I have something I have to get off my chest – I am sick and tired of hearing people suggest that the Tampa Bay Rays belong in Montreal. The Tampa Bay Rays may have a terrible time drawing fans in their current St. Petersburg location, but moving them to Montreal and becoming the Montreal Rays is not the answer or even an option, so enough with it.
First off, baring some unforeseen miracle, the Rays have to stay in St. Pete until 2027. That is when the lease is up on Tropicana Field and It has been well documented that the political groups in St. Pete will not budge off of this number. So unless the next “home” of the Rays is going to pony up a half billion dollars to nudge the Rays out of the Trop, it is just not going to happen. It is certainly a tricky issue because obviously The Rays do not draw nearly as many fans as they should in their current location. However they are still turning a profit yearly and are worth nearly $485 million. (credit : http://shadowofthestadium.blogspot.com/2014/03/forbes-rays-value-up-to-485-million.html)
So what is the issue with the attendance? Well outsiders will lead you to believe that the Rays just don’t have enough fan support, which is ridiculous. Tampa Bay was actually 5th in the majors for television viewers in 2013, (credit : http://www.raysindex.com/2013/10/rays-television-ratings-were-up-in-2013.html) so don’t come at me with that weak excuse about the Rays not having fans. Its a garbage excuse and a straight up cop out for people who just want to hate instead of investigate. The real problem for The Rays is that Tropicana Field is an eternity away from Tampa.
I had the privilege to visit the Trop last year. I was actually surprised how far away the Trop was from the Tampa area. It was a 45 minute or so drive away from Tampa International Airport and I can only imagine how bad traffic is during rush hour in that area. We stayed within walking distance of the Trop instead of staying in Tampa.
Tropicana Field almost sits by itself in the corner of St. Pete. It is kind of like a mirage you would see out in the desert. When my wife and I were walking to the Field I was amazed at how bad the location really is. Which is a shame because the Trop itself is a wonderful place to watch a game and the Rays do a marvelous job with their customer interactions. We sat on the third base side one night and right behind the home bullpen the next night and had zero issues with anything physically in the Trop. It was a perfect experience regardless of all of the garbage people write about the place. I was overwhelmed with how friendly the staff was and how awesome it felt to be watching my favorite team live.
Yeah it is a little different than your average baseball stadium, but the Rays are a little different than your average baseball team so it all works out well in my opinion. I am from Detroit and have frequented Comerica Park and Tigers Stadium many times in my life, I love the classic atmosphere that Comerica brings, but I see nothing wrong with the atmosphere and surroundings at the Trop. I also don’t care about the stupid arguments people try to make about the roof and all of the quirky aspects of the Trop. If it was an ancient dump like Fenway Park it would be considered a classic, and nobody would say anything negative about it. So please, until you actually go to the Trop and take it for what it is, quit bashing it.
So onto the Montreal angle- This past weekend The Toronto Blue Jays played two exhibition games at Olympic stadium in Montreal and naturally both games were close to sold out and very entertaining. And it was nice to see the excitement of the fans in Montreal. However lets not act like it was not going to happen that way. Montreal has not had a major league game played in nearly ten years, a simpleton could have predicted that the fans are going to sell out the stadium and long for a team to move back after not seeing one for a decade. I have no issue with that at all, the issue I have is that everybody assumes it should be the Rays.
Major League Baseball will not and should not up route a very successful team like the Rays, and dump then in Montreal. If anything people should be talking about the dumpster fire that is in the Miami Marlins and how they draw similar to the Rays, finish in the bottom 3rd of television ratings, and have not been competitive for years as the team that should leave Florida for Canada. Perhaps if Tampa Bay was losing 100 games a year like the Marlins do every year I would listen to all of these talking heads about making a change.
The Tampa Bay Rays are one of the best run franchises in all of sports. Period. You can try to argue that and you will simply look like a fool. The location of the stadium in St. Pete is a HUGE problem but hopefully something can be worked out in the future to get them to the greater Tampa area. Again, everybody seems to be at a stalemate on both sides of that fence but that is the answer to the attendance problems. The Rays will continue to be competitive regardless of fan attendance and as long as they remain profitable a move to Montreal is ludicrous. Montreal deserves a franchise again and should get one eventually but the Tampa Bay Rays won’t be that franchise and shame on anybody that thinks they should be.
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