Today the Tampa Rays announced that they have plans to split their season home games between two cities, Tampa Bay and Montreal. This might be the dumbest move in MLB history. For seasons now, the Tampa Rays have had dismal attendance numbers and poor baseball play. Now they think the solution is to (laughs hysterically) split the home games between Tampa, Florida, USA and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Not St. Petersburg (who is going to fight tooth and nail to get this shut down, and they should). Not Orlando, Jacksonville, or even Tallahassee. Rays management decided, “Hmmmm, let’s go thousands of miles north to another country instead of moving to another one of Florida’s big city markets because ours is so poor.”
Now I can guess why they did this. One reason, I believe, is because having the MLB back in Montreal will be cool, and it should be back. The stadium, though, will need major renovations because it was a dump when it was open. Management probably thinks that having the MLB in Montreal will be a cool, nostalgic thing that will attract the masses in Canada. I believe it will; they should have good numbers in Montreal because it will be a cool, nostalgic move. Another reason why I believe they are doing this is because baseball in Tampa Bay has been so dismal for so long that management thinks it’s time for a move, and what better city to move back to than Montreal, a city that had its franchise ripped away. This way they test the waters to see if it works.
Personally, I don’t like franchise relocations. (My Super Sonics were ripped away from me as a child; fuck you NBA.) But I would be lying if I said I cared even a little bit about the Tampa Rays. Would I be lying if I said Tampa would not care if the Rays relocated? Apparently not, as no one shows up to their games.
Tampa has horrid attendance numbers; they aren’t very successful, and there is already a horrible baseball team in Florida that goes by the name the Miami Marlins (and they have better uniforms). Plus, what a nightmare for players having to live in two different countries now. This move will only make their team worse than it already is; they won’t attract any free agents either, because who wants to live in two different countries and be paid in different currency throughout the season? I don’t know the exchange rate between dollars and cents to loonies and toonies but no one wants to deal with that.
It would be really cool to see the Montreal Expos back, but this two city merger is bull shit. The Montreal Rays? That’s stupid. There aren’t sting rays in Montreal outside of a glass enclosure.
If they do this, I think they just need to end up moving to Montreal in the next couple of seasons and bring back the Expos or decide what the fuck is going on at home in Tampa, because this stinks.
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