Tag: St Petersburg

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Tampa Bay Rays announce new Ballpark with 30,000 capacity

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The proposed Tropicana Field in St Petersburg the future home of the Tampa Bay Rays (renderings from the Tampa Bay Rays)

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

The Tampa Bay Rays announced the construction of their new ballpark in St. Petersburg. Their new park will have a capacity of 30,000. Inauguration and first pitch are scheduled for the 2028 season.

The Oakland Athletics in Las Vegas. Their new ballpark with capacity of 30,000 fans, scheduled inauguration also for the 2028 season.

The Kansas City Royals new stadium will have 34,500 seats with the city’s iconic fountains. Kansas City is known as the “City of Fountains” with hundreds of unique water sculptures all over the city.The Royals announced plans to leave Kauffman Stadium about two years ago.

But progress has been slow in deciding on a path forward, given the myriad factors involved in the proposed $2 billion-plus ballpark and entertainment district.

The Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred wanted the A’s and the Rays to finish their plans for their new ballparks before he “opens the doors” to other cities across the country looking for expansion teams.

So, why are the new ballparks smaller in capacity?

Why are the MLB stadiums getting smaller? It is not only baseball but professional sports teams have been changing course and building smaller facilities. The low attendance and new generations (millennials) viewing habits, the internet/social media, where sports now can be seen by millions even inside one of the most important gadgets we humans have today, the essential cell phone.

Baseball is a special case as MLB is a traditional game with great history. There was a time the only way to see a baseball game was in person, then radio was invented, then Television came around. Today we are in a totally different new world of communications.

In the years come franchises will be looking to build new stadiums and most of them are probably going to be similar, with an average of 30,000 capacity. However, all these park also have the potential to expand by a few more thousand seats. Did You Know? The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum the home of the Oakland A’s is the biggest MLB stadium by capacity with 56,782.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play voice on the Oakland Athletics Spanish radio network and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

MLB podcast with Matt Harrington: Was Montas success related to PED use?; Could MLB’s high number of HRs have something to do with substance abuse?

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nytimes.com photo: Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred talked about the Tampa Bay Rays splitting time between playing in Tampa Bay and Montreal

On the MLB podcast with Matt:

#1 Oakland A’s pitcher Frankie Montas (9-2 ERA 2.70) has had an outstanding season, he had everything working for him and that was just the thing when he tested positive for performance enhancers. Was his great season lent to his use of PEDs?

#2 MLB has a high number of home runs this season so far, the last time you saw home runs majestically fall into the bleachers like this season was when former St Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire and former Chicago Cub Sammy Sosa were playing. Does this draw suspicions about how this has come about?

#3 MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering moving a team to either Montreal or Portland. The topic of the Tampa Bay Rays who are drawing poorly and need a new stadium will be playing half there games in Montreal and in St Petersburg. Other cities vying for an MLB team are Portland, Charlotte, Nashville, and Las Vegas.

#4 A new Oakland A’s stadium hangs in the balance in downtown Oakland, the Oakland City Council have said they have lots of questions regarding financing the stadium and other environmental issues if by happenstance the city council thumbs down a new stadium for the A’s at Jack London Square the A’s also could be moving to another city on that list.

#5 San Francisco Giant Alex Dickerson who hit a grand slam against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Friday night fused a huge win for San Francisco 11-6. The Giants with the win snapped their four game losing streak.

Matt Harrington does the MLB podcasts each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com