MLB expansion price is $2.2B

[mikecubs]

Land developer, Montreal baseball investors reach deal on potential stadium site

Stephen Bronfman-owned Claridge Investments and real estate development firm Devimco have reached an agreement to develop a plot of land for sale known as the Peel Basin, where a group committed to bringing Major League Baseball back to Montreal would like to build a new stadium.

Bronfman announced the deal at a gathering Tuesday night to honour his father, former Montreal Expos owner Charles Bronfman, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Montreal Expos' first season.

Stephen Bronfman, who heads a group of investors interested in bringing baseball back to Montreal, said Devimco would be responsible for the purchase of the land and would partner with his firm to develop the 950,000-square-foot site.

It wasn't clear how long completing the purchase would take.

Bronfman said he hopes to make an announcement in the summer, but he isn't too hung up on dates.

"We've moved steadily along with our development project for the site," Bronfman said. "We're going day-by-day."

He said planning is underway but certain details could not be divulged.

"When the time is right, we'll be announcing it step by step," Bronfman said.

Not much has changed on the MLB front, but Bronfman said he isn't worried about that either.

"I'm always positive," he said. "It's going slowly, but it's going and that's what is important."

The younger Bronfman admitted he purposely doesn't do a lot of press to avoid building up too much hype around baseball's possible return.

"At the end of the day, I'm not controlling the agenda," he said. "I'm trying my best to temper things, but with a positive temperament."

Many former Expos greats including Steve Rogers, Bill Lee, Andre Dawson, Denis Boucher and Claude Raymond were on hand in Montreal's Old Port Tuesday night to honour the elder Bronfman.

Charles Bronfman, 87, said he is convinced that his son's project is sound and that a proper stadium is necessary for it to succeed. His advice to his son was to remain patient.

"Hang in there," he said. "He's done a hell of a good job. He's got a lot of patience, played every card the right way."

The elder Bronfman was asked about the level of interest in the 50th anniversary of MLB's arrival in the city and recalled the days when Montreal was in love with baseball.

"There's something about being major league, there's a panache," Charles Bronfman said. "I think everybody loved it -- the team was exciting, and it was a lot of fun."

He said while the Jarry Park experience really sold baseball, the Olympic Stadium experience a bit "iffy."

"Unfortunately, we never made the World Series," he added. "That's my only regret by the way, not making the World Series."

The Expos relocated to Washington, D.C., following the 2004 season.

montreal.ctvnews.ca/land-developer-montreal-baseball-investors-reach-deal-on-potential-stadium-site-1.4431978

[mikecubs]

This is the 100% perfect location if they do this. It will be a development around the park ala the Atlanta Braves Sun Trust field. If no park they will still do development.

Bad news is there's been a set back in Portland (see other thread), plus in Nashville the mayor says no public money for a potential park since they are spending on upgrades to the hockey arena plus building an MLS stadium and they also have to spend on upgrades for the NFL stadium soon though nothing on that is official. I doubt Nashville is getting MLB any time soon. They also just built a new minor league baseball stadium a few years ago that can't be expanded for MLB. As always Oakland/Tampa MUST be solved 1st. Also the Canadian dollar is at 74 cents currently.

Pics from a few years ago of a park at this site. I hope they go with this design. It included ivy on the outfield wall ala Wrigley







Then later they came out with this crap(YIKES)

[Bruinsfan]

Mike what you think on this 2 city thing....IMO it will be a soft relocation to montreal full time.

[wolfmannick]

Jun 20, 2019 12:36:10 GMT -6 Bruinsfan said:

Mike what you think on this 2 city thing....IMO it will be a soft relocation to montreal full time.

Reminds me of when the Expos were on the way out. Almost like they are testing the market in MTL

[mikecubs]

Jun 20, 2019 12:36:10 GMT -6 Bruinsfan said:

Mike what you think on this 2 city thing....IMO it will be a soft relocation to montreal full time.

