thurdl's take on...

...Florida Baseball

Yeah, it's the second baseball entry in a row here in My Take On... Hey, can't all be my evil politics. But yeah, another conversation, and another thought about baseball. This time, instead of Barry Bonds, and instead of throwing made up statistical measurements around like some low cost sabermatrician, I'm just looking at Florida Baseball.

Baseball, leading up to the 1990s, had 26 teams. 14 in the AL and 12 in the NL. None of those 26 teams were in the state of Florida, home to such large markets as Tampa Bay and Miami. At that time, Florida baseball was the prodigious minor league system within the state, and college baseball. Then, in two consecutive rounds of expansion, when baseball went from 26 to 28, then from 28 to 30 teams, there was major league baseball in the state of Florida.

The Marlins first game was in 1993. A few seasons later, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays kicked things off. Both have had interesting histories.

In the short time that the Marlins have existed, they've taken the World Series twice. In the short time that the Devil Rays have existed, they've managed to be not the last place team in the American League East just once, and after that foray into the lofty heigths of 4th place last year, they're now in last place, 11 games back just from being in fourth, and 16.5 out of the running for being in first place.

And both now have their problems.

The Marlins are being evicted. After 2010, they're going to no longer be welcome to play their home games in Dolphin Stadium, because the stadium wanted to explore more lucrative sporting options. Like cricket. Seriously, one of the sports listed in the press release by the owners of Dolphin Stadium made it clear that they would rather host cricket events than Marlins baseball. That means that the Marlins are running out of time, as it takes, on average, 3-4 years to build a stadium. One year to finalize designs, and two to three to build the thing. The problem is that the Marlins have failed to secure all the funding that is necessary to build a new stadium. They've blown by several deadlines that have been put into place by MLB, and I'm guessing the league is going to start running out of patience with the team. My guess is that if they don't have funding in place by the end of the 2006 calendar year, that a one year search for a new city will launch, with a new site for the Marlins announced in 2007 or 2008 to give Las Vegas (or wherever else) a chance to build their stadium. That's 18 months that Miami has to save the Marlins. And that's me being kind.

The Devil Rays have another problem. For the last few years, they've been able to look good by comparrison, as they were drawing more people than the Montreal Expos. Last season, the Expos averaged 9,356 fans per game. Pathetic. A big part of why the team has moved, and nearly quadrupled it's number of fans per game. The Devil Rays managed just shy of 7,000 more fans per game. Just over 16,000. The problem is that attendance has falled off, even from this pathetic number, to the tune of 3,000 a game. 13,241 per game. And that's being skewed high by the fact that Red Sox fans manage to sell out Tropicana field (and I'm guessing outnumber home fans by 3 to 1). They find themselves 6,000 fans per game behind the #29 team. The largest gap, by far, between any two consecutive teams on the list of fans per game.

I'm surprised that there's been no talk about Devil Ray relocation. I suppose that's because (1) there's a team that might be in more immediate need of relocation and (2) there might be the question of "yeah...but is there a city without a team that will draw better". I look at the cities that tried to bring in the Expos when they were moving. Only three of them really had a good chance at the team. And one of those was Northern Virginia, which is now out of the running, probably forever, cause hopefully the Nationals ain't going anywhere, and if they do, I doubt the area would be able to lure back a fourth team. That leaves Las Vegas, who I think would be the prime candidate to get the Marlins if they had to move, and Hampton Roads. Maybe Nashville, maybe San Antonio. Hard to say how excited cities are if they didn't try for the 'Spos.

I wouldn't be surprised if Florida is baseball free by 2015. If the Marlins have to move, then after that, cities that want baseball will see that there have been two relocations in one decade (after over three decades without a relocation) and that there is a team that could possibly be courted. It's kinda sad, and it'll be interesting to see how things turn out.

posted by thurdl @ 5:30:00 PM