Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Flashback 2011: Foster Tried to Get Rays to Look at Toytown

Remember the Summer of 2011, when we thought the Stadium Saga couldn't get any worse?

St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster said the Rays "have 15 years left on their lease agreement ... so yeah, I'm holding on pretty tightly. If they want to look at sites within Pinellas County, I'm all for that."

But the Rays didn't want to look in Pinellas County without the right to look at Hillsborough too.  So here we are, five years later, with the Rays still refusing to consider a stadium at Pinellas County's Toytown property...but the city and county trying to figure out how to reserve money for them anyway.

Another thing that hasn't changed since 2011 - Field of Schemes' analysis of the Stadium Saga as a whole:
The real question that should be asked, meanwhile, is if the Trop is really "improper for Major League Baseball," why so many teams threatened to move there in the '80s and '90s in order to extract new stadiums from their home cities (off the top of my head: the White Sox, Indians, Giants, Rangers, and at least two or three more that I'm forgetting); not to mention why MLB ultimately gave St. Petersburg an expansion franchise in 1998 despite knowing where their home park would be. Has the definition of "improper" really changed that much in 13 years?
The good news is even at 17 years - the Rays still aren't close to leaving town.




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6 comments:

  1. MattOctober 6, 2015 at 7:49 PM

    To be fair, most teams were playing in their own concrete, multipurpose donut crypts back in the 80s and 90s. Blame Camden Yards, and our need to out-do everything.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 6, 2015 at 10:14 PM

    "The good news is even at 17 years - the Rays still aren't close to leaving town."

    You've gotta be kidding Noah.. really? Not "close to leaving town" - I disagree. The Rays are close to leaving town, and a lot sooner than you or St Pete think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Noah PranskyOctober 7, 2015 at 9:53 AM

      People have been posting that comment on this blog for six years. Yawn.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousOctober 7, 2015 at 11:41 AM

      Just like people have been posting that the Rays will get a stadium.... MLB is going "yawn"

      Delete
  3. AnonymousOctober 7, 2015 at 7:14 AM

    It will be quite awhile. The S4itstorm would be huge. MLB knows this. Rays aren't going anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousOctober 7, 2015 at 7:39 AM

      And who is actually going to create the alleged "S4itstorm"? - Rays have no fans and the local politicians will get their consolation prize of the Braves ST/MiL facility. Win win

      Delete

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