Orlando Rays

Hey Admin, you better find an available Rays-themed web address.

Um, ok guys let's get real here. If I remember correctly, and I do, the last time MLS was here it was a joke and disaster. Very small crowds and and uninterested media. Yeah, and the team had one of the higher attendances their last year (over 14,000), and won the Supporters' Shield. KC still averages around 10,000 a game, and no one would dare touch them because that's Lamar Hunt's team. Bring back the Miami Fusion, and soccer will thrive in Miami.

UCF controls its destiny. They win, they host the C-USA Championship. Again. The only question would be, do we host at the Bright House or the Citrus Bowl? You don't wait that long for an on-campus stadium and not host your biggest game of the year in it. They are really considering having it at the Citrus Bowl? Actually there's been no word on anything yet, and I myself think it'll be Bright House. Just was thinking they might consider the Citrus Bowl for the extra seats.

Huh? I was referencing the original plan that had the "New" Orange Bowl and a retractable-roof Marlins Stadium in the OB site.

So, the plans have come full circle?

Well, the Jets can beat the Steelers. WTF?! Maybe the Dolphins can finally get that win. But it's on Monday Night. And it's at Heinz Field, where the Steelers haven't lost yet this year. Ho boy... Tampa Bay is hosting the Redskins. Careful with the wounded animal, Bucs. The Jaguars host the Bills. This could be tougher than it looks, but if Maurice Jones-Drew can demolish and spike Shawne Merriman, then the Bills should be a cakewalk. :mischief The teams the Bills have beaten, not counting the Jets twice, are a combined 9-31, and none have winning records right now. Sunday night, it's Philadelphia at New England as the perfection watch continues. Turkey Day features the Packers at the Lions for appetizers, a Jets at Cowboys main course, and the Colts limping to Atlanta after barely beating the Chefs for dessert.

UCF controls its destiny. They win, they host the C-USA Championship. Again. The only question would be, do we host at the Bright House or the Citrus Bowl?

Detroit Dallas Indianapolis Jacksonville Denver Cleveland Giants New Orleans Oakland St. Louis Tennessee Tampa Bay Arizona San Diego New England Miami 9-7

Kansas won't beat Missouri. :shifty If they do, however, they'll probably be in the national title game whether they beat Oklahoma or not. :mischief

UCF 49, Southern Methodist 20. With a 6-1 conference record, we control our own destiny in C-USA. We could host the championship game for the second time in its three-year existence. :mischief If we lose and East Carolina win, we end up out of it. It is a tightrope. But all we need to do is beat UTEP. At home. On Senior Night. :mis2

They should be careful not to piss him off. He may take his ball and go home. To Tampa, that is. :mischief

This has to be the most awesome college halftime show ever. :mischief :notworthy

What's the population of St. Petersburg? 250k? Plus Tampa (350k), plus the entire Tampa-St. Pete metro area (2M+), plus the Bradenton/Sarasota area just across the bay from St. Pete (another 700k). And they are constantly courting the Orlando Area (2.5M including Lakeland). You missed my point. St. Petersburg is far from the urban (and business) center of Tampa Bay. The immediate population surrounding that stadium is not great. Didn't stop the Lightning or the Storm from drawing up to 28,000 at the Trop. The point is, if the team is good, they'll come. It doesn't matter if the team is based in St. Pete, Tampa, Bradenton, Lakeland or Orlando.

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The Fins head up to Philly to face the Eagles. I'm grasping at straws on this one. Maybe Donovan McNabb will melt down again? The Jags host those giant-killing Chargers on their tour of the AFC South. Can David Garrard take back over for Quinn Gray and bring his team to the playoffs? The Bucs are going to Atlanta. Does anybody expect the Falcons to win this game? New England at Buffalo in the first Sunday Night Flex game, and Tennessee at Denver for Monday Night.

Tropicana was a new stadium when the Rays moved in and still a state of the art ballpark. If Tampa is stupid enough to spend money to buy the Rays ANOTHER stadium maybe the Marlins should move to Tampa! You didn't read the financing plan. A large chunk of the money not being given by Sternberg or the state is coming from selling the Trop. I don't think Pinellas County would even give this a serious look if they were being asked to shell out $240 million, which I think is twice as much as they paid to build the Trop originally. According to Sunday's PBP, there are drawbacks to the plan. The main one being it is only on 10 acres of land which means very little if any on site parking. Most of the financing has yet to be worked out but alot of the costs will come from the sale of Tropicana Field. It goes to a vote only because it is public land that is to be used. St Pete's mayor says the city is unlikely to supply any funding. The biggest problem is, will it even fit on the land they are asking for? This would be a good time to look at redeveloping Albert Whitted Airport again. i'm officially a rays fan if they get their deal done before we do. mostly because they're not a bunch of f***ing retards Vince Naimoli was a f***ing retard. Sternberg isn't. What's the population of St. Petersburg? 250k? Plus Tampa (350k), plus the entire Tampa-St. Pete metro area (2M+), plus the Bradenton/Sarasota area just across the bay from St. Pete (another 700k). And they are constantly courting the Orlando Area (2.5M including Lakeland).

