Could the Rent Become the Home of the Tampa Bay Rays?

[Purple Stein]

Are you enjoying your power outage?

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Now that I "see" that POS stadium ... fond memories.

 

[whaler11]

The best market with no team is Portland.

 

[JMick]

The best market with no team is Portland.

god the battered b***** of baseball was such a good doc

 

[Vowelguy]

but there was interest in building a park in Portsmouth NH area.

Bahahaha. No. At best that area could support AA. Rockingham Cty has 300k residents.

 

[UConnNick]

This is what baseball at P&W Stadium would look like. A screen fence (so fans can see through it) probably 50 feet high in LF. This photo, as you probably know, is the LA Coliseum, where the Dodgers played on this ridiculously configured field while they waited for Dodger Stadium to be built.

 

[Dooley]

Portland, OR, Montreal, and Nashville would be my top 3 cities for relocation. Tampa/St Pete is a horrendous baseball market. If it can't/won't support the Rays, it doesn't deserve a team. The Rays are one of the smartest franchises in all of baseball. If MLB puts that in a market that actually supports it, it would be the best thing for baseball and the franchise.

 

[huskyblooz]

god the battered b***** of baseball was such a good doc

Best sports documentary ever!

 

[LoyalFanCT]

If the Rent cannot be used for baseball park (that photo from UConn Nick is great) what about Danbury? Close to New York State, Connecticut could eat away at some of the Yankee fan base. When UConn football was decent we were getting close to 40,000 fans at a routine venue. Isn't that what an MLB team needs?

 

[Vowelguy]

If the Rent cannot be used for baseball park (that photo from UConn Nick is great) what about Danbury? Close to New York State, Connecticut could eat away at some of the Yankee fan base. When UConn football was decent we were getting close to 40,000 fans at a routine venue. Isn't that what an MLB team needs?

 

[Purple Stein]

If the Rent cannot be used for baseball park (that photo from UConn Nick is great) what about Danbury? Close to New York State, Connecticut could eat away at some of the Yankee fan base. When UConn football was decent we were getting close to 40,000 fans at a routine venue. Isn't that what an MLB team needs?

I think you missed the memo. We’re moving them to the XL (which will have a retractable non-collapsible roof), renaming them the “Devil Goats,” and requiring every hitter to have “Brass Bonanza” as their walk up music.

 

[uconnbill]

I'd even say Oklahoma City along with San Antonio would be good choices if not Montreal

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Charlotte would be worth consideration.

 

[HuskyHawk]

San Antonio yes.
Waco is closer to DFW than it is to Austin.

It’s roughly half way in between.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Portland, OR, Montreal, and Nashville would be my top 3 cities for relocation. Tampa/St Pete is a horrendous baseball market. If it can't/won't support the Rays, it doesn't deserve a team. The Rays are one of the smartest franchises in all of baseball. If MLB puts that in a market that actually supports it, it would be the best thing for baseball and the franchise.

Nashville is a great idea. Plenty of people and it would draw from Memphis and Knoxville. No other team nearby except maybe the Braves.

 

[Stainmaster]

Again: OP is not a serious poster. He’s been yanking everyone’s chains for years.

 

[UconnU]

Montreal in the AL east would be fantastic. Beyond the Toronto rivalry, Sox and Yankee fans in VT and upstate NY would be in heaven. It is such a no brainer. Just need a new stadium

Road trips would be a blast

and …

Unlike most of our Northeastern cities - excepting Boston, NYC, Phila - Montreal has grown to over 4.4m in Greater Montreal & nearby population is fairly significant. That's a 20%+ growth since 1999. The Land by the Bell Centre? Sold to the big developer Cadillac Fairview in 2008. Been talking stadium ever since.

There’s a reason why there aren’t more Canadian pro sports teams(outside of hockey). Canadians on average make less money and have significantly less expendable income. Like take Montreal for example; the average annual income is $35,000. That would easily be the poorest major US city. Jackson, Mississippi the poorest us cities average income is $46,000. That’s not even taking tax burden into account. There’s just less money to be made in Canada.

 

[whaler11]

just the lamest troll in internet history

 

[Vowelguy]

just the lamest troll in internet history

Thank you for your interest in UConn athletics.

 

[Dooley]

Nashville is a great idea. Plenty of people and it would draw from Memphis and Knoxville. No other team nearby except maybe the Braves.

Yes sir! Too much of a land gap between the Nats and Braves, IMO. Nashville can pull lots of people from nearby cities. Not to mention, it's proven to be a terrific NHL and NFL market.

Somebody above said Oklahoma City and I completely forgot about that city. OKC would be a great choice too. Bottomline: there are plenty of choices to move the Rays to.

 

[Rico444]

The Braves that just opened a 1.1 billion dollar stadium in 2017? I’d get cracking on the blueprints.

1.1 billion dollar publicly funded stadium

 

[whaler11]

1.1 billion dollar publicly funded stadium

yep they have some skin in the game with small bond payments for 30 years and I think put up some up front money but yeah they arent looking for a new home...

 

[Rico444]

yep they have some skin in the game with small bond payments for 30 years and I think put up some up front money but yeah they arent looking for a new home...

Yeah it wasn't completely publicly funded, but the stadium was just 20 years after they built Turner Field and there was some controversy over using public funds for a stadium that wasn't a necessity. If they left a few years after that and left the county with the bill there would be a riot.

 

[whaler11]

Yeah it wasn't completely publicly funded, but the stadium was just 20 years after they built Turner Field and there was some controversy over using public funds for a stadium that wasn't a necessity. If they left a few years after that and left the county with the bill there would be a riot.

i saw a game at Turner the last season. it is probably the most egregious example of a city rolling over for a team beyond Miami.

 

[Rico444]

i saw a game at Turner the last season. it is probably the most egregious example of a city rolling over for a team beyond Miami.

I've never been but I had always heard that it was a beautiful ballpark.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yes sir! Too much of a land gap between the Nats and Braves, IMO. Nashville can pull lots of people from nearby cities. Not to mention, it's proven to be a terrific NHL and NFL market.

Somebody above said Oklahoma City and I completely forgot about that city. OKC would be a great choice too. Bottomline: there are plenty of choices to move the Rays to.

OKC is awfully small for a pro market (although Milwaukee has a team). Not much around it other than Tulsa and Wichita. Wichita is a good baseball town, but they are pretty solidly Royals fans. Dallas isn't that far either.
List of metropolitan statistical areas - Wikipedia

South is under-represented in MLB. Nashville and Charlotte stand out to me as good options. Austin-San Antonio combined is a very big market, but Texas does have two teams now.