The good news is that he is up for re-election this Fall and I am sure the voters will not forget his blunders: stadium deal, sweetbay, and oh lets not forget he assured the citizens the RNC security would not cost the taxpayers a dime…it came out this week it cost the city $30,000 (his numbers) paper reported it was $518K. Incompetence!

The VOTERS will speak and solve this problem or at least get it going in the right direction this Fall.

Now that that ownership and the commissioner have their new Miami stadium – look what has happened after they ripped off the public for all that money.

Let’s see who draws more fans this year – the contending Rays playing in a supposedly bad stadium OR the Blow Fish playing in a brand new stadium with zero parking and a miner league team on the field.

A new stadium is NOT the answer for the Rays. Better marketing and promoting what they do have is the best way to go instead of this constant bashing of the Trop and Tampa Bay fans by MLB (especially Uncle Bud) and team ownership.

1) FL (and the Deep South) will never, ever, ever (sorry) NOT be on their knees in credulous worship of their blessed church, i.e., FOOTBALL! Hail yeah, mayen! There are reasons that FL was and still is Spring Training Land. Lessee; transient/tourist state, poor infrastructure, bad economy, retirees, poorly-paid service people, idiots/local yokels who can’t sit still for longer than the length of an average high school football game, etc. It has been and always will be the banana republic of the U.S., with some fits and starts and grasps at modernity (the Tampa public libary, UF, FSU, USF, etc). All of this translates into laughable attendance for an admirably-run team (the Rays). It’s a damn shame, but whaddaya gonna do?

2) To those of you calling for a stadium move to Plant City or East Tampa, I think that you are letting your enthusiasm blind you to reality, see above. Football rules in the strip mall/pasture/orange grove wastelands, people. You KNOW this. Just stop. There is one reason people go to that part of town, besides meth, and that’s for strawberry shortcake. Related — the best thing that the voters of St. Pete have done in a while was to turn down a new stadium, but hey, if you all want to take it up, knock yourselves out. You really have to wonder about the voters in Hills. Co. after that abomination that the Bucs play in — do you really want to be tricked, AGAIN? Wanna join with the schmoes in Miami and Fort Myers feeling ripped off? Really?! Why do you guys fall for con jobs, particularly from people who wouldn’t think of hiking taxes by 1 cent for potholes, school lunches, or high speed rail? Duh.

It was a noble experiment (the Devil, that’s DEVIL Rays, and the Marlins) but one that failed. At least there was the Latin market in Miami, (the Yanks have a foot hold in Tampa during March, inexplicably) but one that was highly overestimated, even after stupid post-Series firesales. As a kid I had to root for teams so far out of town (Braves, no…Cards, no…okay, how about Cincy? Yes!) they might as well have been on the moon…”let’s give the kids some state teams”….as I said, the thought was there, but in FL and the Deep dirty ‘murkin cricket will ALWAYS be outdrawn by a “fascist metaphor for nuclear annihilation.” (Loved that bit.) (Atlanta is a complete anomaly, its own little self-enclosed world of insularity that it works somehow, but that’s urbane GA, not FL. St. Louis doesn’t count, being the gateway and all, plus sitting on that historical trickle of wata.)

Somewhat related — I always wondered about those dumb ray tanks and the little sand stingers in there. Devil rays are mantas, and much too large for petting, so yer gonna put these lil’ babies in there instead, and make that enclosed dome smell like the Ybor Aquarium? Ick.

Anyway, keep fighting the good fight, and let the Sternberg experiment run its course. Enjoy all you can and evangelize your little hearts away. Go see any and every team you can during the spring. Put those stupid cowbells down, give them to your local high school band. I mean this with all sincerity, really I do…save those paychecks and those miles for a trip to B’more, NYC, Boston, hell, even Chicago, and come experience places with MANY people who care about baseball. I’m sorry, I know it hurts…but I didn’t know HOW it hurt until I moved up here….

(I know it’s not actually likely to happen because of the lease situation and the difficulty of building a dome in Portland, but driving to Seattle sucks bad enough, then you have to watch the Mariners.)

Out of these, location is the only one that can be changed right now. The Rays have no control over the economy, and corporate participation is tied in with that. Bandwagoners will always be there, but in time some of them will become die-hard, and new generations of fans will turn to the Rays even if their parents are Yankees/Red Sox fans. But those latter 2 will take a while to change, and the Rays will need to be consistently great for a while too.

Location, however, is the biggest issue and is the only one that can theoretically be fixed. The majority of space within 25 miles of the current stadium is…water. Putting it in Tampa, preferably East Tampa, is a no-brainer, and this is coming from someone who lives in Pinellas and would have to drive farther to get there. But it has to be done. Everyone knows it, except Foster. The frustrating thing is that Bud Selig and MLB CAN step in and do something. If this was a major issue for them, they could chip in and pay the majority of the remaining lease. Instead, they are going to continue to play the role of bully and try to force this to happen without providing any relief to the residents of St Pete. The stadium in Tampa will also be almost completely taxpayer funded as well, because Selig looks out for his buddies.

I love everything that Sternberg has done with the franchise, but his refusal to do any budging of his own is beginning to get old. Look to Vinik for an example of a great owner. He has completely paid for stadium renovations out of his own pocket and continues to reach out to the community generously, and the fans have responded. The Lightning were right around the middle of the pack in attendance last year, despite missing the playoffs. If hockey can succeed in Tampa, baseball can too. But ownership will need to do their part. Fans certainly deserve a lot of blame, but at the same time Sternberg knew what he was buying when he got into this. He knew about the lease, the location, and the fickle fans. If he wants this to happen, he needs to help out. The economy down here is right up there with the worst in the country and screwing taxpayers as Selig is hoping to do will have a devastating effect on the area. It’s easy to forget this sometimes, but sports affects a lot more than just sports.

I don’t think The Triad would be a viable alternative. The Hurricanes played there for their first year or two, and I don’t remember them drawing well. (To be fair, that could have been because NHL hockey was still new to the region.) The Triad alone isn’t big enough to support a team and halfway between Raleigh and Charlotte is still an hour and a half drive in either direction. That’s fine for an ACC Tournament but not 81 home baseball games a year.

Simeon’s right–this is not happening.

Montreal, Toronto, Boston and New York all in the same Division.
Nobody would know whether to wear baseball jerseys or hockey sweaters.

Hockey players could teach the ball players how to fight.
Ball players could teach their hockey brothers how to spit
sunflower seeds on the ice at critical junctures.
Win-Win.