Evan Longoria suggested in an interview that it might be better for his ex-team, the Tampa Bay Rays, to leave Tampa Bay. As a reason for this, he says, the number of spectators is always low.
Longoria was traded to the San Francisco Giants during the off-season after ten years in the service of the Rays and now gave an interview to the Tampa Bay Times. In it he said: “To be honest – and I’d better not say – my feeling tells me it would be the best decision to move the team.” Longoria added: “I say this only because I see the example of the Miami Marlins. Their new stadium has not really solved their spectator problems. So if you just look at the audience situation, a location somewhere else would be better.”
Longoria said from the players’ point of view: “It pains me to say this, but players want to play in a place where there is constant support from the fans. It’s probably selfish to say that as a player, but I don’t know, does anyone really want to play in front of 10,000 people every night?”
The basis for the statements are plans of the Rays to build a new ball park in Tampa/Florida, which the Rays presented at the beginning of the year. So far, the Rays have played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, on the other side of the bay from Tampa’s perspective, since their debut season in 1998. Since then, the number of viewers in the “Trop” has been one of the worst in the MLB. In 2017, they were last in the viewer ranking with an average of 15,670 visitors.
Before a new stadium can be built, however, there are still some hurdles to overcome anyway. All parties involved still need to clarify who would finance the stadium – the team, private investors or taxpayers.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.