Doubtful this would work especially if both markets need new stadiums like the article said. Tampa wouldn't need a roof with only early season game but it would still cost around $700M. Same for Montreal. Would both markets have dumb enough politicians to pay the full cost of a stadium for half the games? If you make the Rays owner pay for at least half in both markets you lose whatever advantage you gain in attendance.
I think this is leverage. The Rays are supposed to have an answer if a new stadium in St. Pete would work this summer(it won't too far from downtown Tampa). My bet is the Rays are going to say St. Pete will work for only half the games and they want to pay for next to nothing to build it. St. Pete will say no then the Rays will say let us talk to Tampa again, if you don't who knows what will happen after 2028.

[mikecubs]

FYI, Passians said the Rays TV was bad, that's not true anymore. They got a new deal that pays over $80M. Not sure if he's aware of that or not.

[Tim]

I see Justin Trudeau warming up his Canadian Tax payer check book and getting ready to buy more votes in Quebec.

[mikecubs]

Tampa Bay Rays’ Montreal split-season bid dead for now, Kriseman says
The mayor announced Wednesday he is not going to grant permission to the team to explore its split-season concept for before 2028.

Mayor Rick Kriseman will not allow the Tampa Bay Rays to split their season between the Tampa Bay area and Montreal.

Instead, he said both the city and team will abide by the contract that locks the team into Tropicana Field through the 2027 season.

“Both parties have agreed that the best path forward is to abide by the existing use agreement,” Kriseman wrote in a Wednesday memo sent to City Council. “In accordance with the existing use agreement, should the Rays Organization wish to continue exploration of the shared season concept with Montreal, that exploration must be limited to the 2028 season and beyond.”


The mayor’s announcement represents the latest setback in the Rays’ decades-long quest to secure a new stadium in the Tampa Bay area, and it leaves the future of Major League Baseball in the bay area as muddled as it has ever been.

Now that negotiations are off the table, the clock continues to tick toward the end of the 2027 season. That is the last year through which the Rays are contractually obligated to play all its home games in Tropicana Field. When the Trop contract ends, the team would be freed from the now 30-year-old dome and could leave St. Petersburg and play wherever it wants.

The team’s latest idea was to split the season between two cities: The Rays would play home games in two new, open-air stadiums, one somewhere in the Tampa Bay area, and one in Montreal. The team wanted to have that arrangement in place by the 2024 season.

But the team’s contract even forbids the team from negotiating to play elsewhere before it expires. That meant the Rays needed St. Petersburg leaders to approve letting the team explore the 2024 Montreal plan.

In his memo, Kriseman told the team he will not grant that request.

Rays officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Kriseman’s statement.

The mayor’s memo comes after a series of meetings between team and city officials. The third and last meeting, according to a review of the mayor’s calendar, was Aug. 28 at Edge District restaurant Dr. BBQ.


It was unclear what prompted the mayor to announce his decision on Wednesday.

The meetings commenced after Rays leaders announced over the summer their wish to explore the split-season concept, believing that expanding the team’s brand across two markets and playing baseball outside during the nicest parts of the year in each location — the spring in Tampa Bay and the summer in Montreal — would solve the team’s attendance and financial woes. The Rays ranked second-worst in attendance during the 2019 season, even while they were engaged in an exciting American League wild card race. Only the Miami Marlins drew fewer fans.

Kriseman said the team also rebuffed his offer to allow them to look at stadium sites across the Tampa Bay region for a full-time stadium.

The mayor also said the city will move forward with developing at least part of the 86-acre Tropicana Field parcel, where the city has offered to build the Rays a new stadium in St. Petersburg.

He also reaffirmed St. Petersburg’s commitment to contribute public dollars should the team wish to build a full-time stadium in St. Petersburg. But the city will not help pay to build a stadium for a part-time team, the mayor said.

www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2019/12/04/tampa-bay-rays-montreal-split-season-bid-dead-for-now-kriseman-says/

[mikecubs]

What an absolutely f##cked franchise. The split city screwball thing won't ever work. It don't make sense to have 2 part time stadiums and neither city would feel the team is theirs.

