All the geeky math on a Tampa #Rays stadium so far: http://t.co/7Cv8kqNRKB #StadiumSaga
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) August 10, 2013
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) August 10, 2013
ICYMI: What Bob Buchkorn & Ken Hagan said Friday…and what they didn’t on a #Rays stadium in Tampa: http://t.co/Dr682Kl9X9
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) August 10, 2013
@noahpransky That's honest, I guess. But hard to know what it's worth spending without estimating net revenues.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) August 10, 2013
Mayor @BobBuckhorn: $200-$300M from #Rays would be necessary; city would need to kick in $100-$150M. (via @graysonkamm)
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) August 9, 2013
Tampa’s proposed $100m for Rays stadium is only worth half that http://t.co/D9ZnbWeKto
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) August 8, 2013
Tampa readies Rays stadium task force, now just needs any idea whatsoever for how to pay for stadium http://t.co/43krUgGt0v
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) August 7, 2013
@NickCubero @Rags2Rockets @JeffWMason @darrenrovell Tampa Bay Rays struggle to fill seats after winning. http://t.co/UAEY840vKF
— Troy Kirby (@SportsTao) August 9, 2013
Predicate reading for this subject is Noah Pransky's Shadow of the Stadium blog
http://shadowofthestadium.blogspot.com/ and Neil de Mause's Field of Schemes blog: http://www.fieldofschemes.com/
Tampa Bay Rays wearing retros tonight that they of course never wore pic.twitter.com/ry0J0u0KwF (H/T @sportslogosnet)
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) July 6, 2013
Much as I try to follow the Tampa Rays new stadium and attendance saga, in the end, it usually makes me think of the dog-chasing-its-tail, and the dog thinking that its making progress when actually it's doing nothing of the sort.
In following this story it's hard not to notice that of all the many criticisms of the Rays attendance problems over the years, many rather predictable, it's hard not to notice that many in the Tampa Bay area media are reluctant to say what I've always thought, perhaps because they really don't want to think about how truly insignificant the Tampa Bay area is in the whole national scheme
of things, baseball or otherwise.
(And that's in NOT adding southern Orlando or certain Polk County residents to Tampa Bay's overall population to make it seem larger, as I have seen some places, as if to justify the current situation.)
The problem with the Rays isn't with the location of the stadium, it's the location of the team.
(Just like with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.)
I don't think it matters where the Rays stadium is, the team won't draw enough fans regardless of where you place the stadium.
Along with two friends, we controlled four seats for an Oriole 17-game mini-season ticket plan for the first 8-9 years of them playing near the Inner Harbor, and I personally went to 20-25 home games a year (out of 81) despite living in Arlington County, though those long weeknight games and the drive home to Northern Virginia often made me useless at work the next
morning until I'd had enough coffee with hazelnut cream to mellow me out, i.e. around 10:45.
In my opinion, Charlotte, Nashville and San Antonio would all do a better job of consistently drawing baseball fans on a yearly basis simply because there are MORE middle-class income people living within 45 minutes of wherever they put the stadium, because there are more middle- management jobs there to begin with. Period.
Those cities have a more diversified economy than the St.Pete/Tampa area and greatly benefit from that.
Tampa Bay is what it is, but diversified it is not, just like South Florida over-dependence on tourism and real estate.
@StadiumShadow https://twitter.com/StadiumShadow
@fieldofschemes https://twitter.com/fieldofschemes
