It's not like the Tampa Bay area isn't populated enough to support a larger market team. How do they justify building such a small park? Isn't this just dooming them to rebuilding the park in another 10 year?
2007-11-28 06:59:10 · 19 answers · asked by 15fsg546rge1rrheljh45hjr90459ty3 3 in Sports ➔ Baseball
Nobody goes to their games. Most new stadiums are about 40k seats and only a few teams consistently draw anywhere near that many people. It costs more money to have a big empty stadium so its a smart choice. I'm sure they designed it so they could add a few thousand seats if there is demand someday.
2007-11-28 07:25:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The seating capacity is not the problem, the problem is the location. If they want fan support and want to keep this team in the'Tampa Bay ' area, DO NOT build it in St Petersburg. It belongs in Tampa.
I lived in Pinellas Park 1982-86 when they were fighting over where to build a park for a possible expansion team or a relocated team. It was quite a mess, the result was the monstrosity known as Tropicanna Field. I've been there and it's a disaster, but they got the land it's on for a buck so they built it there instead of where it should be, up near Derby Lane or in Tampa itself.
Now less than 20 yrs later they want to build a another multi million facility in St Pete? Forget it, work out a deal to play in Legends Field in Tampa or do the inevitable, move the franchise to Orlando. It's dying in St Pete and a new ballpark won't help.
2007-11-28 07:51:13 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Ray's new park is following the trend that was started with the Baltimore Orioles Camden Yards, smaller venues, higher ticket prices and more luxury suites. Smaller parks mean smaller overhead and the more luxury suites the park has the higher the revenue the team will generate. Plus, not to come across as mean spirited, however, the Rays would do good to have 20,000 people attend their games regularly. If they can sell out 34,000 with a new stadium, as the Reds did the first year at Great American Ballpark, they will be WAY ahead of the game. Sadly professional sport is no longer about putting a winning product on the field, its about how much money the team can generate through luxury box sales, corporate sponsorships, etc.
2007-11-28 07:11:18 · answer #3 · answered by Mike E 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because they can't fill the seats they have. Nobody goes to the games. You could say this if they sold out 40 or 50 games a year. You watch one of their games on TV (Except when the Redsox or Yankees are in town) and there MIGHT be 10,000 people there. Why spend that much more money to build a 50k seat stadium and have that many more seats empty each game.
2007-11-28 07:10:25 · answer #4 · answered by joecon113 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It looks good if you're team is having a full house every night (which they might not even have with the new ballpark.) The A's did the same thing with their revizsed stadium and the Yanks, who certainly have a capacity crowd every night, are cutting back on seats in the New Yankee Stadium as well. The Blue Jays' new stadium looks awesome so far. We'll have to see how it compares to the New Yankee Stadium when it's done.
2007-11-28 07:21:16 · answer #5 · answered by yankeefan175 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It creates a larger demand for tickets, allows the prices to rise when they actually can get fans into the building. They have poor attendance now so why build a stadium that holds 70,000? The new trend in Baseball is to build not quite as big, it looks better to have sell outs rather than having 20,000 seats empty.
2007-11-28 07:08:28 · answer #6 · answered by bdough15 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that 34,000 seats for them is more than fine considering how many people show up for games right now...if they ever start to sell out and seating is an issue they could always renovate and add more...for some reason I doubt that will be an issue anytime soon though.
2007-11-28 07:09:31 · answer #7 · answered by JT-24 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Tampa Bay Rays are building a new Stadium that holds only 34,000 people, because that's how many fans they can attract. They can only going by the past anyway, they STINK BASIC ELLY. THEY WILL NOT ATTRACT MORE THAN that if any.
2007-11-28 07:47:36 · answer #8 · answered by gerardnolting 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
They only average about 17,000 a game down there anyway. I think it would be even worse to build a 50,000 seat stadium and then see it not even close to half full most of the time.
2007-11-28 07:07:16 · answer #9 · answered by artistictrophy@sbcglobal.net 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well since that team SUCKS havign that small of a park will make it look sold out all the time.
2007-11-28 07:07:37 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