I've never noticed this before but between Tampa and Orlando (which are about 80 miles apart), Tampa has 3 of the 4 major sports teams. Tampa is a little bigger MSA but it probably makes sense to split the teams equally between the two.

i've spent more time than is healthy lately looking at msa/csa population listings and think that moving the rays to orlando is a reasonable proposition on that basis.
i don't know how it would work (good or bad) infrastructure-wise and there's always the concerns about the fans of florida more generally but ... i don't hate it.

I hope the design includes those 500-foot outfield distances I've been advocating :)

Where Pat Williams got the idea

I've never noticed this before but between Tampa and Orlando (which are about 80 miles apart), Tampa has 3 of the 4 major sports teams. Tampa is a little bigger MSA but it probably makes sense to split the teams equally between the two.

It probably takes less time to get to a game in Orlando than St. Petersburg for a good chunk of the Tampa MSA.

I assume the Rays would take pretty much any viable** stadium offer at this point and hard to imagine Orlando could be a worse market.

** Here, I am using the MLB definition of "viable" which is "as close to free as politically feasible."

I assume the Rays would take pretty much any viable** stadium offer at this point and hard to imagine Orlando could be a worse market.


Orlando's got to be a much better market than Vegas.

hard to imagine Orlando could be a worse market.

Orlando's got to be a much better market than Vegas.

Orlando can't support minor league baseball, and you want to give them an MLB club?

you want to give them an MLB club?

No, we want to take one away from Tampa.

Can they get their own Special Tax District for the stadium, if they promise not to say gay?

It probably takes less time to get to a game in Orlando than St. Petersburg for a good chunk of the Tampa MSA.

I used to live in the Tampa area, this is more true than not. I4 can be a huge wildcard but on most days I would say more than half of the Tampa area could get to the outskirts of Orlando before getting to the tip of St Pete where the stadium basically is. If it is 3am then yeah, your getting to the stadium much faster than Orlando.

If it is 3am then yeah, your getting to the stadium much faster than Orlando.

Do the Rays marketing dept and MLB schedule-makers know this? :-) The A's too -- they can probably as easily draw 3,000 at 3 am as they currently do at 7 pm.

At the very least, this isn't a worse idea than keeping them in the Trop. At best ... well, it's no worse than keeping them in the Trop.

Florida is going to need new tenants at Disney World soon. In addition to the prison they plan to build, they could also build a massive stadium complex

Florida is going to need new tenants at Disney World soon. In addition to the prison they plan to build, they could also build a massive stadium complex

If you have ever been at Disney you would know this to be a bad threat. If they built a prison at any vacant land next to the land that Disney owns no on at the parks or staying at a hotel on Disney property would ever see it. Surrounding the perimeter of the property that Disney owns is their logistics buildings, a lot of them, or there is a residential part that backs up to a very large parking lot that Disney owns and uses for their employees that cannot be seen by tourist. More than 50% of the land Disney owns is not developed, which adds up to almost 15 square miles. It is truly nothing more than a threat to get people like you excited but has no real teeth, even if implemented.

And if Disney is vacant as you implied, then as stadium is useless anyway. The loss of 75k jobs will be quite meaningful to the local economy not counting the loss of the tourism money.

"Florida Man Dreams of Catching Rays in Orlando"