Rays options are

1. Work out a new stadium deal with ST. Pete far away from the city population(this is by far the worst option)

2. Build a stadium in Tampa. Tampa probably can't contribute enough money since the Rays can afford to pay for so little. The cost of a roof which you absolutely need for the rain/heat is crushing. If you could somehow pull this off the Rays can keep their nice local TV deal(they do get good TV ratings despite the horrific attendance)

3. Move to Montreal. The Canadian dollar is at 76 cents and the Canadian public mostly hasn't come to terms signing free agents over 30 doesn't work anymore with steroid testing. A couple years in there will be a "conspiracy" against them if whatever owner the new expos have doesn't comply with their wishes. It will be the owner is a secret American who wants to move the team since he won't sign all these old free agents. Also Canada's white population is in demographic free fall. Immigration is mostly from non baseball countries(very little from Latin America).

4. Move elsewhere in the US. There's not that many options. Portland, Vegas, Nashville are all kind of smallish for what they have. Vegas spent an insane amount of the Raiders, Nashville spent to renovate the Preds arena and are going to soon do the same for the Titans. Portland typically doesn't give public $$$ for sports.

There very well may not be an option for the Rays. This is going to drag on and on and on............

[mikecubs]

Rays’ Stuart Sternberg: Aim is Montreal split plan for 2028
Principal owner says staying full time in Tampa Bay remains unlikely, so the focus remains on sharing games with Montreal.

Splitting future seasons in Montreal remains the most likely — and probably only — way to keep the Rays in the Tampa Bay area, principal owner Stuart Sternberg said Tuesday, calling the chance to instead stay in a new full-time home even less than the previously phrased “highly unlikely.”

Despite their timetable for sharing games being pushed back to 2028 with St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman’s “disappointing” but unsurprising refusal to allow a move before the end of their Tropicana Field use agreement, Sternberg said the Rays will continue to push hard for the Montreal plan.


“Something we would have liked to have happen in 2024-25 will happen in 2028,” he said.

Their work, primarily on determining the viability of a plan that calls for new open-air stadiums to be built in both markets, will be aggressive. That’s because he said they need to know in the next 12 months or so whether it will work as well as they expect. And, either way, to know by 2022, or 2023 at the latest, where they will be playing in 2028.

If the sharing plan can’t be worked out, Sternberg said he would either then start looking for a new home elsewhere or, more likely, sell the team to someone who would move it.

But staying full time in the Tampa Bay area, in Pinellas or Hillsborough, remains the least likely solution given their failed previous attempts.

“I’m open to any conversation,” Sternberg said. “They’d have to show me why it would work. We did work previously, we spent years on it. Some of the really solid business leaders, earnestly, and in a caring fashion, tried to make it work. But if there’s a genie in a bottle somewhere that wants to show me why it would work — I just can’t envision it. You never say never, but I can’t envision it. It’s less than highly unlikely.”

And if they were to consider it, he said a Hillsborough site would “no doubt” be the choice over St. Petersburg, but Hillsborough options “don’t seem to be viable enough” either. “It doesn’t get over the bar for full season,” he said. “Is it more (attractive) than St. Pete? Yes, because St. Pete is not happening.”


Among other things in an interview with Tampa Bay media and then a talk just with the Tampa Bay Times at baseball’s winter meetings, Sternberg also said:

• They are not looking to break their lease at the Trop to leave before the end of the 2027 season. “It could come to that but that’s not the way I’m approaching it,” he said. A potential reason they might, he said, was if they had the sharing plan in place and agreed with the mayor who replaces Kriseman that it made sense to move the date up. “There will always be a discussion but I’m not putting that into the equation,” he said.

• If the sharing plan doesn’t prove viable, Sternberg said he would not look to move the team to Montreal full time since he didn’t think that would work. But he left open the possibility to be convinced if the group there, led by Steven Bronfman, found corporate support “far in excess of what I anticipated they could prove themselves” to be a permanent home. “Right now I think there are better full-time markets than Montreal,” he said.


• He has not “even scratched the surface” on details elsewhere, though markets such as Las Vegas, Nashville, Portland, Charlotte and Orlando have made public pushes. “There’s no secret that multiple people have reached out to me and others multiple times over multiple periods to move this team to their city and I haven’t had these conversations,” he said. “I’m not looking to do it. It’s not necessary for me to do it. That’s probably most important. And I’m not desirous of doing it.

