Showing posts with label St. Petersburg (FL). Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Petersburg (FL). Show all posts

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Without a Shadow of a Doubt (or a Shadow of a Stadium) in MLB, it's Location, Location, Location and that's bad news for Tampa Rays. In my opinion, no stadium location in that area will ever suffice because the fundamental problem is there simply aren't ENOUGH middle-class baseball fans there to make it worthwhile. That area will always be the dog-chasing-its-tail when it comes to a new baseball stadium; @StadiumShadow, @fieldofschemes, @darrenrovell














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/



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.

This is completely unlike the situation with the Orioles and their shift from Memorial Stadium to Camden Yards, making it much more attractive and reasonable to Washington area fans to go during the week.

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.


 @fieldofschemes  https://twitter.com/fieldofschemes  
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Sunday, September 16, 2012

What voter fraud? Oh, THAT voter fraud! Robert Wexler of Palm Beach and suburban Maryland was the trailblazer! Maryland Democrat withdraws from MD-1 race after allegations she voted in 2 states -the other being -wait for it- Florida, are confirmed; What voter fraud? Joe Gibbons!


When I first heard about this story on Tuesday morning after reading the latest on the Orioles amazing winning ways in the Baltimore Sun's sports section -only ten times better than the Miami Herald's and or Sun-Sentinel's combined- I must admit that the political romantic in me hoped that the woman caught up in a political ethical scandal before she could even be elected to Congress, Wendy Rosen, was from either Broward County or Miami-Dade, so there'd be yet another South Florida angle to a political scandal, but sadly, she's from mundane St. Pete, the land of the equivocating (Charlie) Crists.


When she isn't from Maryland... 
But she's described by Politico as being a "Miami native," so we have that at least.

The day after Rosen dropped-out of the race, a newspaper story appeared that recounted how her opponent, Republican incumbent Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist, was involved in a life-saving rescue involving a small child on the road he was traveling on while campaigning.
Can you imagine? 

You don't have to be a political genius to know that the odds of a write-in candidate -John LaFerla- trying to fill the void of a major party candidate who drops-out and successfully map a battle plan that knocks-off a popular incumbent, with only nine weeks to go, has enough problems on their hands before a newspaper in the CD runs a headline that reads, essentially, "Incumbent saves boy's life."

But political reality is stranger than fiction.
Even in places not named Florida.

The Baltimore Sun
Democrat withdraws from 1st District congressional race after allegations she voted in two states
Rosen says she registered in Fla. to support friend there
By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun
9:50 a.m. EDT, September 11, 2012
Wendy Rosen, the Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Andy Harris in the 1st Congressional District, withdrew from the race Monday amid allegations that she voted in elections in both Maryland and Florida in 2006 and 2008.
It was unclear, however, whether she could remove her name from the ballot with the election less than two months away. Under state law, a candidate has until 70 days before an election to remove his or her name from the ballot. The deadline for the Nov. 6 election passed on Aug. 28.
Read the rest of the article at:

Harris saves boy's life along U.S. Route 50 
September 12, 2012 5:30 am 
Updated: 6:27 pm, Tue Sep 11, 2012.
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Wendy Rosen campaign website: http://www.wendyrosen.com/
Andy Harris congressional website: http://harris.house.gov/

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