Being born and raised in Tampa and 34, I am more of a Bucs fan than a baseball fan. Having said that, I think the stadium should have been built in Tampa in the first place. They are not the “St. Pete Devil Rays” They’re the “Tampa Bay Devil Rays.” As for the new stadium, I think it looks great. One problem, the design. I thought the new ownership was going to change the name of the team.
Being born and raised in Tampa and 34, I am more of a Bucs fan than a baseball fan. Having said that, I think the stadium should have been built in Tampa in the first place. They are not the “St. Pete Devil Rays” They’re the “Tampa Bay Devil Rays.” As for the new stadium, I think it looks great. One problem, the design. I thought the new ownership was going to change the name of the team.
Exactly, they are not called the “St. Petersburg Devil Rays.” nor are they called the “Tampa” Devil Rays, so housing them in Tampa would be as much as a farse as housing them in St. Pete, by your own logic. The Carolina Hurricanes play in Raleigh, while the Panthers and Bobcats play in Charlotte. The Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Vikings, etc etc could play anywhere in the state and not be in contradiction of their title. The “TAMPA BAY” dub is meant to garner support from the Tampa Bay Area, which has proven successful for every “Tampa Bay team.” The only team to be called “Tampa” is the Single-A Tampa Yankees. Tampa is home to three of the four professional sports teams. I would say that the Devil Rays location in St. Petersburg is fine as is. It is convenient to the 3 counties which compose the Tampa Bay (the counties which border the actual bay=Manatee, Hillsborough, and Pinellas) Why not put them in Palmetto, Fl. That is technically “Tampa Bay.” The team has enough trouble with suppport, representing the cumulative Tampa Bay Area. The name is going to stick. Don’t get me wrong, I love St. Pete, Tampa, Manatee, Clearwater etc, the entire Tampa Bay area, I boast about the area all the time, but Tampa does not claim rights to everything. I would venture to say that more people who do not live in Hillsborough County go to Devil Rays games on a usual basis then those who do live in Hillsborough
My idea for a new park would be anything that the Devil Rays are willing to pay for themselves. I do not believe the taxpayers should pay one cent for a stadium as the Rays have plenty of money to do so. They have owners who are greedy and won’t pay for good players and now they want the taxpayers to pay for a new stadium. Let them refurbish the old one at their expense like the Red Sox do to 100 year old Fenway Park which is still standing and is one of the best parks in baseball.
I would propose to put the new stadium where the current Tampa Convention Center sits. Its an ideal location because of being on the water, similar to AT&T Park in San Francisco. If they were to build it downtown, revenues generated from parking that the city takes in for iteself would continue all year round considering the Lightning are there from October to (hopefully) June and the D-Rays from April to (maybe one day) October. Of course, if the stadium was built where the Convention Center currently sits, then another location for the convention center would have to be found. Plus, putting a Stadium near the water in Tampa would probably help inject some life into the downtown area. Think of all the people that work downtown that could stroll to the new ballpark and enjoy a game by the water after work. Even if it is not built in downtown Tampa, it should incorporate water somehow. I mean, our logo is a fish that swims in water, its only natural that water should be around the park. Just a thought.
A new baseball stadium in downtown Tampa would by a real joy. I do not go to many games because St. Pete is so far from my home. I live north of Tampa.
The rendition for the new ball park is beautiful. I just wish that it would actually come to fruition.
I sure hope that the braintrusts can figure out a way to make this happen. St Pete is not very accessible. If you are going to a 7pm ballgame and the Howard Franklin gets backed up, you miss the start of the game. Plus, the indoor ballpark is not even good as far as indoor parks go.
The dream has to come before the move. I’m glad to see the rhetoric getting started.
Build it in Tampa, and they will come.
All this talk about the a new damn stadium is getting really old. The Rays dont get a new stadium unless they win and give us(the fans) a reason to go to a damn game. The MGR is clueless. The players can hardly play fundamental baseball. The Team owners just realized we need bullpen help, HELLO we’ve needed bullpen help for the entire time we’ve been on the field. We’ve never had a good bullpen. Lou Pinella wanted us to get some pitching and we sat on our hands. So my question to everyone in Central Florida that goes to these games is, Why should the taxpayers pay for something that isn’t needed or deserved??? I for one will not be willing to give my taxpaying money for this idiotic idea. If they dont win they dont get a new stadium, plain and simple. Why are we even discussing this??
Hey folks......
Just about everything I’ve read here has merit. However, there is also merit that building a new stadium attracts new interest. We can only hope that the ownership would reinvest that income into the team.
Granted, we don’t have a winning team. They are terrible. But, I’m still glad that we have a team. I’m glad that we have a team to talk about and even criticize. The bottom line is, it is our team.
I dream about the day the Rays actually do something. I know, I know.......I can just hear the laughter. At this point, it’s justified.
Looking at things from just my one single opinion, I just know that I would go to more games if the team was more centrally located. I also know that we aren’t going to get any support for a stadium if the team continues to be a loser. The critics are right, too.