“Their selling point is that you’re much better off, and they’re probably right. But I haven’t explored it. I haven’t thought about it. And even if we are better off, I’ve committed to myself and, and will maintain it, I’m going to do everything I can to keep baseball here for generations.”

Later, he said that was the reason he has persisted in looking for a Tampa Bay solution, even if it is part-time:

“There is one thread, and this is the thread: It’s my commitment to myself to get something done to ensure that MLB baseball is being played in Tampa Bay in 2050, and a team that can be relatively successful.”

• He has no interest in selling the team — and, before you ask, said he has had no conversations with Lightning owner Jeff Vinik about the team — but would consider doing so if relocating to another market was the only option.

“If the team had to move, I could see selling it and having it move before I had to move it myself,” he said. “I haven’t gone down this road enough in my head. I wouldn’t say definitely, but if this team for whatever reason had to eventually move I would envision somebody else doing it and not me.”

• The Montreal sharing plan, with a stadium in either Pinellas or Hillsborough, gives them “the opportunity to be relatively successful.” He said they project averaging 25,000 fans a game in each market. Of note, however, Sternberg said the initial numbers from the Montreal group look promising. "I’m more concerned about the viability in Tampa Bay than I am in Montreal,'' he said. "I could be proven wrong. But we’ve tried a couple of times in Tampa Bay. And the indications already I’m getting from Montreal are dramatically north of what we’ve seen in Tampa Bay. Maybe that’s because they don’t have a team and they want one, but whatever the catalyst, that’s where we are.''



Marc Topkin
✔
@tbtimes_Rays
Sternberg on when spending more makes sense, in an interesting peek into #Rays thought process, such as why standing pat is bad, as was Pat Burrell, a scenario where they’d trade their 4 best players, more www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2019/12/11/stuart-sternberg-rays-are-willing-to-spend-more-in-right-situation/ …


Stuart Sternberg: Rays are willing to spend more in right situation
Also, a peek into their thought process on why standing pat is bad, as was Pat Burrell, and other things they’ve learned.

tampabay.com
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8:44 AM - Dec 11, 2019
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He also referred to the plan to build a stadium in Ybor City that ended rather unsuccessfully last December due to what the team said was a lack of corporate support.

"Had the sponsorship numbers and had the support been, I won’t say overwhelming, but very whelming, very robust, our contributions — which is why I never pinned a number down — could ... have been dramatically more. But there was nothing really robust that was coming out as far as support over there, which didn’t give us the confidence to say, "Oh yeah, I could just go pay $550 (million) $600 million for a stadium.''

• The “cleanest” way to implement the sharing plan would be to build the new outdoor stadium in St. Petersburg, which could allow them to play a few additional (partial) seasons at the Trop while the new facility is built, and thus allowing them to first get the Montreal stadium built and the operation in place, then focus on the new Tampa Bay site.


“I have a sense there’d be better funding on the Pinellas side, there’s money set aside for it,” he said, but also noted that Kriseman said he won’t allow any public money to be used on a stadium for part-time use, and that he is in office through end of 2021.

Sternberg also noted that the Montreal group is further ahead in planning specifics, such as preferred stadium sites.

• Specifics of the plans, such as how the two new stadiums, at an estimated $500 million to $600 million, would be funded, are a big part of the work to be done during the coming year to determine viability of the plan.

“I don’t even know what it would look like,” Sternberg said. “I couldn’t tell you. If I had to pay for entire stadiums in both places, it can’t work, right? If I didn’t have to pay for a stadium in either place, it would work incredibly. So somewhere n between is that. I have a sense of what I think the corporate support would look like in the Tampa Bay area. I’m not being Pollyanna-ic that it’s going to turn into something incredible. There’s a range, right? ... It’s not going to move the needle. I have to live with the understanding that staying in Tampa Bay and relying on corporate support and season-ticket sales ain’t going to get the job done. But I’ve committed to myself to do everything I can to try to make it happen. And in a way, we’re using Montreal to keep baseball in Tampa Bay.”


