OT: Thoughts on 2 cities sharing a sports team? | The Boneyard

OT: Thoughts on 2 cities sharing a sports team?

UconnU

UconnU

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Looks like this is a real possibility for the Rays. Sharing 2 cities in different countries at that! I don’t know why they don’t just relocate to Charlotte or Nashville but I digress, what are your thoughts on this concept? I kind of hate it.

www.espn.com

Rays to explore splitting games with Montreal

The Rays have received permission from MLB's executive council to explore a plan in which they would play early season home games in the Tampa Bay area and the rest of the year in Montreal, commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
UcannUconn said:
Looks like this is a real possibility for the Rays. Sharing 2 cities in different countries at that! I don’t know why they don’t just relocate to Charlotte or Nashville but I digress, what are your thoughts on this concept? I kind of hate it.

www.espn.com

Rays to explore splitting games with Montreal

The Rays have received permission from MLB's executive council to explore a plan in which they would play early season home games in the Tampa Bay area and the rest of the year in Montreal, commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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So 2 cities that don’t care about baseball have the same team? Now there can be 2 empty stadiums.

Players association will never allow it. For guys that spend 50% of their time away from home, not including spring training, this would be horrible. It’s like playing 75% road games as u won’t be moving your family between cities. It’s a PR stunt to get st Pete to give them a new stadium. People in Fl care more about spring training than real baseball lol
 
LIuconn said:
If I'm a player and have an interest in architecture, Montreal isn't a bad place to be in the summer/fall
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LOL. If you're a player, Montreal is not a bad place to be but it's not because of the architecture. Stats showed the Expos had over the years one of the biggest differentials between home record and road record in the Majors. Locals attributed it to visitors enjoying the nightlife.
 
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As already mentioned, in addition to the short-sighted idea of sharing a baseball team between two cities which don't care about the game, there are tax ramifications to earning money out of the US, another concern the player's union will raise as a reason to not support this really bad idea. Baseball is a really popular sport in Florida for high schools and somewhat for colleges and there's always Spring training when most of the fans are visiting and not residents, but MLB is not a big deal here and never will be, the Rays and the Marlins should move someplace where the product they are trying to market is a sport locals enjoy and will support.
 
Lousy idea for all the reasons mentioned. Nobody would want to play for that franchise. How do you buy a house or rent an apartment?
 
The demographic on this site must remember the Kansas City/Omaha Kings (Sacramento).

The dual city approach was pretty common in the ABA (pretty colored basketballs).
 
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Full name would be:

Tampontreal X-Rays

(Combination of “Expos” and “Rays”)
 
Robertelamin said:
There is no way two cities are going to build new ballparks for a part time team.
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I agree. But if it ever did happen it would be a baseball team. Half the games is still like 40+ games a year.
 
HooperScooper said:
Stupidest idea I've ever heard. Would you root for a team that was only half yours?
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Rays ownership has been terrible. Only sports team I’ve ever seen advertise for their opponents more than themselves in their home market. “Come watch your beloved Yankees play this weekend in Tampa!” Now they want to share their team with another city. Imagine being a fan of a team like this?
 
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UcannUconn said:
Rays ownership has been terrible. Only sports team I’ve ever seen advertise for their opponents more than themselves in their home market. “Come watch your beloved Yankees play this weekend in Tampa!” Now they want to share their team with another city. Imagine being a fan of a team like this?
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They have the best ownership group in MLB. The Mets crapped themselves not stealing Bloom.

43-31. Ridiculous.
 
I’m not sure Tampa is a pro sports city. I went to a Bucs Saints game a while back and there were probably as many Saints fans as Bucs fans. The guy directly in front of me was wearing a Chase Daniel Saints jersey which still cracks me up when I think about it
 
Fishy said:
Tampa has the whole team now and doesn't care.

They might have to bring a third city in on this one.
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St Pete is right by Tampa Bay. Could be a solid choice as a third. Tampa/St Pete/Montreal.
 
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Fishy said:
Tampa has the whole team now and doesn't care.

They might have to bring a third city in on this one.
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Governor Rowland always called Waterbury the center of the universe. I feel like the center of the universe deserves a third of a MLB team.
 
Baseball is 5-10 years away from contraction. I suspect the Players Union would be willing to try two cities sharing a team vs. Plan B.

Tampa Bay is drawing smaller crowds than UConn football. Anyone in that front office or the MLB office not thinking outside the box is the one with bad ideas. Splitting cities is not a terrible idea, because it cuts the supply of tickets in half in each city, while adding a second metro area population to the demand side.

The dodgiest part of the equation is getting a city to build a new stadium for a franchise on life support. I don't see why either Tampa Bay or Montreal would do that.
 
Robertelamin said:
I’m not sure Tampa is a pro sports city. I went to a Bucs Saints game a while back and there were probably as many Saints fans as Bucs fans. The guy directly in front of me was wearing a Chase Daniel Saints jersey which still cracks me up when I think about it
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Confusing to me that the area can’t support pro teams. That’s a pretty densely populated large area. 4.2 million people live in Tampa-St. Pete metro then 80 miles away you have another 2.5 million in the Orlando metro. And they’re like the type of people you would want too. Upper middle class, retirees. People with time and money. Strange. Maybe it’s just because many of the people are transplants and already have other favorite teams?
 
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