“A dump” in your short sited, blind, non-Tampa Bay eyes. The Miami tax payers are on the hook for years to come, and that stupid owner was smart enough to take the whole community to the cleaners. I think the Tampa Bay tax payers on both sides of the Bay are more adept at exercising their collective intelligence than our Blow Fish tax payer counterparts down in Miami. Now that you have that new park, it makes no difference – they still don’t show up. What makes you or Stu or MLB think attendance would be any different in Tampa Bay with a new stadium at another location? The “Blow Hole” with that moronic contraption in the outfield is physical proof to all sports cities that just because you build it, does not mean any more fans will show up at the games.

You constantly knock the Trop any chance you get – which is comical after looking at how well the new “Blow Hole” has worked out in Miami. Who conceives and builds a stadium with only 5000 parking spots and then dictates to home owners in the neighborhood that they cannot park on the street in front of their own home during games? Only in Miami… where Uncle Bud and “Scrooge” were able to successfully horns-waggle the tax payers (fans) into the worst stadium deal ever.

Just because the Miami tax payers were stupid enough to fall for building a new ball park doesn’t mean the Tampa Bay tax payers are going to bite on the same line of rich, millionaire team ownership bull spit.

Now, they hardly advertise the team; instead, they are choosing pressers about how St Pete is the bad guy for wanting them to honor the lease that Stu knew about when he bought the team and how MLB feels the St Pete location is not viable. During the regular season, I hear the odd radio spot plugging upcoming games but that is about it. They had the summer concert games going for a couple years that drew loads of fans (30,000 plus), then they downgraded the quality of the acts and adopted a wishy-washy schedule (instead of consistently always on a Saturday night). They thought having a post game DJ and dancing in the outfield (along with high $ Vince Namoli beers) on Friday nights would keep folks after the game. That didn’t work either, as a pitcher of beer at Ferg’s just across the street is cheaper than 1 beer at the Trop and he always has a DJ on Friday night.

With spring training coming up, the Rays big push is on to get fans to drive 60 miles to their new spring training home in NoWhereVille (Port Charlotte) for afternoon games – good luck with that since Tampa fans won’t drive across a bridge to go to regular season games. Not to mention, if Rays fans want to watch them play the Jays, Phillies and Yanks, the drive is no further that 10 miles.

Stu and company should get busy with some real local marketing and promotion of the team – at it’s current location because their games are being played there for the foreseeable future.

Read this book. The current ownership has already put a ton of money into marketing and promotion to try and get more ticket holders, and they only saw a marginal increase. They did things like free parking for two years, letting people bring their own food into the stadiums, holding concerts after games, etc. While the situation may not be as dire as Stu mentions, don’t act like they bought the team and have been resting on their laurels. They had a ton of problems from prior ownership they had to correct.

Ok Beach – how about this “anything” solution – you use your own money to make this happen. Then you and Stu and Uncle Bud can all be owners of the team together, at a stadium you deem suitable and not a “hell hol;e”.

And once you have built it and the fans still don’t show up (think Miami’s brand new “Blow Hole”), what will you be clamoring for at that point to fix the attendance problem after “new stadium” has been checked of the list?

And if you put it Tampa some place – rush hour will kill the attendance factor worse than it does right now in St Pete. Instead of “hard to get to because you have to cross a bridge”, what will be the the new excuse Rays management and Uncle Bud will use to explain/complain about attendance.

They had a great farm system to develop young players. Beyond that, their marketing in the “region” is not what it should be. The team ownership focus remains on railroading a new (and unnecessary) stadium into this area. Stu should try getting the most out of what he already has, its not like he didn’t know about the lease and the stadium before he bought the team.

He could start by not dogging the fans that do attend the games instead of collectively lumping everyone into a blanket statement. The first time he did it, I was at the game he referred to – an 11 – 0 loss that was 9 – 0 in the top of the 2d inning. His product on the field that night deserved the 9,000 or so that showed up to watch that debacle. I did not go to another game that season after he made those comments about the fans of Tampa Bay.

The answer is simple – the millionaire owner buys out the current lease and builds his new stadium where ever he wants to build it – Pinellas, Hillsborough, or Timbuktu – as long as he does it all with his own money.

Its not the hot sun in Miami any more like one of the many old excuses for lacking attendance – and still, no one shows up to the Blow Fish games.

Rain outs are now a thing of the past in Miami – still again, no one shows up at the brand new new park.

Why would anyone think that getting screwed royally, by Stu, Uncle Bud and MLB like the Miami taxpayers had the short site to do to themselves, is going to fly in the Tampa area?

Stu knew what he was getting (the Trop lease) when he bought the team, he could have gone for the Mets but CHOSE the Rays instead. Stu and Uncle Bud are trying to impose another “Blow Hole” like stadium on the Tampa Bay area. We all now know the result of that experiment is nothing more than rich millionaires getting richer at the expense of the tax payers. NO THANK YOU!

If Stu and Bud want a new stadium here, the first thing out of their collective mouths should be – “it will be paid for entirely with private funds” (Stu’s and Bud’s or MLB’s). You can no longer pull the wool over the eyes of the tax payers and blatantly steal from the public as was done (and will continue to be done for years to come) in Miami and then try to sell the same bill of goods in Tampa Bay or any where else without the prospective fan bases noticing and not going along with it.

Those in favor of a Tampa based stadium think that is the magic answer – without considering that traffic going to a ball game Monday through Friday in Tampa will actually be worse (regardless of the stadium location) than trying to get to the current location.

Implode Wrigley and Fenway and then MAYBE there could be a real case made for the Rays “needing” a new stadium. Those twin dumps have more than stood the test of time and are both long overdue for replacement before even considering the Trop. The Cubs ownership cannot get the City of Chicago to buy in to upgrades with public funds to prop up “falling down Wrigley”. The Boston ownership remains content (along with MLB’s blessing) to stay in Fenway even though there are putting greens bigger that that ball park.

I continue to contend that – “There is NOTHING wrong with the Trop or its location!”

Anyway, I think it’s great that St. Petersburg wants to keep the nation focused on what an irremediable fringe-of-the-world slum it is and what a dump the Tropicana Tumulus is. Not many municipalities take that kind of pride in their shortcomings.