Rays/MLB 2019-20

[Donnie D]

It’s so obvious the Rays want a stadium gifted to them. They aren’t going to get that here and have no intention of chipping in an appropriate amount. (The lease in St. Pete is a red herring. They could pay their way out of that if they really intended to spend serious money on this project.) See ya later guys.

Economic Development 101.

If someone (anyone) could build a stadium and make money doing it, it would have already been built. The reality is that, other than weird situations, like the Yankees, it won’t cash flow. Face it, nobody likes dealing with the government, they do it because it’s the only way to make the deal work.

That said, there are other businesses that benefit from a stadium, restaurants, hotels, the jobs at the stadium and companies who will only locate here with significant amenities.

That’s why forward thinking communities are willing to subsidize teams. Most of the time it’s with hotel taxes, tax increment financing, and sales tax revenues. Asking the owner to pay the full freight ain’t happening here - not when other communities are willing to participate.

[WaiverWire]

Economic Development 101.

If someone (anyone) could build a stadium and make money doing it, it would have already been built. The reality is that, other than weird situations, like the Yankees, it won’t cash flow. Face it, nobody likes dealing with the government, they do it because it’s the only way to make the deal work.

That said, there are other businesses that benefit from a stadium, restaurants, hotels, the jobs at the stadium and companies who will only locate here with significant amenities.

That’s why forward thinking communities are willing to subsidize teams. Most of the time it’s with hotel taxes, tax increment financing, and sales tax revenues. Asking the owner to pay the full freight ain’t happening here - not when other communities are willing to participate.

I have always had the opinion that MLB and the Players Association should save some of the money that the owners and players make and use it to fund their own stadiums. There is enough money to go around that we should not have to pay for them to reap so much money.

[Flycoon]

State fairgrounds across from the soon to be 900 room hotel and casino. Winner!

[WaiverWire]

State fairgrounds across from the soon to be 900 room hotel and casino. Winner!

For those old enough to had been around in the 70's and 80's when MLB and I believe it was the Tampa Baseball Group completed several studies about a team's home. Tampa would draw almost 8,000 more per game than if the team was located across the bay.

One of the places was were old Al Lopez field was at. However the cheap Bucs owner would not give up the parking rights and want to collect those funds.

The Fair Grounds and the cow pasture to the northeast of the Fair Grounds were the 2 other top spots. Feeling was that you could draw from Orlando, Sarasota and Ocala areas as well as Hillsborough and Pinellas County.

But the City of St. Pete did not want to be out done as they were in landing the Bucs. They went ahead, against the wishes of the citizens, MLB and potential ownership groups and build that terrible junk heap.

[pete]

The way the Braves did it was to put the ballpark in Cobb at the heart of a huge mixed use development. I just don't know that Tampa Bay has enough affluent folks to make a similar development work, but that's the new paradigm. The team makes money as a developer off of everything that goes in around the ballpark.

[Hoek]

I mean that's what Vinik is banking on with Water Street...

Rays just need to find another spot like that, but yeah I dunno where and if we need another development like that.

[Donnie D]

As a city planner, I hate the Atlanta stadium location. It should have been downtown where mass transit is already available and it doesn’t contribute to further sprawl. Water Street is a great location for redevelopment

[pete]

The City of Atlanta didn’t have enough money to build the Falcons a stadium, help renovate the Hawks arena, AND build the Braves a stadium. All those projects hit within a three year window. The Braves’ consumers are largely from the affluent northside anyway, so in terms of proximity to their STH it makes sense. A better site may have been Doraville, though, where they tore down the GM plant. They’d have had MARTA access there and they’d be at the intersection of 85 and 285.

Unfortunately, DeKalb County was run by a string of crooks for several administrations and never really had the where-with-all to put a deal together like Cobb.

Fun fact, though, DeKalb actually briefly put out a RFP for a Master Plan called “Downtown DeKalb” with an arena to try to lure the Hawks out of downtown. The site was at Memorial at 285 where the county government complex is. Included in that RFP was a request to renovate the jail into condominiums. We were on the distribution list when the RFP came out with about 20 other firms I think and I about fell out when I saw the thing about the jail. The whole thing got called off, though, when the county CEO got indicted for corruption less than a month later.

Atlanta United was also supposed to put their training grounds up there, but pulled out due to “unsuitable subsurface conditions.” Arthur Blank wanted to put it there because that’s across from where the very first Home Depot store is. I can only speculate, but I’m sure county government somehow crooked that one up too.

[WaiverWire]

Just listened to the Rays press conference. I can not believe he is even thinking of this idea. Good like trying to find the financing thorough local government.

[Maverick9911]

That had to have been one of the weirdest press conferences I've ever seen or heard. Good job, Stu. You can't convince fans to make the trek over the bridge to see the Rays but you're "excited" for the idea of fans making "a special trip" up to Montreal to see them play? You have no idea what they'll even be called but hey, there's gonna be a Summer Sendoff on the last game of the half-regular season?

Holy crap this is going to blow up in their faces, but methinks he's already planned for that. As much as he insisted this wasn't a means to an exit, you could just hear it in his voice.

The obvious plant ("God bless you, Stu!!!") was beyond pathetic.

[RSchmitz]

That had to have been one of the weirdest press conferences I've ever seen or heard. Good job, Stu. You can't convince fans to make the trek over the bridge to see the Rays but you're "excited" for the idea of fans making "a special trip" up to Montreal to see them play? You have no idea what they'll even be called but hey, there's gonna be a Summer Sendoff on the last game of the half-regular season?

Holy crap this is going to blow up in their faces, but methinks he's already planned for that. As much as he insisted this wasn't a means to an exit, you could just hear it in his voice.

The obvious plant ("God bless you, Stu!!!") was beyond pathetic.

They need to gtfo of here

[Flycoon]

They need to gtfo of here

Seems to be the consensus.

[TexasBolt]

That’s why forward thinking communities are willing to subsidize teams. Most of the time it’s with hotel taxes, tax increment financing, and sales tax revenues. Asking the owner to pay the full freight ain’t happening here - not when other communities are willing to participate.

This is the opposite problem. The Rays want to pay nothing or as close to nothing as possible. All the surrounding development can still be done without a stadium and still be successful. And unlike a football stadium or (especially) an arena, you can’t really do much in a baseball stadium except play baseball games. There is no reason for any city to agree to pay for most or all of a baseball stadium, and yesterday Stu had a public hissy fit because Tampa and St. Petersburg have called his bluff.

[Donnie D]

Sure there is. Everything I pointed out above from Joel’s,restaurants to prestige.

[WaiverWire]

Well the MLBPA looks to be against this deal, and you have to have them on board in order to make it work. Granted they have not been asked to look at this yet, but they say they have to ok this move. They do not like the idea of players having to have 2 residences during a season, plus several other issues.