I’m simply a Tampa Bay Devil Ray fan “dreaming” that maybe one day we will have a winner and maybe a more centrally located stadium.
Of course.......I used to belive in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny!!!....LOL!!!
Wow, how exciting it is to read everyones opinion..It seems to me that everyone is wrong, if it was truelly up to us folks it would be a mess..,,,, wait a sec. it is a mess..!! Someone said it allready, its the transient area that this is, as far as baseball teams go, too many New York, Boston, Chicago fans live here. yeah maybe this town isnt ready for the big leauges???!! Football, ohh you know it, Hockey, not at first, but after the Stanley cup win, ohh yeah now we are all fans now right??? This area is weird, you know it, I know it, who we kidding. We only like winners, and if they dont win, we give up on them, so let ‘em move to another city! What can you and i do about it...NOTHING, why you may ask, cause when it comes down to it, we arent in control of that. some of us remember the bucs when they were up for sale, and we all gathered around chanting “stay bucs, stay” and selling out the last game against the Packers, which I had attended… but every game before was empty. You see we want these teams we just arent into it as much as they are up north. We are too busy Debating if St. Pete is better than Tampa. WHO CARE’S? you dont really do you?,....think about it.....................
Interesting comments all around. I still say downtown Tampa is the right location. There is room. There is nearby baseball history (West Tampa, Ybor City, Cuscaden Park, Belmont Heights, University of Tampa). There is a decent-sized work force for walk-up traffic, as well as significant residential and retail already under construction in the neighborhood. The money expended to improve vehicular traffic and mass transit access would be well spent, in that it could also serve convention center traffic, hockey traffic, concert traffic, Channelside traffic, Ybor traffic, Central Park traffic, Aquarium traffic. The problem is that if a site is not pursued now, the cow will have left the barn and all the real estate will be spoken for.
Let me throw this idea out there, just for grins! Although I am a Rays fan and supporter, maybe it makes sense to pursue a stadium independent of the Rays. Yes, I know there are many, many holes in this concept, but picture a state-of-the-art, somewhat retro, quaint, downtown Tampa ballpark. Fenway-size it at about 35,000 seats, vendors with hot-pressed Cubans and deviled crabs, cold beer and seats with more leg room and better sight lines than Tropicana. Keep your roof - rainouts are a part of the game, and I don’t mind bathing after a game in the mid 90’s.
Crazy? Maybe so. But remember how St. Petersburg ended up with the Tampa Bay baseball franchise? Maybe its not so crazy. Last I heard, the Marlins were looking for a baseball stadium. It would certainly put an interesting twist on the situation, if Tampa had a great facility and was courting a team. Who knows - with our expanding population, maybe a second MLB team makes sense! It would create quite a rivalry. One last thing - naming rights - I own them because its my dream sequence - the facility would be “Al Lopez Field”, and the team would be the “Tampa Smokers”.
Bottom line - wherever the stadium goes, or even if we’re stuck with Tropicana, let’s get this baseball thing going. Ten years of building for the future is silly. It’s a disservice to the area and to the players. Go Rays (or Smokers)!
A new stadium needs to be built for the Devil Rays, and there is no doubt it should definently be a retractable waterfront ballpark in either downtown Tampa or St. Pete. They need to bring in the designers from Pac Bell in San Fran and basically emulate that as closely as possible, because they fit so much on such a small piece of land. I feel its the only way to go.
The best location would be the Progress Energy site in downtown St. Pete. The view of Tampa Bay from the seats would be incredible, as it always was at Al Lang Stadium. You could back right field all the way up to the Bay, making our own version of the McCovey cove. The infield seats would be shaded making the game pretty comfortable even with the roof open. With all of the condo projects taking place in downtown St. Pete, the downtown community is growing in population, and significance, and could easily post great attendance record without alot of help from Hillsborough or other Northern counties who already do such a poor job supporting the team as it is, while still keeping the southern county people who do drive up to support the Rays in the loop. There is alot of nightlife already in downtown St. Pete, which the new stadium could add to, and plenty of great independent restuarants. This ballpark would be the perfect finale to the downtown expansion St. Pete is going through. This just sounds like too good of an idea not to do it honestly. The only issue holding this back is parking. The park next to the Yacht club would have to be replaced with a 2 or 3 story parking garage. But there are traffic issues with alot of ballparks, especially with the older stadiums. Its something you have to deal with in sports.
Downtown Tampa would be another great location. You could basically have the same design as I described for the St. Pete location, right by the SPTF, with leftfield along the Garrison Channel, the view is somewhat sacrificed, but still a pretty good one. It would help the downtown Tampa bars across from the Forum that seem to struggle, maybe even inviting new construcion along Channelside if business improved enough. If the city rerouted beneficial drive to branch from SPTF road they could snug the stadium right up against Channelside, which could really take off and provide a great atmosphere for a ballgame. The location is more central, and pinellas residents have already proven they will drive across the bridge to attend Bucs and Bolts games, and would be more inviting for Orlando residents, although it would be sacrificing the people south of the skyway from coming up possibly.