• Though Kriseman’s decision was “disappointing” to Sternberg and the Montreal group, he remains excited about the plan — more and more every day — and is confident skeptics will eventually see the “brilliance” in it, adding that is certain other teams in all sports will be doing so in the future.

Though acknowledging the the players union will need to be convinced to grant what seems to many observers unlikely approval, and that details and accommodations such as stipends and arranged housing in Montreal need to be worked out, he is steadfast the plan is a good one, and others will eventually see it that way.

“This isn’t the first, second, third or fourth time the geniuses in baseball have been a little skeptical of stuff we’ve thought of or stuff we’re doing,” he said.

* Deciding where playoff games would be held is under the fun problems to have, and while the Rays initially suggested the sites would be alternated by yearly appearances, Sternberg said a more “equitable” plan might be to switch each series. So in theory the Rays could play the opening round in Montreal and then the next round in Tampa Bay.

www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2019/12/11/rays-sternberg-aim-is-montreal-split-plan-for-2028/

[mikecubs]

Mayor Jane Castor says she’s coming around to sharing the Rays with Montreal
The Tampa mayor is optimistic a deal can be worked out for the team to move to Tampa. And she says the Tampa Bay Rowdies would be part of a potential package deal.

Mayor Jane Castor says she’s an “eternal optimist” when it comes to keeping the Tampa Bay Rays in the region, and part of that confidence is her increasing comfort with the idea of the team playing half the season in Montreal.

“When I first heard of it — just immediately — it’s like ‘that makes no sense.’ But if you look at it from the perspective of baseball, the in-person attendance is dropping nationwide while TV is going up. When people are watching baseball on TV, they could have the two media contracts. And then you don’t have 81 games, which is difficult for even the most hardcore baseball fans to attend. So, you know, let them explore it. It’s something new," Castor said Wednesday in an interview in her office.


Castor has had several informal discussions with Rays co-presidents Brian Auld and Matt Silverman since St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman closed the door on the split-season concept two weeks ago.

The Rays have told her they’d like to have a stadium built by 2025, she said.

“This right now is just in pencil and notepad stage,” Castor said. "So it’s just going to take so much more negotiating and data crunching and, you know, looking at the possibilities.”

The Rays’ use agreement with St. Petersburg expires at the end of the 2027 season and Castor said the discussions were within “the 2028 arena.” But said she it would be “more than likely” the team would seek to work out a settlement with Tampa Bay’s second-largest city to shorten the contract if things work out across the bay in Tampa.

Redeveloping Tropicana Field’s 86 acres would be a powerful incentive for St. Petersburg to make a deal at that point, she said.

“That land clearly is very valuable,” she said.

And it’s her understanding the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the minor-league soccer franchise owned by the Rays, would also make the trek across the bay if a deal was struck.

“I think that clearly, you know, they own the Rowdies so wherever a stadium is built, that both teams would, I think...be a package," she said.

In a statement to the Tampa Bay Times Wednesday, Rays President Matt Silverman said: “We do and have always had a positive relationship with Mayor Castor, and we look forward to continuing discussions regarding ways we can collaborate to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay for generations to come.”

In the previous effort to woo the Rays, Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan was the point person. But when he reached out to the Rays Tuesday, Brian Auld told him the team was meeting with Castor.

Hagan and County Administrator Mike Merrill plan to arrange a meeting with the Rays sometime in January.

Although he doesn’t love the split-season idea, Hagan said he’s open to discussing it further. And he thinks the Rowdies and spring training should be part of any split-season deal.

“If it allows us to get to the negotiation table then that’s something we should consider,” Hagan said.

Castor said it’s way too early to talk about potential sites, although she did speak positively about locating a ballpark at or near the Florida State Fairgrounds near the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which recently underwent a major hotel expansion.

Orlando has recently expressed interest in a major league franchise, she said, and the northeastern edge of Tampa would be an easier drive for that market.

“It seems to be a good location. You have land there and it’s close to to Orlando. Again, that’s something for the Rays to look at,” Castor said.


