Tropicana Field: Back to the Future

The Tampa Bay Times' Stephen Nolgren made a rare appearance in the opinion pages this week, writing "The view of the Trop from 1995": a look back at how the Rays' stadium saga started.

After his faily comprehensive retrospective, Nolgren makes two outstanding observations about where this soap opera is headed:

Certainly, the Trop's shortcomings contributed to the Rays' attendance malaise, but they are by no means the main culprit. The entire Tampa Bay region is simply a decent TV market with lackluster attendance potential that falls considerably below generic Chevrolet blah.
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But we are probably stuck with stadium conversations for another decade. So let's keep the Trop and its flaws in proper perspective.