The Villages ain’t showing up for that. They got shuffleboard at noon…early bird dinner at 4:45…karaoke at 6…bed at 9. Can’t fit it in. My brother lives in the villages as an aside
All of his friends are from somewhere else and root for other teams…including him. None of them give a **** about Florida teams at all. Orlando would be a gigantic mistake for a baseball team. Gigantic.
Those arguments are all multiplied by the identity of Orlando as a huge tourist destination. Floridians are the minority in many places in Orlando at any given time. They have to be in order for Orlando to succeed. The biggest destination of them all is Disney. They have been the driver of Orlando's attraction to vacationers with children from all around the world for decades. Disney seems determined to follow a suicidal course that could take Orlando down with them. Woe to the MLB franchise caught up in that.
If the Trop is truly ****ed, they’re going to need an unused major league capable baseball stadium that can handle 81 home games. Doesn’t need to be in their local market (similar to how the Saints played in San Antonio after Katrina). Unlike San Antonio’s useless Alamodome, there aren’t a lot of MLB stadiums just sitting out there unused… besides Oakland’s. Wouldn’t that be something if they actually execute that and they start a cult following that grows steam. Would also love how the AL East teams will be forced to travel there. The Astrodome still condemned… but that would have also been another unused MLB stadium. Any other options? (Or they could just pony up the insurance/disaster relief money to temporarily fix, or permanently fix, the teflon roof. They have enough time).
Or they could just take the dome off and make it an outdoor stadium. Florida will not support baseball. I guess they could give Jacksonville a try, LOL.
There is no drainage. It's probably close to as expensive and may actually take longer to redesign and fix the floor/ground to make it viable in Florida's tropical summer.
Didn’t know that, but I really wasn’t being serious. They should relocate out of Florida if possible, otherwise they will just fix the roof.
They're already committed to building a new stadium there. The Yankees facility in Tampa will likely serve as the interim option if the roof isn't repaired in time (or isn't repaired at all).... Legends Field actually one of the bigger ST stadiums and may end up "increasing" their attendance (% wise) as its actually located closer to Tampa where the actual fans are.
I’ll be there starting next summer and I would certainly go to Orlando to watch the Astros when they are in town