For years, the Rays have downplayed the viability of the fairgrounds, but recently the site surfaced in comments by Auld.


Hillsborough leaders, led by Hagan, proposed a plan to finance a ballpark in Ybor City, which hinged on investment in a federally-designated opportunity zone. That plan for a $892 million domed stadium collapsed a year ago this month when the Rays deep-sixed it, citing a lack of details.


Rays executives also met with City Council chairman Luis Viera Wednesday in his council office. Auld and Rafaela Amador, vice president of public affairs and corporate communications, briefed him on the options for Tampa and Hillsborough.

Viera said the half-season concept hasn’t generated “a ton of excitement” so far, but he’s keeping an open mind.

“I’m not dismissing it as dead on arrival. I want to see a plan,” Viera said.

And the Rays will need to persuade Tampa and Hillsborough residents that it’s worth their time and money to support a team that would depart for cooler climes when the summer heats up.

When the Ybor deal was still alive, Viera said he would see Rays executives at nearly every civic meeting.

“They need to make the same level of vigorous engagement with the public that we had before when we had a whole loaf of bread instead of a half loaf,” Viera said.


Where Viera sees a half loaf, Castor sees a ballpark built for half the price of the nearly $1 billion Ybor proposal.

“We need to explore all of our options of keeping them here. If it means a split season and that’s viable, then we need to explore that,” she said.

www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2019/12/18/mayor-jane-castor-says-shes-coming-around-to-sharing-the-rays-with-montreal/

[mikecubs]

Rays president: It’s time to think about a new way to make baseball more successful here

A plan to split the Tampa Bay Rays’ season with Montreal is the best and quite possibly the only way to keep Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay, according to Brian Auld, Rays president.

An opportunity to play baseball out of doors in optimal weather conditions in each city in new stadiums built at lower cost than domed structures is one reason the “sister city” concept is worth exploring, Auld said in an interview with St. Pete Catalyst Publisher Joe Hamilton. The prospect of the team doubling its fan base and doubling its corporate support is another reason to consider a split season, he said.

The Rays have a lease that commits the team to playing through the 2027 season at Tropicana Field, owned by the city of St. Petersburg. The team was negotiating with Mayor Rick Kriseman over a possible shared season with Montreal until last month, when Kriseman issued a memo saying those talks were over.

If the Rays want to continue exploring the idea of splitting the team’s season between St. Petersburg and Montreal, it would have to be for the 2028 season and beyond, said Kriseman, adding that he continues to believe that the Rays will decide to stay in St. Pete full-time.


Brian Auld, Tampa Bay Rays president

In the interview with Catalyst, Auld said he and other Rays management have come to love living in the Tampa-St. Pete area, but the location presents challenges.

“We’re not a single large city. We are four to five individual municipalities with bridges that separate us and with challenging public transportation situations,” he said. “We’re also a very entrepreneurial environment … I love the quality and nature of the Tampa Bay business community, but it has fewer companies that can put down six- and seven-figure sponsorship deals than other markets that have Major League Baseball.”

In addition, baseball is a summer game, and many people who live in the Tampa-St. Pete area spend all or part of their summers elsewhere.

“Some of those challenges that are specific to the Tampa Bay area, we underestimated when we did our initial demographic analysis,” Auld said.

A new domed stadium could cost more than $1 billion, which is a heavy lift, he said.

“Our next hope is to bring in another market similar to ours, one that loves baseball,” he said. “If we can bring in Montreal companies, Montreal fans, we can generate a lot of tourism between both markets, we can double our television audience, we can keep our current corporate sponsors at the same level they are now and build a corporate base on top of it, you’re talking about a fundamental change to our business.”

Kriseman has said the city will move forward with redevelopment plans for the Tropicana Field site, with or without a stadium for the Rays.

The Rays have a stake in the potential redevelopment. The team’s use agreement gives the team the right to control anything that happens on the site, and if the Rays and the city want to partner in development on the site, the Rays would get half the proceeds from the sale of the land.

