period...
Yall hate all you want its good 😂
Then move the team to Orlando where the Orlando mayor will will be happy to build a new baseball stadium (ballpark) in downtown Orlando, Florida
The need parking and public transportation
Like either the A’s , this park and others parks like the Marlins ! You don’t need big stands i the outfield no more ! Smaller park hare cool ! If you don’t have have a big fan base ?
Tampa get the f#@$!&g deal done!!!!!!
Think it's gonna come to an end this year or 2024 thank god. Get chepo to pay up finally
I just want a new stadium already, I would love to move close to the stadium once we build a new one.
If they do move they should move to either Raleigh or Charlotte
Charlotte most definitely BUT, I think Nashville has the upper hand
They should move to actually tampa and not saint pete, im telling you as someone who used to live there the market for the rays in tampa is more of that in nashville, attendence would be so far up if they would move to tampa
Anything is better than nothing
Aren't they moving to Montreal or is that scrap
I hope the current owner sells the Rays to Montreal - no need for divisional realignment
@@anthony_rivera4735 there is no appetite for pro-baseball in Florida. As mentioned in this video, the Marlins and Rays are near the bottom for attendance every year. Moving the Rays to another city in Florida and spending tax dollars on a new stadium would be a waste.
@@Drummer8282 as long as Marlins stays in Florida there's no need for Rays to move out from Florida...
And as the other comment said, Marlins just need to be good and Rays just need a good location of the stadium...
Also, even if they're gonna move out from Florida, they're gonna move out TOGETHER...
@@ddddirge why do you feel that both franchises are tied together?
Why can’t the Marlins be the lone team in FL and go back to being the Florida Marlins?
@@Drummer8282 there is lmfao, if the rays moved to tampa the attendence would be SO far up, I used to live there and tampa loves their sports, rays would lose every fan and not recover for years if they move to montreal
@@Drummer8282 miami and tampa bay are COMPLETELY different places, nobody in tampa would support the florida marlins
The lip smacking, man. Please do something about muting or minimizing it. Please.
no talk of moving rays
nashville is a joke . if naming team nashville stars hockey name .
no not worst stadium.
also talk to move to Orlando
I don't think MLB should have any Canada teams. Like NFL, MLB should tell Canada to go pound sand and form their own Baseball league. Kick the Blue Jays out of MLB and force them to be a charter franchise of the new Canadian Baseball League
Or move them to Buffalo, the NBA could do that simular plan with the Raptors to a Canadian basketball league. lol
OK then the nhl should force every US hockey team out is what your saying. Because the USA is not really a hockey country nor do they show the support. I love hockey and watch high school, college, minor league, and the pros. I don't care about the nfl or the nba. Have not watched the nba since the mid 90's and gave up the NFl 15 years ago. These leagues are about expanding their product. So according to you these leagues should not show nfl, nhl, mlb, nba games outside of America. You are a fool.
Rays will not rebuild in same area. Terrible attendance. Difficult to get to. State not going to give a dime for anything that will promote the "woke" MLB after what they did with the All Star game. I would be shocked if they stay in Florida.
The attendence would be so high if they moved to tampa as someone who used to live there, tell me yoh dont know anything about tampa without telling me you know nothing about tampa
Lightning have the highest attendence in the nhl, bucs rates are booming and will stay at that level now that we have a newfound reason to love the team
The city of Tampa/St. Pete will never pay for a stadium. The Rays will have to pry open their wallet with a crowbar. Cheap ass
Nashville is not a bigger market than Tampa Bay
I expect the team to move. The Trop is the worst in baseball.. you disagree, but You can't see past mount Davis... this toilet sucks for Fans, and players alike... Oakland has quite a few players that love playing there.. I don't see Tampa/St. Pete ever building anything for the Rays... They'd get better fan attendance in Buffalo in their minor league part right now and that park is ready to be expanded to MLB capable in short order. hell, they'd probably draw better if they moved to the Yankee spring training facility...
Nothing to see here folks. This fella doesn't know what he's talking about.
baseball in Florida why
Move tampa Bay To Montreal Bring the Expos Back
Bring the Expos back!!!!
@@anthony_rivera4735 I second that.😊
Moving Rays is basically giving up of Tampa Bay market...
Unlike a certain team with similar problem, since there's another team occupying the same market area as them...
@@ddddirge and that certain team is....
@@stevensuarez6564 you should know
😉😉😉
There's also something Manfred implied multiple times too...
🤔🤔🤔
Rays will lose fans if they move 😂
Yep
Move the team to Tennessee.
Tampa doesn't want a baseball team, TAKE THE HINT AND COME TO NASHVILLE, a city with an ounce of local pride that would actually support a team.
Literally everybody in tampa wants a team but they want one in TAMPA, the market is bigger if they move to tampa vs Nashville as someone who used to live in tampa and has been to nashville multiple times
Move the Rays to Montreal in 2028 (when Trop lease expires) so they will be in the same division as the Blue Jays. Move the Chicago White Sox to Nashville. Move the A’s to Austin. Expansion teams in Charlotte and Portland. If you want to learn about A’s stadium process listen to Brodie Brazil You Tube channel.
Agree with everything except Portland because that's a ugly, far left city ruled by communists. Portland doesn't deserve MLB. Tampa and it's large TV market deserve their team more.
@@anthony_rivera4735 or move them to TAMPA which is the biggest market for them, its the st pete rays right now, tampa has a huge baseball market, we love our sports so much, the lightning have the highest attendence in hockey and the buccaneers ratings are finally booming again and they will be higher for good now, same would happen with the rays