Rant #2,403: Half and Half

No, I have not decided yet who I will vote for President.

I mean, between Alvin and Snoopy.

I just cannot decide.

But what I have already decided is that if it were put to a vote, and I was able to cast a ballot, I would not vote for the Tampa Bay Rays to split their home games between St. Petersburg and Montreal, no way, no how.

These types of arrangements never work out, and even though the Tampa Bay franchise is reeling as far as attendance is concerned, a split home franchise is not going to solve the problem--it will only create new ones.

Split home franchises never work. Look at the NBA's Kansas City/Omaha Kings. Not only did this not work, but the Kings ended up abandoning both cities, picking up and moving far, far away--as far away as they could--to Sacramento.

Currently, you have one split home franchise playing in the four major sports today, and that is the New York Islanders in the NHL. While they await their new home to be built at Belmont Park in Elmont, Long Island, New York, the team splits its home games between Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the Nassau Coliseum, its original home, in Uniondale, Long Island. Will this stadium in Belmont ever be built? Who knows, but by splitting its home games between two venues, it has infuriated its fan base--and you can bet if the Belmont venue does not get built, the team is outta here for good.

The plan that is being floated by Major League Baseball is that the Rays would play the first part of the season in St. Petersburg--where its home, Tropicana Field, is located--and then it would play the second part of the season in Montreal.

All that this would do is make the team a nomadic franchise, with its two "homes" separated by hundreds of miles.

Why would anybody attend a Rays home game in Florida, knowing that the exciting part of the schedule--the second half of the season--would be played in a different country?

And why would fans in Montreal go to the games, if the team is not really theirs and theirs alone?

Look, regular season MLB baseball in Florida evidently does not work, and may never work.

You have a very good Rays team drawing flies, forcing the team to close off the top of the indoor stadium and selling only seating in the bottom tier, cutting seating by something like 50 percent and making it appear that fannies are in the seats, which they are not.

You also have a horrid team in Miami in the Marlins, who draw less then flies--if that is possible--yet have a relatively brand new stadium, courtesy of greased palms ... and I am not talking about the trees adorning the landscape there.

So what is a poor Rays franchise to do?

With the help of MLB, they are basically putting a gun to the head of the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg area, stating that they will have to do this unworkable plan if they do not get a new stadium. And since the plan is unworkable, they will eventually abandon Florida forever, and move to more welcome environs ...

But not necessarily in Montreal.

The Canadian city also has no stadium for the Rays to play in, and is about as far along with constructing a new stadium as Tampa Bay is.

More welcome mats are closer to a new stadium in places likes Las Vegas, Portland, and the Carolinas, so it is not a done deal if the Rays do play some of their home schedule in Canada that they will actually be moving there.

Look, MLB sees a major problem with the Rays, and an embarrassing problem with them related to their attendance, which is at the bottom or near the bottom in attendance every year, competing with the Marlins for the lowest fan base in the game.

But the Marlins have a new stadium, the Rays have bupkis.

So with this announcement, the Rays and MLB have basically said that if we don't get a new stadium in Tampa Bay or St. Petersburg, they are going to be gone eventually.

There have been a number of proposals for a new stadium, but nothing has really been formulated just yet ... and if those towns want a rehash of the Brooklyn Dodgers/New York Giants situation of more than 60 years ago--when New York City had its bluff called by both teams moving to California when Mayor Robert Wagner sat on his hands when each franchise asked for a new stadium and got ignored--then they will get what they pay for, which means they will have nothing.

My family and I have personally been to a couple of Rays games at the Trop over the years when we have been on vacation, and we will be going again this time around, too.

I always liked the place--going from 90 degree heat to a constant 68 degrees is really nice--and it is so different from seeing a game at Yankee Stadium that it is difficult to put it all into words.

The people are nicer, the prices are cheaper, and yes, you can basically sit where you want to sit, because so few people are there.

It is a shame that Tampa/St. Pete may be dropping the ball on this, and that MLB may also be dropping the same ball by splitting the team between two cities that have nothing to do with each other.

It is a big error in the middle of a big game, and there is no telling what the final outcome will be, but you can bet that this thing is going into extra innings.

P.S.: This just in ...

Here is what the Rays sent out yesterday to interested parties. They are now calling the concept with Montreal a "sister cities" initiative, and trying to show people that this is the only tenable way at keeping the Rays in Florida, even if for only 40 games a season.