Sadly, the talk of a two-loss Florida team being in the hunt is moot at this point. Also, Georgia is 5-2 and already has the tiebreaker on Florida, having beaten them. So no SEC anymore. Hopefully Florida won't look past FAU to FSU. We've already seen what happens when a team looks past their current opponent to a rivalry game. :mischief

Want the full poll? Go to ESPN. BCS Top 5 (Harris Rank, Coaches Rank, Computer Avg.): 1. LSU 9-1 .9802 (1, 1, 1) 2. Oregon 8-1 .9383 (2, 2, 3) 3. Kansas 10-0 .9094 (4, 4, 2) 4. Oklahoma 9-1 .8540 (3, 3, 7) 5. Missouri 9-1 .8096 (6, 6, 5) ESPN Power Rankings Top 5 (#1 votes): Coming up soon ESPN Bottom 10 coming Wednesday. Records of Florida's D-I FBS schools (Ranks are BCS, Last Week result): #12 Florida 7-3 (5-3 in SEC East, beat South Carolina) UCF 7-3 (5-1 in C-USA East, beat UAB) South Florida 7-3 (2-3 in Big East, beat Syracuse) Florida State 6-4 (3-4 in ACC Atlantic, lost to Virginia Tech) Miami 5-5 (2-4 in ACC Coastal, lost to Virginia) FAU 5-4 (4-1 in Sun Belt, beat Arkansas State) FIU 0-9 (0-4 in Sun Belt, bye) Records of Florida's D-I FCS schools (Last Week result): Bethune-Cookman 4-6 (2-6 in MEAC, lost to Hampton) Jacksonville 3-7 (2-5 in Pioneer League, beat Butler) Florida A&M 3-7 (2-6 in MEAC, beat NC A&T)

Moreover, this would snuff rumors (as if they could in the first place; we know how tight that lease is) of them moving out of St. Pete for good by renewing their commitment to the city long-term, necessary for getting a new stadium, anyway. Oh, and for those who are geographically-challenged: Right near an airport, interestingly-enough. That airport is largely a GA airport. It's not nearly as big as Tampa Int'l or even St. Pete/Clearwater Int'l.

lol yesterday MLB was worried, today close to a deal, tomorrow... ...the Rays get a stadium, which hopefully will light a fire under Loria's ass as he'd hate to be shown up by his in-state rivals.

I guarantee you the Rays get State help. The only reason the Marlins haven't is because everybody's pussyfooting around with the plans. If they finalized the plans, the State would gladly approve the sales tax rebate. That's why the Magic got the rebate this past year, because they had concrete, finalized plans.

What the hell is a retractable rain shield? Is that like a giant umbrella? Just a plastic or fabric cover that's pulled out over the field. But I myself want to see what they mean by that. Can't wait for concept sketches.

That wasn't enough of a makeover for you? Take this: Rays planning NEW STADIUM!

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/200...planning-w.html A day after changing their look, the Rays management announced they may be changing venues, too. The plan is to sell Tropicana Field, buy waterfront Al Lang Field (their spring training facility, which they are leaving after next year), and building a 35,000-seat open-air stadium with a retractable rain shield (not an actual roof). The stadium will cost $450 million. Stu Sternberg is contributing at least $150 million PLUS a long-term lease, and the sale of Tropicana Field for redevelopment will cover much of the rest. They will seek the state's $60-million sales tax rebate next year. They also need to get the approval of the voters of St. Petersburg, as they always need to when building on city-owned public property regardless of whether it costs the taxpayers anything. Wouldn't it be hilarious if the Rays ended up with a new stadium before the Marlins did?

The Big East Tournament will include all 16 teams starting in 2009: link So now 9-16 play on Day 1, winners of those 4 games play seeds 5-8 on Day 2, and winners of those 4 games meet the top 4 seeds in the Quarterfinals. Good call by the Big East on this one. Though its pretty unlikely that a basement team like USF would ever win it, every member still deserves one last shot at making the tournament Finally. Even though I have no rooting interest in the Big East, I always hated that teams got left out. The whole point of the tournament is so that teams have a chance for the automatic bid, automatically DQing teams in the past took away from that in my opinion. So now it's possible for a team to go 0-30 in the regular season, then get on a wild hair, run the table, and be 4-30 and in March Madness? That's just going to look stupid.