Is Baseball at the Gateway Any Better Than the Trop?
A new private (for the moment) plan to build a new stadium may be just the catalyst to get things off dead center.
But is Gateway the best place?
Scenario 1
You live in Pinellas County or Manatee County and work in Tampa. You are going to face a horrendous traffic nightmare every time the Rays play an evening home game. There are not enough roads and bridges to handle all of the traffic efficiently even if you use all three bridges as part of the equation. It would not seem possible to build an off ramp large enough to handle the stadium back up. Once again the Howard Franklin would become the "Car Strangled Spanner.”
Scenario 2
A lot of the same people who ballyhoo the tourist industry as part of the Tampa Bay economy are deep in the stadium issue. Consider a family of four who have just flown into Tampa International on Friday arriving about 5:00PM, get a rental car and spend the next 2-3 hours on the Howard Frankland or Courtney Campbell Causeway trying to get to their hotel on the beach. Sounds like a setup for another of those "Least Friendly" awards.
Scenario 3
One of the really great things about this area is the Tampa International Airport and the ability to get to and from it for both tourist and business travelers. Placing a baseball stadium right in the middle of access to that benefit seems like an incredibly bad idea. If we want to continue to tout this area as a place for high tech business investment, good airport access is much more important than a baseball stadium.
And speaking of roads, just who will be picking up the tab for the massive exits, entrances, ramps and other road improvements required to support the Echelon plan? (Hint: Go look in the mirror).
A stadium on the other side of the bridges where the it does not impact interstate rush hour commuter traffic flow and baseball traffic is generally using the lower volume side of the Interstate system to get to the games seems like a much better all-around approach.
For now it is an interesting conversation piece, but it's much more about finding a use for piece of Echelon property that has not developed as expected than it is about saving the Rays for St. Pete. It might also be a good idea to go back and look at the City's box score in dealing with Echelon. I don't believe the City is leading in that series.
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Jeannie Cline
12:07 pm on Sunday, August 12, 2012
The Rays are going to Tampa, most likely, or out of the region altogether. This plan for Gateway is flawed (as you so aptly recognized) and it is too little, too late. Rays at Channelside in Tampa with a municipal water taxi from our pier in St Pete to Tampa. Now, that's a plan to ease congestion without major expenditures on untested urban rail. It would be so cool to hop on a nice ferry and go to Tampa to catch a Rays' game on a hot summer night in Tampa Bay!
jjinfl
5:15 pm on Sunday, August 12, 2012
Not a commeht on this baseball topic, just wanted to say that we got our first look at the new tower reading St. Petersburg on the bridge going to Tampa last night. It really looks nice and is very noticeable. A good thing about having the convention locally is that they are sprucing everything up and adding features so that the politicians will get a good impression of our area. We benefit from the new things, too.
Michael D.
11:06 am on Monday, August 13, 2012
The agrument against the Gateway is just as flawed as the agrument against Channelside. As a person who used to take classes in Channelside area for my MBA, the traffic got horrible during hockey games especially as hockey became more of a viable sport in the Tampa Bay area (after the strike). The bridges from the Airport are always in bad shape around 3:30-7:00 pm, so it would be the same.
I think both plans are as flawed as the stadiums current position. The problem isn't the stadium location as much as the product on the field at the cost of seeing a game. We are in the 4th most economically depressed area in the U.S., but for me to see a game with FREE tickets for two including parking, food, and non-acholic drinks it still costs $80. So if you include tickets, food, and drinks for a family of 4 you are looking about $150-$200. That isn't a cost effective way to do business in an economically depressed region.
I can see the Clearwater Thresters including all costs with tickets behind the plate for $40. With so many good minor league baseball games and other attractions fighting for my consumer dollar.
It is on the Rays Management to show me why they deserve my dollar. I am the consumer they are looking for, professional making over the average income in this area who loves sports.
SonnyPeters
9:31 am on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
You can bring your own food into the stadium. If you are getting free tickets then all you are buying is drinks, $9 for a refillable soda. You can even buy $9 tickets or wait til the day of the game and buy them on stubhub for $5. The Rays are the most economical fan experience in professional sports.
Michael D.
9:55 am on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
I'm a former season ticket holder. But you are still paying $20 for parking in the lot, so then you are still at $38 for two drinks and parking with Free Tickets. If you add the $9 tickets that makes your total $56 for two people. Or if you are a family of 4 that makes your total $92. That is not including all other costs that go into going to a game. I hear that the Rays are the most economical fan experience in professional sports, but even the Rays books go against that moniker.
SonnyPeters
11:56 am on Thursday, August 16, 2012
Good point Micheal. I live in the same residential zone as the trop so i usually park close and walk. I didn't think about the parking price. That being said there are several free shuttles that transport ppl to the trop. You could park over by BayFront tower or McNulty Lofts for $3 - $5 and ride the trolley to the trop for free. It picks up on the corner of Central Ave and 2nd Street S.
T Rex
11:15 am on Monday, August 13, 2012
No more sucker bets on baseball with taxpayer money. St. Pete did it once and lost. Miami just did it and now has the worst attendance in history for a new stadium. Good bye, Rays. Go to Tampa. Go to Las Vegas. Just Go, Rays!
Michael D.
11:25 am on Monday, August 13, 2012
You mean like the real suckers bet the city of Tampa did for the Buccanneers. The Glazers make money off of everything that is in that stadium and they don't have to pay in of the costs. Must be nice to have a (I believe, number might have changed.) $40k check off the top of all revenue in that stadium.
Drake
11:32 am on Monday, August 13, 2012
When I read that we might lose St Pete Clearwater Airport I was disappointed. But as in all things nothing is good or bad unless the mind makes it so. Perhaps that would be a good site for a new stadium?