MLB and Tampa to Explore Splitting Team With Montreal
The Tampa Bay Rays received permission from Major League Baseball's executive council to explore a plan in which they would play early-season home games in the Tampa Bay area and the remainder of the year in Montreal, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/sources-rays-explore-playing-montreal
Montra Bay Rexpos
Actually the Raynadiens.
Tampreal ExRays?
For some reason I hear this name in my head in a Scooby Doo voice.
....or Astro from the Jetsons???
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Tampa Bay, REhs?
Florida should have no baseball teams, contract the Rays and Marlins, have a draft to pick players
FRENCH FRIES
Actually, I already know they have sent out feelers into being called "The Snowbirds". Which is thought of favorably in Canada. Eh, Clarkie? They are investigating if they'll have issues with the RCAF.
This situation could get awkward come playoff time
If they can figure out a way to do this, I don't hate the idea. At least Montreal will get fans in the stands, the Trop is a horrible baseball venue and it doesn't sound like much progress is being made in getting a new field in Tampa.
The last 20 years the Expos were in Montreal they surpassed average NL attendance zero times. Not sure Montreal will get fans in the stands.
That last decade, after the strike and ensuing firesale of what was probably the best team in the majors, was pretty grim, and it did get hard to keep people coming to games when the front office was no longer trying to compete. But from 1981 to 1983 they were fourth in the majors each year in attendance, outdrawing the Red Sox all three seasons and the Yankees the last two.
I think the Expos ran off to DC specifically due to attendance issues. I don't know how bringing them back 15 years later is going to yield a different result. They'll have an attendance spike the first year when everyone is excited to have baseball back, but then the shine wears off and people stop caring again. Especially if the team starts losing.
But you are right in that the Trop is a terrible baseball venue. Easily the worst place to watch a game in the entire league, and the stadium is a complete and utter insult to baseball. I really want to be there when they demo that place to the ground.
Fair, I think I am just looking at the few games that Montreal has hosted the fast few years which had great attendance...kind of a skewed perspective in that sense.
Montreal always had some attendance issues, but the fact the team was basically being shopped for almost a decade didn't help; those last couple of years the team had been gutted of talent and the owners were courting everyone to give them a look. No wonder fan interest was limited. And the Nationals have struggled somewhat to draw in DC.
I'm sure the hope is that Tampa and Montreal can, together, give MLB something approximating decent gate returns for a team. It was always weird that they had two teams in Florida when neither has drawn particularly well. At least with Miami I get the proximity to Cuba and the community possibly rallying around them, but Tampa Bay isn't some metropolis clamoring for more sports teams.
I remember that last season in Montreal - what a colorful cast of characters! The GM was clearly trying to tank, but then Livan Hernandez lit a fire under their asses with his famous "win the whole fucking thing" locker room speech. When Orlando Cabrera finally eschewed Jobu in favor of his natural talents, you knew there was only one way the season could end...
67-95. Which is, sadly, more wins than the Kitties will end with this year, to the dismay of all who wagered the over.
Montreal and Tampa Bay have never had anything approximating a decent ballpark. Staad Olympique was/is a dungeon. We all know about the Trop. This move by MLB puts two locations on notice to figure out how to build something well located and modern. First one to do it gets the team. If neither does then the team moves to Charlotte or Nashville, either of which would get a stadium figured out before cocktail hour.
It's extortion but it will work. And when it does the next team up is Oakland.
The Nashville Fiddlers?
I get what you and others are saying about the historically bad attendance in Montreal (and TB), but that ignores one important benefit of this proposal. The number of games.
When the Expos played in Montreal, they played 81 home games, many of which were played during the colder part of the year. Same goes for Tampa Bay - 81 games, the majority of which are played in sweltering heat.
By splitting the season between the two cities you are consolidating that same demand in each city over 40 games, not 80. That alone should increase attendance. In addition, because the two destinations have opposite weather problems, you are maximizing the number of games played in pleasant temps.
Both teams played in domes...
People forget that Olympic Stadium is a horrible baseball venue as well. Apparently new stadiums in both cities would be part of the deal.
I really think the assumption that people don't go to games because the arena/stadium is crappy is wrong. People will go see a winning team for a reasonable price.That's it. A lot of people went to games at Tiger Stadium and Joe Louis even at the end of their lives.