Either of these sites would be a great location for a ballpark and is what they should do. What they DO NOT need to do is just stick this stadium anywhere. All other suggestions were boring, and doenst capitalize on the potential beauty a waterfront park in Tampa Bay, FL would offer.
Tropicana Field is vastly inferior to new ballparks being built, and offers nothing. They are basically playing in a warehouse right now, its horrible, it doesnt use our enviromental assets whatsoever. A new ballpark is nessessary if the team wants to grow into a legit major league team. Unfortunantly, the reality is, they will be at the Dome for along time, because nobody is going to pay for this stadium.
Interesting comments all around. I still say downtown Tampa is the right location. There is room. There is nearby baseball history (West Tampa, Ybor City, Cuscaden Park, Belmont Heights, University of Tampa). There is a decent-sized work force for walk-up traffic, as well as significant residential and retail already under construction in the neighborhood. The money expended to improve vehicular traffic and mass transit access would be well spent, in that it could also serve convention center traffic, hockey traffic, concert traffic, Channelside traffic, Ybor traffic, Central Park traffic, Aquarium traffic. The problem is that if a site is not pursued now, the cow will have left the barn and all the real estate will be spoken for.
Let me throw this idea out there, just for grins! Although I am a Rays fan and supporter, maybe it makes sense to pursue a stadium independent of the Rays. Yes, I know there are many, many holes in this concept, but picture a state-of-the-art, somewhat retro, quaint, downtown Tampa ballpark. Fenway-size it at about 35,000 seats, vendors with hot-pressed Cubans and deviled crabs, cold beer and seats with more leg room and better sight lines than Tropicana. Keep your roof - rainouts are a part of the game, and I don’t mind bathing after a game in the mid 90’s.
Crazy? Maybe so. But remember how St. Petersburg ended up with the Tampa Bay baseball franchise? Maybe its not so crazy. Last I heard, the Marlins were looking for a baseball stadium. It would certainly put an interesting twist on the situation, if Tampa had a great facility and was courting a team. Who knows - with our expanding population, maybe a second MLB team makes sense! It would create quite a rivalry. One last thing - naming rights - I own them because its my dream sequence - the facility would be “Al Lopez Field”, and the team would be the “Tampa Smokers”.
Bottom line - wherever the stadium goes, or even if we’re stuck with Tropicana, let’s get this baseball thing going. Ten years of building for the future is silly. It’s a disservice to the area and to the players. Go Rays (or Smokers)!
Spike, its funny you mention this. Me and a few friends were joking about this very thing a few weeks back while watching the Rays wearing their St. Pete Saints jerseys. I suggested we brought the Marlins to Tampa and renamed them the Tampa Tarpons, moved them over to the AL to compete with the Yankees and Sox who both have a strong Tampa fanbase, and have the St. Pete Devil Rays move over to the NL. The idea went over well, with fantasies of an all Tampa Bay World Series, the Suncoast Series. If the Cali bay area can do it, we could do it too, especially if both teams were competative. Put them both in awesome downtown waterfront stadiums, and watch a rivalry grow. I think this could only exist in a playstation world though, but it is fun to imagine.
I would go for AL Lang Field in downtown St. Petersburg. It is more exciting to have a stadium in the city with nightlife and then if it is waterfront, that makes it all the better. But the stadium won’t happen for about 4 more years because it will be about 2009 when the Rays are serious contenders (once the pitchers are called up from the minors and the hitters all develop and are finally promoted). Then they have to renew the contracts of a lot of the players and then they have to agree on the stadium which will cost about a million dollars probably.
Being in St. Petersburg isn’t the easiest access but would definitely be the nicest and would bring in even more people probably to see what it’s like and then attendance won’t be much of an issue once they start winnning a ton of games in a few years
Understandably the Devil Rays have put a shabby team on the field during their existence, but to say that a new stadium would have no impact is ludicrous. The stadium is hidden in st petersburg and even the most avid fans can’t go to as many games as they would like. St. Petersburg is a ridiculous place for a stadium since its population is centered around retirees and vacationers. Relocating the devil rays to a tampa stadium would garner increased interest in the team as a more youthful following would emerge. Believe it or not, most people don’t go to baseball games to watch baseball, they go to enjoy a night out and hopefully good baseball is played. However, people don’t enjoy nights out when they have to drive thirty minutes and sit in a dead quiet room with a few thousand other people. A good example of the possibilities are the Pirates, who have been worse than the devil rays for longer. Recently they moved into a new stadium and continually draw 30,000 or more people per game. That should efficiently nullify the argument that people won’t come if the talent doesn’t improve. The new location and new stadium would draw more people and you just hope that ten years of high draft picks can eventually yield a servicable team. The devil rays need to focus on giving fans a decent experience instead of trying to convince them that the team will win at some point.
