A Gigantic Waste of Time & Money

It's being widely reported today that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have proposed a new 450 million dollar stadium on the water front in Tampa. I'll pause while you either laugh or reread the last sentence to ensure it's accuracy. Jut to recap, the Devil Rays believe they are deserving of a new 450 million dollar stadium. This is the same team that in it's 10 years in the majors has never finished above the cellar or even sniffed a wild card let alone a pennant. This is also the same team that trades all of their young talent as soon as they get remotely close to being free agents thereby earning them the distinction of a AAAA major league team.

All this being said, I believe they own the advantage in head to head competition with the Orioles. Of course this proposal has to go before the city and right now it doesn't look real good. While no new taxes are being proposed the tax payers would still be footing the bill for the majority of the project. This project also supposedly will help revitalize down town Tampa which is also kind of funny. I mean the only people I know that live in that area are over 50 and have too much money to spend before they die. It's not like it was in Baltimore in 92 when Camden Yards and the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor area helped re-vitalize a truly needy down town area.

I forgot to mention although you can see from the picture that this is a retractable dome that features the design of a sail. The sail would be able to retract in 8 minutes to allow you to enjoy the outdoor experience although in mid August I doubt many people will be into that in Tampa. The stadium only holds 37,000 and would have the smallest upper deck area of any other stadium plus not bricks would be used to build it. I'm not saying it doesn't sound cool but I just can't understand a city investing this kind of money in a team that hasn't even made an effort to win in the 10 years they've been in the Majors.