Not sure 50% fan attendance in two cities will add to better average attendance but an interesting idea. Montrebay ExRays?
Ha, like Tampa Bay or Montreal ever had 50% attendance. I think you added the zero by mistake.
Moreover, given that sports fandom inevitably involves a decent degree of tribalism, how do enough people get sufficiently excited--i.e., to the point of franchise viability--when their "local" team is also just as much the "local" team of a city that isn't even located in the same state, region, or country? I mean, maybe in a very unique situation--i.e., New Orleans and Quebec or Montreal, given the French connection--this could work, but Tampa and Montreal don't share an interesting point of intersection.
So, it's an interesting idea, but I don't see it working.
The Snowbirds
This is the correct answer.
...and it is sort of awesome specifically because of snowbirds
I don't understand how splitting the season is going to help attract more Tampa attendance. Just move already.
Seems like this is one of those weird things in history we'll look back on as "the time an MLB team tried splitting cities to solve their stadium and attendance issues before they finally faced the facts and relocated to Vegas/Nashville/Charlotte"
I don't understand why an MLB team doesn't locate in San Antonio. I don't know if many people realize that SA is the 7th largest city in U.S. population-wise.
It's the metropolitan area population that counts. SA is number 35 by that measure.
Still, it's right there with Charlotte (which has two teams) and Pittsburgh (which has three).
It is because an MLB team owner would want to take into consideration the population of a city and its surrounding area. San Antonio is as large as you said and has grown fast, but it has only recently moved into the Top 30 metro areas. It's around the 25th largest right now. All that said, I agree with your main point and think that San Antonio, which can also draw from nearby Austin, is a strong candidate for a team.
To where? MLB doesn't have cities lining up for teams the way other sports do and they really haven't in a while.
Attendance issues, median fan age (57 in 2016) and the biggest reliance of all sports on regional cable deals in an age of cable decline aren't helping matters there.
Edit to add with MiLB they already know the demand for baseball in markets really well in the "next tier" of cities. It seems telling none of that has turned into real momentum for major league teams in the markets mentioned elsewhere on this thread.
Don't really see how this could work unless the games were divided week to week (or something similar). Say the Rays have a great year, often it isn't known a team will be any good until most of the way through May. On the flip side, a team Montreal hasn't seen all year will come to town and unless they are in the middle of a pennate race, why would they get excited about the team and show up?
Easy. If they go with open air stadiums, the weather in Tampa is pretty much insufferable after May and its not warm enough to play in Montreal until June. Maybe split the games in September and October if they ever make the playoffs.
I'm sure it'll never work but considering TB draws like 12,000 fans per game, maybe they can get the same total attendance in Tampa by only having to sell 40 game instead of 81
Tampa doesn't draw when the have good teams. Their playing well and in 2nd place the AL East and still not approaching 20,000 unless the Red Sox or Yankees are in town. Montreal had a history of drawing well when they won. It was a great atmosphere.
It sounds like a great idea for everybody but the players on the TB/MTL team. I imagine the player's union will have a huge problem with this, unless they get some kind of housing stipend to compensate for having to move mid-season.
I wondered about taxes and exchange rates. FLA is a decent FA destination because of a favorable tax environment. Canada probably isn't. Seems like that's been a problem in Toronto.
Obvious solution is to anchor the franchise in Florida (seems logical anyway) but with a three-month temporary base in Montreal.
Players would still have to pay Quebec taxes on any games played there though.
Why?
Have you ever filed a tax return?
It’s also a competitive disadvantage because players won’t have one home base for their families. Where would players’ wives and kids live? No matter where, they would have to deal with being separated for half of the home games each season. It’s a really crappy deal when you look at it that way. I used to travel 30-40% for work and it was hard, especially with a young family. With this arrangement, it just screws the family over even more and would likely make Montreal/Tampa a pretty undesirable destination for most players.
They need to just move the team to Nashville, Charlotte,or Las Vegas ( I personally think Montreal, Vancouver and Portland are overrated expansion sites). Tampa Bay has clearly demonstrated that they do not want a baseball team, and I think an MLB team would KILL in those three cities. I also think Louisville is an under-the-radar possibility.
Detroit could use a pro baseball team.
It hurts because it's true
You suck for that quip, but it's true!!! LOL!!!
Charlotte or Portland is my vote.