Guest Moneyball Posted March 28, 2005 Share Posted March 28, 2005 Rays play in a great ballpark; what they need is our support By RICK BAKER Published March 19, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times' recent series, What Went Wrong? 10 Years of Devil Rays Baseball, discussed the 10 years of experience since the awarding of a Major League Baseball team to St. Petersburg. Tropicana Field provides a great home for Major League Baseball, today and into the future. It possesses functionality, comfort and good sight lines. Comments that Tropicana Field was already an old facility when the Devil Rays took to the field in 1998 are very misleading. Over 85-million new dollars were spent renovating the Trop just before the Rays' opening season, adding renovations identified by the team and Major League Baseball. To assert that it was a "10-year-old stadium" is comparable to saying that the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, which underwent a $93-million renovation in the early 1990s, was a 75-year-old, out-of-date hotel when it reopened. Just as the owners of the Vinoy Resort opened a newly restored modern hotel in 1992, the city of St. Petersburg delivered a great ballpark on opening day in 1998. One of Tropicana Field's best selling points is its location in downtown St. Petersburg. It is surrounded on three sides by uncongested interstate highways and it has 7,000 on-site parking spaces and 25,000 parking spaces within a mile. In fact, in a Tampa Tribune editorial following the first week of the Rays' regular season in 1998, the newspaper concluded that the city can handle traffic. Cars moved swiftly along St. Petersburg's streets going to and coming home from the game. And there was plenty of parking. As a testament to its accessibility and popularity with fans, Tropicana Field holds nine of the all-time top 10 NHL attendance records, the all-time Arena Football attendance record, the U.S. attendance record for Davis Cup tennis, and attendance records in Florida for the NBA and NCAA men's college basketball. Cirque du Soleil selected Tropicana Field as the location for its last two very successful touring shows to the region, and will return later this year. In 2000, Sports Travel, Inc., a sports marketing company, ranked Tropicana Field as the second most fan-friendly park in the major leagues in its 30 Ballpark Millennium Tour. Similarly, downtown St. Petersburg may be the strongest destination on Florida's west coast, where 1.5-million people visit the Pier and 3-million people visit BayWalk each year. It is home to an internationally televised Grand Prix, art festivals, concerts in the park and museum exhibitions like the current "Monet's London" exhibition, "Diana: a Celebration," last year's Chihuly exhibition, or the blockbusters "Treasures of the Czars" and "Titanic." Indeed, in recent years, downtown St. Petersburg has emerged as one of Florida's most active entertainment destinations with more than 1,000 special events and attractions that draw nearly 10-million people annually. The reality is that we have a great ballpark in a great location that is at the heart of the biggest and richest media market south of Atlanta. As we have seen with the Bucs and the Lightning, a winning team can generate excitement, attendance and revenue for a sports franchise in this region. We experienced a sample of the excitement Major League Baseball can bring to our community last year when the Rays had a 12-game winning streak, and drew nearly 70,000 fans for two weekday games with the New York Yankees in July. I am confident that the Rays management and ownership intend to build a franchise that will succeed on the field. They are investing in their organization and are producing great young talent. I have heard manager Lou Piniella say on many occasions that a winning team will bring in the fans, just as it did for the Bucs and the Lightning. We all can help make this vision a reality by attending games and supporting the Rays as our home team. When we host our first playoff game, Tropicana Field will be sold out and the crowd noise from the fans cheering on the home team will provide a distinctive home-field advantage for the Rays. Rick Baker is the mayor of St. Petersburg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarlinFan10 Posted March 28, 2005 Share Posted March 28, 2005 Rays Baseball should become more popular in coming years when the team has more talent on the field. Crawford, Baldelli, Upton, Young, Brazelton, Neimann, Gomes, Kazmir, Gathright, Cantu, etc. The talent in the organization is incredible, I wouldn't be surprized to see them over .500 in 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuickGold Posted March 29, 2005 Share Posted March 29, 2005 How has it been 10 years? They started in 98. I don't care when they got the OK, it's only been 7/8 years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Moneyball Posted March 29, 2005 Share Posted March 29, 2005 How has it been 10 years? They started in 98. I don't care when they got the OK, it's only been 7/8 years 723369[/snapback] They got the team in 1995. Just like Miami got the team in 1991. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuickGold Posted March 29, 2005 Share Posted March 29, 2005 How has it been 10 years? They started in 98. I don't care when they got the OK, it's only been 7/8 years 723369[/snapback] They got the team in 1995. Just like Miami got the team in 1991. 723646[/snapback] Yet the 10 Year patches for the Fish came out for the 2003 season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Moneyball Posted March 29, 2005 Share Posted March 29, 2005 How has it been 10 years? They started in 98.? I don't care when they got the OK, it's only been 7/8 years 723369[/snapback] They got the team in 1995. Just like Miami got the team in 1991. 723646[/snapback] Yet the 10 Year patches for the Fish came out for the 2003 season. 723714[/snapback] The patches are meant to commemorate years after the first game or seasons. For example to 2002 Rockies wore a patch that said, 10th season. The 2003 Marlins wore a tenth anniversary logo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhxPhin Posted March 30, 2005 Share Posted March 30, 2005 yeah .. they do similar things out here ... franchise history and the patches don't always align like the d-backs ran a timeline in the paper showing their first 10 years, but started with the forming of the ownership group, the approval by the league, stadium groundbreaking and buildup, etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLAMARLIN Posted March 30, 2005 Share Posted March 30, 2005 This letter-to-the-editor from the Mayor is a pile of garbage; he's just trying to defend his awful city and stadium. It neglects to mention the weekly riots, the horrible neightborhood they put the ballpark in, the overpriced parking, food , souvenirs, etc. The Trop has all the atmosphere and excitement of a morgue. The only good thing to be said about the place is that it is indoors in air-conditioned comfort which is nice during the hot summer but that is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarHeel324 Posted March 30, 2005 Share Posted March 30, 2005 The Trop is such a dump Ugly inside and outside Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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