Montreal businessman Stephen Bronfman said that he is "willing to buy a share of the Rays and, more importantly, buy into the idea of a team playing in two cities," according to John Romano of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. Bronfman at a news conference in Montreal yesterday discussing the Rays' two-city plan said, "People just want to see baseball, and people are adaptable." For the most part, Bronfman "stuck to the same script that Rays Owner Stu Sternberg used in Tuesday’s news conference in St. Petersburg." Bronfman said, "There are risks with anything interesting and anything innovative. I think having two scenarios and having two different partners and two different cities, I think you also have some less risk because you’re derisking a project." Former Canadiens exec Pierre Boivin, who is part of Bronfman’s bid group, said, "We’re not going to start building a stadium until we have a definite plan, a definite agreement and definite approval by the league" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 6/27).
TAKING SOME TIME: Bronfman said his group is "not looking for an investment from the city" to build a new ballpark. While Bronfman and Boivin yesterday "shied away from timetables, they did say that it will take one year of planning and two years to build" a new ballpark (MONTREAL GAZETTE, 6/27). Bronfman said, "Even in a split scenario, it’s a return of baseball permanently to Montreal." However, Bronfman and Boivin noted that there were "still many obstacles to overcome." The pair said that it was "still not clear how many games would be played in each city, where the team would play during playoffs, or what the team would be called." But Bronfman said that the opportunity was "too good to pass up" (CP, 6/26). FS1’s Jon Morosi: “Montreal, to me, is a Major League city. It's also the largest market in the U.S. or Canada without a Major League Baseball team now." He added, "You can sell the rights to TV and radio in both languages and make double the money. One of the aspects of the way that attendance worked in Montreal, they did turn out for a good team. You look back at the early ‘90s when they were competitive, the fans came out in a way that they never really have in Tampa Bay (“MLB Whiparound,” FS1, 6/27).
LOOKING AT LOGISTICS: In Tampa, Mike Sherman notes the Rays’ "efforts to gain public support" for the split-city plan continued yesterday "with an email to supporters." Part of the message read: "This concept is in the very preliminary stages of its development. As we move forward, we expect to find answers to the myriad questions that will bring us closer to our goal of keeping major league baseball in Tampa Bay for generations to come. Again, we thank you for your support of the Rays, and we ask that you consider this new and innovative idea with an open mind" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 6/27). TAMPA BAY TIMES Rays beat writer Marc Topkin in a roundtable discussion wrote fans are "not going to care as much about how this may help the franchise economically because they feel games are being taken away from them." It is going to "take an educational campaign, orchestrated with a deft touch." Sports columnist John Romano: "Part of baseball’s charm is the emotional bond of a daily game. The distance between Tampa Bay and Montreal will tear the limits of that bond and I’m not sure the Rays can do anything about it" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 6/27). ESPN’s Jon “Stugotz” Weiner said, "The Rays have absolutely no business having a baseball team in that city." He added, "The Rays actually have people in upper management who are very good at their jobs, they’re out there trying to win, they actually have a good product on the field, and no one is showing up. ... Baseball has no business being in Florida at all" (“Get Up,” ESPN, 6/27).
NEW AGE THOUGHT? SPORTSNET.ca's Shi Davidi wrote there is an "admirable creativity of thought" in the Rays' plan, along with a "healthy dose of audacity." It is a "rethinking of how to make 81 home dates feasible in more markets." Reducing the amount of games to sell in each locale "concentrates the interest among fans who buy only a limited number of tickets per season, and reduces the liability" (SPORTSNET.ca, 6/26). However, the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jared Diamond writes after Sternberg on Tuesday made his "first attempt to publicly explain how any of this makes any semblance of sense and assurances to the contrary, the whole thing still feels like a page out of a familiar playbook." A team desires a new venue but "would rather not pay for it." It "threatens to leave, pits two municipalities against each other and sees which one blinks first" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/27).
DIFFERENT LOCALE: FS1's Rob Parker: "Tampa Bay has been a failure. Major League Baseball needs to take a look at somewhere. I would go to Portland. I would give some city like that a chance rather than revisit two failed places. I'm not with this plan. It’s a bad plan" (“MLB Whiparound,” FS1, 6/27). In Orlando, Ryan Gillespie notes the city "isn’t planning to take a swing at landing" the Rays in light of talk about the split-city plan. Throughout Orlando’s history, the city has "dabbled with the idea of trying to lure a big-league team to town." Orlando is the nation’s "largest media market without a MLB franchise" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 6/27).