“It’s difficult to see a way that makes sense to start developing that 85-acre parcel in a coherent manner if you don’t know if, when and how long the team is going to be there,” Auld said. “Given that we continue to believe the Tropicana Filed site is a very viable site for the team, we don’t want to hamstring our ability to make it a great home for us down the road.”

Auld took issue with the idea that the Rays offered the split season as a leverage play. The team essentially is a free agent in 2028, he said, and could get much more of an upper hand by simply saying it wouldn’t be playing in the Tampa-St. Pete area after 2027.

Instead, the Rays have gone through difficult negotiating processes locally and with Major League Baseball to try to make the sister city concept work.

“We believe in this. We think it’s a great solution that gives us the possibility of putting a much higher payroll on the field year in and year out and allows us to be a competitive market in the big leagues in a way that there’s no other solution to,” he said.

Splitting a team’s season is an innovative idea but it’s also generated a lot of skepticism.

The Rays are used to skepticism, Auld said. He cited other initiatives the team has tried in the face of being told “you can’t do that.”

“You can’t start relief pitchers. You can’t win with the lowest payroll in the game. You can’t survive this guy leaving. You can’t have no star players who move on through free agency,” he said. “We’ve been doing the ‘you cant’s’ for long enough that we’re pretty excited about trying to do one more.”

Still, he understands the skepticism.

“This is a different, weird, new way of looking at sports. But we’re Florida. You can follow your home team anywhere with the way streaming works now, you have access to your teams wherever you are, and it’s time to think about a new way to make baseball more successful here,” Auld said.

stpetecatalyst.com/rays-president-its-time-to-think-about-a-new-way-to-make-baseball-more-successful-here/

[mikecubs]

So the Tampa owner doesn't think either Montreal or Tampa can support MLB full time and can average around 25,000 for half a season and the Tampa mayor is open to this. I'm starting to get a feeling this will happen. Tampa and Quebec BOTH have enough brain dead politicians to fund a $500M half time stadium. Tampa has always been a sucker for sports subsidies. The Tampa Bucs got one of the most team friendly deals of all time. Quebec built an NHL arena that will NEVER be used for the NHL due to the north/south civil war plus they keep shoveling money to Olympic Stadium.

I wonder how fans in each market would take this. Would Tampa fans think we only get the team at the start of the year then they are gone, screw this I will support the Lightening and Bucs instead? What about Montreal? Would they say screw this, this is only part time and they are not the Expos? Or would they be the Expos in Montreal and Rays in Tampa? LOL This is so minor league.

If this works Vancouver should shoot for a part time arrangement for a half season of the Grizzlies. Split the time between Memphis and Vancouver.

Taxpayers in BOTH Montreal and Tampa should revolt if either place passes a part time stadium.

I don't think this will become common with because you'd always have to find 2 suckers that would build a part time stadium but could this work with arenas and cities that aren't big enough to support both NBA and NHL full time but maybe some part time. For example could one day when the Florida Panthers lease runs out the renew but only for 31 games and maybe play 10 in the Orlando Magic's arena? Or the Coyotes play 10/20 games in Portland?

[Ric O.]

Baseball playoffs are pretty watchable if not downright compelling, but I have no idea how any team manages to find enough people 81 times a season to make a go of it, especially with all all the entertainment options these days. All the power to them but personally I think putting a team back in Montreal would be a losing proposition in the long run.

[mikecubs]

Dec 20, 2019 23:03:04 GMT -6 Ric O. said:

Baseball playoffs are pretty watchable if not downright compelling, but I have no idea how any team manages to find enough people 81 times a season to make a go of it, especially with all all the entertainment options these days. All the power to them but personally I think putting a team back in Montreal would be a losing proposition in the long run.

Baseball tickets are cheap compare to the other 3 sports since there are so many games and most of the season is during summer when kids are off of school. Baseball also isn't a 90+ capacity sport like the other 3. Usually for the season as a whole they are in the low 70s % capacity wise. They should cut down the season though to 154 games and eliminate a few of the early April get away days.

What blows my mind is how a city under 3 million like St. Louis can average over 40,000 per season year after year.