Rays Stadium Saga: Mail Time!

A couple of opposing letters in this morning's Tampa Bay Times (click here to read on Times' site):

Reader Larry Yurkonis from St. Pete writes, "I have never been as embarrassed to be a Rays fan as I was the other night when only 10,000 people showed up for one of the more important games of the year....if I owned the Rays I would have had enough.  Charlotte, San Antonio, and Nashville would be good places to start a discussion, and by 2015 I would be there."

Yurkonis may be frustrated, but he obviously doesn't understand the Stadium Saga's complexities.  Read this site more, Larry!

And reader Henry D. Reiss from St. Pete echoes a recent Shadow of the Stadium post, asking the Times why the editorial board has put all the blame of the Stadium Stalemate on the shoulders of Mayor Bill Foster.

"You seem to be implying that a new stadium is the answer," Reiss writes.  "Just look at what happened to the Marlins: a new stadium and still empty seats...why should I fight traffic and pay parking fees when I can sit in my living room and have the game brought right to me?"

---

Speaking of reader comments, a few interesting posts from this blog's readers:

In response to a post about John Romano's most recent Rays column, Brendan keys upon one phrase Romano wrote: Tampa Bay may decide to “pay the price to remain a MLB market.”

Brendan likens it to extortion.  That may be a bit extreme, but it's clear that building a stadium and winning a pofessional franchise isn't enough to keep a team forever.  There's the expectation - across all leagues - that if the community (any community) wants to retain its franchise, it should continue to cough up tens of millions of dollars a year in perpetuity.

Runner-up to best blog comment goes to "Situboy," who really encapusulates the purpose of this blog: to add perspective, fill in the blanks, and "leveling the playing field so we're not all speaking in platitudes and hyperbole."

"That (Shadow of the Stadium) points out fallacies in Sternberg or Selig's arguments is not an attempt to make Foster a sympathetic figure." Situboy wrote.  "Rather, they are culpable for telling us why they deserve a new facility...Though I think the Rays deserve better, it's their responsibility to tell us why they deserve a publicly funded facility -- especially one that could cost upwards of $600 MM. "

Keep the comments coming!