Are no-hitters so common now that there's no love for Matt Garza?
Barndog
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<< <i>Um, this is what they ask at the ticket office at the Trop on a nightly basis. >>
But yeah, no-hitters have been a monthly occurrence this year so I guess we're all getting a little complacent.
Personally, I think there have been so many no-hitters so far this season, that people have become ho-hum about it, especially when they're being pitched by pitchers no one has ever heard of.
Steve
Glad to see that the pitchers are dominating more; no fan of the roid era and the fake HR numbers.
It's irrelevant that I'm a Red Sox fan.
<< <i>
<< <i>Um, this is what they ask at the ticket office at the Trop on a nightly basis. >>
because it's true! >>
I wanted to ignore this, but some I saw some info today that inspired me to reply lol.
The Tampa Bay Rays are 7th in TV Ratings in the MLB. I know it's based off percentage and not actual numbers so it helps given Tampa Bays smaller population, but it proves there is interest. Get the team out of crappy tropicana field and St Pete and I have no doubt they'll be good to go. The market isn't big enough to compete with the heavy hitters, but there will be a sizable increase if the move across the bay ever happens (key word IF). There's a reason tv ratings are above average, yet attendance is crap... people would rather watch on tv than drive to the trop and St Pete. This is mostly on the city of St Pete too if you actual follow the stadium/attendance saga...Tampa has supported their teams (no matter what you try and tell me). Maybe not to Boston or NY levels but no worse than the majority of other major league cities.
LINK
Another thing...why does Cincinnati get a pass when their attendance is just as bad, their stadium is nicer, their team is good for the first time in a while, and they're over ONE HUNDRED years older than than Rays?
Tim
<< <i> Goot, maybe you can shed some light on things. Is there a problem getting to the Trop from Tampa? Maybe a traffic issue? >>
I could unfortunately discuss this all night haha. There is A LOT that goes into it. Location, Facility, Demographics of the region, Transplants, Funding, and the worst is the dreaded lease the Rays have with the city of St. Petersburg.
During the week, YES, traffic is an issue.
If you drive from Downtown Tampa to Tropicana field without traffic it will take you at least 30 minutes unless you're really flying. Add 5 o clock traffic, game traffic, and the fact that the only way to St Pete is to take 2 bridges that are a couple miles long and it's a bit of a problem. If you left straight from work you'd have no problem making it on time, but you wouldn't have much time to grab the family or meet up with some friends and go. Back when school was in session this past spring my sister and I decided to go to a game on a Friday night. She picked me up at my dorm in North Tampa around 5 for a 7 pm game. We went through city streets to avoid the highways and traffic as much as possible. From the time she picked me up to when we were in our seat it took something like 1 hour 30 minutes. I can leave campus and be in my seat at a Lightning game at the arena in Downtown Tampa within 45 minutes.
Then you get into the whole, "well where would they put it?" debate. My dad and I have been driving over from the east coast for games since about 2004. It takes almost 3 hours to get from our house to the Trop. On the way you pass through Tampa and then it hits you that you still have quite a ways to go... We've been saying "If only it was in Tampa" since before this was much of a hot topic.
The Rays have already come out and said that they pretty much won't be in the Trop in 5 years. They hired a group to do research on the topic and last year they released their findings. Here's a recap of the report:
LINK
I personally want them to put the ballpark in downtown in the channelside area, smack dab in the middle of downtown and Ybor City. I just think the potential of having it with a view of the skyline and water, surrounded by the largest "entertainment" area in Tampa next door to the arena would be incredible.
And HERE is possibly the most telling evidence of them all: A survey of where people that attend Rays games are from.
Despite being IN Pinellas county, almost as many people from Hillsborough (Tampa) frequent Rays game. BTW, this graph is from the Rays main website.
I know it's a lot of little tid bits of information and interjections by myself but it's kind of hard to simply describe concisely and coherently on here
<< <i>I can't imagine traffic being any better for the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, Angels, and many, many more teams that outdraw the Rays. >>
Two words: Mass transit. Tampa lacks it and St Pete has virtually none. The only way to get to Rays games is by driving a car and when coming from Hillsborough county that means going across the bay. In the cities you mentioned you have subway, rail system, along with other methods. If the stadium would be built in downtown Tampa it could be built right along the streetcar line which pretty much only exists in Downtown and Ybor City. They're also looking at High speed rail for the region.
Look I'm not saying if you built a stadium elsewhere there would be 40,000 people packing the place every night. However I am saying that there are A LOT of things stacked up against this franchise that many know nothing about. They would not be averaging 22,000 a game right now if they had the luxury of a different ballpark and a different location, you can't even argue that. It wouldn't be a huge jump but probably at least in the 25k range for weeknights with weekend games nearly sold out. Better than the upper teens and upper twenty's there getting for those nights right now.
This is THE worst thing about the Rays being in the AL East... you're constantly compared to the Red Sox and Yankees. To make matters worse there are thousands of transplants down here that feel the need to remind us of it year round too. Tampa will never be NYC, it will never be Boston, I don't want it to be either of those places! The Boston Red Sox franchise was founded only 14 years after than the actual city of Tampa was incoroporated for heaven's sake lol! If you guys didn't have more fans than us I'd be worried!
I know the problem with comparisons too the northeast. I lived in South Florida (Palm Beach County) for ten years (still trying to figure out how the University of South Florida is in the Tampa area, which is way north of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach). When I would go to Florida Panthers games against teams like the Flyers and Rangers, the arena would be packed with at least 50% road fans. Ranger fans are all over that area. I would imagine you have the same problem in Tampa. All the New Yorkers move down to get out of the snow, but they keep their allegiences (sp?) to their old teams. They also continually talk about how everything in New York is so much better (to which I always responded "Well, you know that I-95 runs both ways, right?"). Those folks are unlikely to ever get behind the Rays, especially since the Yankees still have such a strong presence in the area.
<< <i>I wish you well. I've never liked the Trop. It doesn't have a good baseball feel inside, plus it is the most ghastly building in sports from the outside. It looks as though it is leaning on the side when we approach it from the highway.
I know the problem with comparisons too the northeast. I lived in South Florida (Palm Beach County) for ten years (still trying to figure out how the University of South Florida is in the Tampa area, which is way north of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach). When I would go to Florida Panthers games against teams like the Flyers and Rangers, the arena would be packed with at least 50% road fans. Ranger fans are all over that area. I would imagine you have the same problem in Tampa. All the New Yorkers move down to get out of the snow, but they keep their allegiences (sp?) to their old teams. They also continually talk about how everything in New York is so much better (to which I always responded "Well, you know that I-95 runs both ways, right?"). Those folks are unlikely to ever get behind the Rays, especially since the Yankees still have such a strong presence in the area. >>
Haha the USF comment is pretty true. When USF was founded it was the southernmost public school in the state, hence the name!
And it's similar for Lightning games against the northeastern teams including Toronto, Montreal and Detroit- but I know that just about every team faces the same problem when playing Detroit, Toronto and Montreal. Not split crowd type stuff, but it will be like 75% Lightning fans. I know Lightning season ticket holders that refuse to go to the game against Buffalo....worst visiting fans in the league by far!!!! They started their "Let's go Buff-a-lo" chant after they won in Tampa last year and the Lightning fans all started yelling about the fact that we've won a cup, and super bowl while they choke when they get the chance haha.