Sources: Rays to explore playing in Montreal

Ex-Rays plan for split city is dead

'Where' it died is the big question IMO

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Its pretty obvious no?
The only reason this (insane) idea was ever floated was a ballpark. They were not willing to pay in the Big Ow

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Montreal can now deal with far more important things that need attention in the city which I'm sure many people are quite happy about.

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Doesn’t seem like it was the Montreal party that pulled out. The Peel Basin development can work with or without a ballpark so the article is saying the rest of the plan can still move forward

What I think happened is during the CBA talks the PA said it’s a non starter and it’s not a hill that the owners want to die on. There hasn’t been a statement from Manfred or MLB eithi

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Seems reasonable what you are saying. What I’d like to know is does MLB actually want/prefer a team in Montreal or not? Or is this too simplistic a question without talking about a state-of-the-art gaga type stadium in the same breath?

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I think if MLB didn’t want a team in Montreal under any circumstance, they would just let them know early and no one has to waste anyone’s time.

I see no way a stadium is built on spec.

Question now is how can the folks in Tampa Bay can cobble one together now

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Oh Peel Basin works either way I am just arguing against Montreal ever getting a whiff of MLB if all they can offer is the old stadium

Big bucks to redevelop the waterfront area so of course it goes ahead

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Tampa already said they will welcome Rays home with a new stadium
Rays are actually in St Pete right now where the old stadium is located (St Pete is the one saying no to building)

The Lightning also used to play there but they also moved away (1996) so teams leaving St Pete is not new

I’m sure Tampa will welcome them with open arms. Figuring out who pays what for the stadium is real ticket in. :smiley:

I don’t think the Rays want to stat in St. Pete’s. With a new mayor just getting sworn in, I wonder how flexible they’ll be with a lease buy out

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This desire to leave St. Pete is very old of course.

The battle with relocation in that area of Florida, or in many places in Florida, is the local neighbourhoods who do not want anything interfering with easy access to medical facilities and the local Publix supermarket.

You’ll bring every cranky Florida retiree off their morning coffee chair in large numbers once anything of the sort is pitched.

And so perhaps they will scout a venue inland that is not slated for residential development, and there are fewer of those than ever.

Then you get into the issues of any such relocation being a “commuter sports park,” but of course make it a theme park area and there might be something so long as you can get around Disney’s sneaky lobbyist clout via Tallahassee (they don’t want any competition well beyond merely Orlando).

Ah, Florida is going to Florida, and well some things I do not miss though right now no doubt the sunshine and the Gulf Coast beaches.

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Maybe MLB should have just left Florida with spring training games come to think of it, I don’t know, but that did seem to work quite well for so long.

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Arizona also was spring training back in the days before the Diamondbacks

I’m torn; those teams seem to have brought tons of issues with them but I totally get how MLB / NHL / CFL all wanted expansion there

It 's done with a potential expansion fee of 1.5 to 2.5 billion US dollars I cannot see a team in Montreal .

If anything I can see Rogers selling a portion of the team or all of it if they want some capital to someone .

Maybe a more viable option for Montreal is to Share the Jays .

Get 30 - 35 home games spread out .

They won't get the summer only games or any April games but it will get probably some dates in May , June , July , Aug and September spread out nicely . A. home series here and there and the Rogers brand gets more access to the Quebec market will piss off some but they would at least look at it .

That makes it a whole lot easier in sharing a team and a market a couple hours drive away in the same country than the Florida scheme .

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Rogers is reportedly going to put 200-250 million into renovating Rogers Centre. Can’t see them putting that kind of money into the place just to play part of their season in Montreal.

I think it’s going to be quiet for a bit while the powers that be try and figure out a stadium plan in Tampa Bay. If that fails, I could see Brofman buying a stake in the Rays, get the stadium plan going again and move when the lease is up.

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But it could pay for those Renos with a buy in by a minority owner in Montreal .

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Well all, I figure the entertainment value provided by this very thread, all at a cost of somewhere close to $0, might have provided us with more entertainment value than do the Tampa Bay Rays for the locals since perhaps 2010, which is when I moved to that area and began to learn the local reality.

Seriously, the local loud mob of Yankee fans and tourists who stop by for the games in the same division, who are part of the deliberate reason the Tampa Bay Rays even were founded, are vastly more entertained and fleeced than any locals.

The likes of such a reality for the Rays are hardly unique for sake of pro sports teams in Florida.

The local feeling in the Tampa Bay Area about the Tampa Bay Rays might be akin to how you might feel after the in-laws or that weird aunt or uncle were invited, as you secretly hope your "unvitation" works or that they don't show for some sudden reason.

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Via Field of Schemes

I can report such a study or survey was already done around 2015. and I can share the number one answers for the survey with you here today.

But first let’s discuss what this “survey” really is. This is a classic public relations homer piece by local media establishment to promote whatever likely is in the works now if the case.

Whoever tallies the votes makes the final difference for any local homer “reporting” you see.

Now to share the real #1 answers, which will never be published or shared of course, from Tampa Bay locals just like back n 2015:

  1. Where should the new stadium be located?

Blockquote “Darned if I know, but it better not be anywhere near my neighbourhood or my Publix!”

  1. Who should pay for the stadium?

Blockquote “Well it definitely should not be me or the State of Florida. Maybe some snowbirds? It should be the ownership of the Tampa Bay Rays most of all, because they keep all the money anyway.”

  • The Tampa Bay Times is conducting a reader survey of where the Rays should build a new stadium and who should pay for it, which is going to be unscientific as hell — I just filled it out, in hopes that this would let me see the results so far, but no dice — but that’s modern journalism for you. At least team owner Stu Sternberg will be happy that the local paper is still flogging his new-stadium dreams, rather than moving on to some other news or issues that might also be able to use public money.

Is it just me or this Field of Schemes really has a hate on for owners.

Find it challenging to take them as a credible source.

Oh it’s not just you. He has a brand of course, but I do not agree it’s borne of mere haterade.

He cites plenty of data and media sources to back up his conclusions though.

It is however one of the lone centralized places that offers the counter-narrative to all that is pandered as “normal” by any given local media homers in on the fix with the local ownership of pro sports teams.

The degree to which the industry of driving vast sums of public money for private profit, especially for those who can afford so much at that, has become beyond obnoxious over the years is startling once you examine how all the money is flowing under the surface of rampant local public relations and various cover-ups.

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I agree with Paolo here, I think Neil from Field of Schemes is actually a sports fan, but he just has issues with how the rhetoric of publically funded stadiums, funded as such for the most part, are touted by owners of sports teams as such a “great deal for taxpayers”. He challenges that view with stats, at least the stats that can be had since much of the actual monetary stats are hidden from public view as he alludes to.

He’s not opposed to stadiums and arenas even with an amount of some degree from public funds but he wants to see the actual return to the community from this public funding. I think that’s fair. Hey, I’m a huge CFL fan but I’d like to see return of the investment to the city if the city is putting in multi millions to an arena or stadium in the first place. If this accounting can’t be done from the outset, then cities or municipalities shouldn’t be spending money on an stadium or arena unless this is viewed as a “public resource” then there should be free skating time for the public at the arena and as well free soccer, football, lacrosse whatever for high schools and that at the stadium.

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