Just a thought given the Marlins and Rays inability to consistently draw well and maintain solid teams for more than a few seasons at a time once the guys get expensive. Move one of the teams (Montreal, Portland, wherever), and make the remaining team a Florida team – splitting games between Miami and Tampa (with a few thrown in in Orlando at the Wide World of Sports Complex maybe?). This would have worked better before the Marlins secured a brand new stadium I think, but it would certainly be easier to fill each ballpark 35-40 times a season than 81. Build a new park in the Tampa area, but lower capacity, lower cost than what most brand new parks are, and just work on filling each park for half a season. As I recall, the Rays actually do pretty well in TV viewership, so its not like the fans aren’t out there – doing something like this might be more cost effective than the current arrangement. And if you play a couple of games a year in other locations (Disney, maybe a college/spring training park in one of the other cities in the state) it will help build a regional fanbase.
Like I said, stupid idea of the day, but would be interesting to see. If it worked, some other marginal cities might make sense for a split team – Nashville/Memphis, Norfolk/Charlotte, and places like that where they’re border-line MLB towns, and it might push it over the edge.
Blog to be Named Later 