Wait What?
Wednesday evening, as we were all preparing for the NBA Draft, ESPN’s MLB Insider Jeff Passan seemed to drop a baseball bombshell with the news that the Tampa Bay Rays are exploring a plan in “which they would play home games in both the Tampa Bay area and Montreal”.
So how would this work? I have more questions than answers, and even my answers to those questions create more questions which makes this move seem nonsensical as best. And while I’m sure there are dozens of people working on a project like this who are much smarter than me, I can’t help but be confused by how this idea will play out.
It seems like a simple idea in theory and a simple solution to a couple major MLB problems. Tampa Bay has consistently one of the worst home attendances in the MLB. Since 2001, they haven’t ranked any higher than 26th in the league in attendance and they’ve averaged only 44% attendance with about 17,261 fans per game. These numbers include the recent renovations done to Tropicana Field that reduced the total amount of seats in the stadium. They need a new stadium so that would prompt this new building by the Tampa Bay city council and Montreal local government. This also seems to satisfy the Montreal fan-base who has been craving a new MLB team – or a team of any kind – since the Expos left for Washington D.C. in 2005.
So it seems to satisfy a couple of problems the MLB has been having. However, it creates dozens of more problems that I don’t think anyone seems to have answers too right now.
First set of questions: How is Tampa Bay going to play in two cities? When will they play in two cities? What is their new name? The Montreal Expos of Tampa Bay (let’s call them that for now)? The Montreal Expos during the summer months and the Rays during spring and fall? The logistics seems weird to me. We’ve seen teams in the past play in multiple cities during the season, but nothing like this.
Tampa Bay is currently in the middle of trying to get a new stadium built by the city so will this cancel that project and those negotiations? Or would they just go through with it anyway? Will both cities now have to build a ballpark for the team so that they can travel and play at home successfully in both cities? I can’t imagine both of the ball parks built for the Montreal Expos of Tampa Bay would be cull size MLB stadiums…
What will happen to the stadiums the rest of the year? Could they get another team to play during those games?
It’s possible that these ballparks would be closer to MLS size stadiums rather than MLB stadiums. When there were rumors that the MLB wanted to expand to Portland, the stadium proposals and ideas were mostly closer to 20-30,000 seats in size rather than 60,000. That way they could sell out more games and get fans closer to the game. I personally like that idea and I think all small markets should do that…that’s a rant for a different time though.
Next, how will the games be split? Will it be a clear 40 games per city? Which city then gets the revenue from players salaries? Will those also be split? Or will one city get more than the other? These questions lead me into questions I have regarding the players.
How will the players deal with this new situation? Will free agents want to come to play in Montreal or Tampa Bay knowing they will have to pay taxes in both cities? The Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors already have trouble landing free agents because players know they have to pay both the American government and the Queen on Tax Day. That would be a problem from the players.
Also, just for the families of the players…look how far away these two places are!! Could you imagine having a husband who has to travel all year for baseball but then also play in two cities on opposite ends of North America? Google Maps won’t even give me directions how to get there! Plus flights will be like 5-6 hours each way! There are so many logistical hurdles players for this new franchise will have to deal with. It would deter players from wanting to play for this dual-city team.
Also, how which division would they be in? The AL East or the NL East? The Expose, - before they left – were in the NL East, but the Rays are currently in the AL East. That just further complicates things.
Any way you slice it, even if we get answers to all of these questions, a move like this won’t be happening for a very long time. I’d expect more news on this a few years down the line and a move to happen in the latter half of the 2020s. For a deal like this to happen, it would take both cities local governments negotiations with private contractors in hand with the MLB and team ownership to create a proposal that satisfies all parties. On top of that both of these cities are in entirely different countries! So not only would you have to work with another city, you have to work with another city in an entirely different country! A project like this will take forever!
What will the state of the MLB be like by then? Local TV deals are still a money maker for owners, but nationally televised games have seen ratings consistently decline? Will the MLB be in a completely different state by the time this move even happens? These are massive long-term questions that need to be answered before a move like this even takes place.
I have a feeling that if the MLB really wants this move to happen and they can get both cities on board then it’ll happen. It’ll just be a long time before this move ever comes to fruition – if at all.
The best part about this news is that I had an excuse to watch Vladimir Guerrero highlights again - he was such a beast: