- FLORIDA'S BASEBALL FAILURES: Rays beatwriter Marc Topkin lands above-the-fold today with a look at why, entering their 20th season, the Rays have not been able to prove Tampa Bay is a viable baseball market...and why so many around MLB are disappointed in the Florida baseball experiment. (Yet Commissioner Rob Manfred still maintains he's "optimistic.")
- SHADOW OF THE STADIUM: Get caught up on everything you may have missed in the last week, from Stu Sternberg's non-news news to the nitty-gritty on new stadium revenues to how much you should really pay attention to the Tampa Bay Times' annual Rays frustratitorial.
- PAYING FOR A PARK: Joe Henderson strikes the perfect pitch in a column about why the Rays are stuck between a rock and a hard place moving forward on the Stadium Saga. Hint: it's the same reason this blog has lamented about for years...neither MLB nor the Rays want to foot the bill.
- UNCERTAINTY: Times columnist Dan Ruth muses about the lack of certainty in the Rays' future, especially when it comes to paying for a stadium.
- FLASHBACK: Here's a 2015 Shadow post worth re-reading about why there's never been as much urgency on the Stadium Saga as some would have you believe. And the sequel post on why "the end is near" fears are unnecessary.
- CARTOON: South Tampa artist Charles Greacen turns the Stadium Saga into a political cartoon.
- MONTREAL: MLB has reportedly told Montreal it can play Rays-Jays home games at Olympic Stadium in 2018, but that would require either the City of St. Pete or the Toronto Blue Jays to give up three home games, which is unlikely. Meanwhile, Maury Brown reports Montreal isn't as close to landing a team as they'd like to think.
- BASEBALL: And of course, there's all that on-field stuff too. The Times has a nice special section this morning worth picking up. Or, find the coverage online.
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Regarding the Montreal situation, Maury Brown is addressing all the important facts. This is what Bronfman, Garber and Coderre are saying over the past few days. They did everything that was requested by MLB at this time. And they will start the engine/the machine when MLB will tell them what are the next steps.
ReplyDeleteThe only missing (and very important update) piece of information is what John McHale JR told Jeremy Filosa regarding internationalization of baseball.
Use Google Translate to get more details.
http://www.985sports.ca/baseball/nouvelles/la-une/baseball-majeur-des-matchs-reguliers-a-montreal-de-829405.html
This is another example that justify that expansion will occur at some point in time, once the Rays/A's stadiums issues are resolved.
Stay Tuned!
With my hometown Pirates opening the season at Fenway in Bahstun, it reminds me of a large factor in the city investment in stadiums vs revenue debate that always gets overlooked by this blog for obvious reasons...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2017/03/29/architecture/red-sox-revamp-boston/index.html
Yup. No way anyone was moving into the heart of Boston without re-doing that Fenway Park!
DeleteMontreal won't be getting a team. You can take that to the bank. Per the FieldofSchemes site: "Montreal all set to get new Expos — oh wait, false alarm, never mind.".....Just because 100 people or so in Montreal would like another team, does not mean they will be getting one.
ReplyDeleteZzzzzzzzzzzz........
DeleteYeah Red Sox - all done with private money.
ReplyDeleteFenway was renovated with private money, but the team also landed some under-the-radar historic landmark tax breaks that helped pay for it.
DeleteWhat was the value of those tax breaks?
Delete