Answering the prayers of no one, I am back at the keyboard …
While I was gone, John Feinstein died suddenly at the age of 69. He was a reporter and a columnist of national prominence in addition to being a radio and TV contributor. Feinstein also found time to write dozens – literally – of books many of which made it to the NY Times Best-Seller List. My personal favorites are:
- A Season On The Brink
- A March To Madness
- A Civil War
I commend all three for your reading. John Feinstein is in the Basketball Hall of Fame and in the Sportswriters Hall of Fame; his passing leaves a giant void in sports journalism. John Feinstein seems to have found that sweet spot that exists wherein a person is opinionated and loveable at the same time.
Rest in peace, John Feinstein.
When I went on hiatus, things seemed under control in the Tampa/St. Pete area regarding the MLB Tampa Bay Rays. A couple of hurricanes had rendered their stadium useless and damaged beyond the point of repair. However, the Rays can play their home games in the Yankees’ Spring Training facility and its capacity is very close to the average fan draw for the Rays over the past couple of seasons. Added to that short term solace, the team and the poohbahs in Tampa/St. Pete had reached an agreement for a new stadium there that could be available by 2027 or 2028. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, it seems that the Rays are backing out of that Tampa/St. Pete deal. There was a March 31 deadline for the Rays to commit to certain financial and developmental aspects of the deal. Rather than wait and not meet the deadline, the Rays announced a couple of weeks prior to the deadline that the deal would be off.
Naturally, there can be further wheeling and dealing on this matter over the next several months; however, as of today the Rays’ situation is approaching a crisis for MLB. As of today, the Rays’ ability to use the Yankee’s Steinbrenner Field as a home venue extends to the 2025 season and no further. The idea of spending millions of dollars to try to “fix the roof” on Tropicana Field would be like taking several tens of millions of dollars and turning them into a bonfire; many folks think the stadium is a major cause of the Rays’ terrible attendance record.
There is a real and significant problem facing MLB; the Rays are part of that problem and the fact that the Rays may be in a precarious position regarding having a home field to play on could be a blessing in disguise.
- MLB has two franchises in the State of Florida and neither one draws flies.
- Rather than trying to cure this situation by “treating the symptoms” and building a gaudy new playpen, perhaps MLB should consider “treating the disease”.
Let me be clear; I am not a sociologist. Having said that, I can observe data and discern trends. In the case of the Rays, the team is generally a contender and has made the playoffs multiple times in the last decade by developing players and fielding a team on a shoestring budget. And local fans seem to care not at all …
[Aside: The situation in Miami with the Marlins is different. The Marlins also exist on a shoestring budget, but the Marlins usually wind up eliminated from contention by June 1st and command the attention of almost no one in the Miami area.]
For underlying reasons that I cannot pretend to identify with certainty, baseball fans in Florida seem to have had “their fix” soon after the end of Spring Training. Maybe that is when all the “snowbirds” go home and watch MLB games at higher latitudes; maybe that is the time of year when Floridians take up other activities that consume their spare time and discretionary income; maybe it is now time for MLB to consider picking up the Tampa franchise and relocating it.
And if that thought ever enters the cranial cavity of Commissioner Rob Manfred, there are several potential landing spots for the Rays:
- Nashville, TN: There is a history of successful minor league baseball there; there is an ownership group there who might acquire all or part of the transplanted Rays’ franchise. There are rumors that the Nashville group might also be interested in buying the White Sox and moving them to Tennessee. In terms of a TV market, Nashville is slightly larger than Pittsburgh, Baltimore and San Diego.
- Raleigh-Durham, NC: This is another place with a long history of minor league presence. In terms of a TV market, Raleigh-Durham is larger than Nashville and even larger than St. Louis.
- Portland, OR: There is an ownership group in waiting there and Portland is a TV market that ranks between Raleigh-Durham and St. Louis. The drawback here is that Tampa is in the AL East and Portland is anything but “East” in the US meaning that there would likely need to be more geographical jockeying by the AL to make sense of travel arrangements for teams.
The folks who run MLB like to make major changes about as much as they like to undergo major abdominal surgery. No one should expect there to be any serious consideration of these sorts of ideas just yet. Last year, the Rays drew 16.5K fans per game; the seating capacity of Steinbrenner Field is 11,026. Steinbrenner Field is “more conveniently located” than the now useless Tropicana Field; so, if there are significant numbers of empty seats for Rays’ home games, maybe that might convince the folks who run MLB that it is time to move on.
Another aspect of the situation here is that there is an ownership group in waiting in Orlando FL and one might suspect that moving the Rays to a point between Orlando and Tampa might produce a viable franchise. Looking at a map, that makes a lot of sense; driving that part of the world on Interstate 4 makes little sense. On that matter, there are my two cents…
Finally, let me close today with these words from John Feinstein:
“Never be proud of doing the right thing; just do the right thing.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………