Lol, that would be wild. I’m a huge State baseball fan, and love Doak for its proximity to campus / history, but that complex is woefully behind about 2/3 of the ACC. It’s been “undergoing renovations” since January 2022 that seem to have stalled as well. No one has any idea what the current status is and the only renovations done to this point were completed prior to the 2023 season.
If you’re gonna host an MLB game anywhere in the Triangle it should be at UNC-CH given what that stadium looks like.
It’s true that the Rays are still in the very early stages of assessing their options here, but the Bulls are the first, and so far only, potential landlord that’s issued a public statement pre-emptively and proactively taking themselves out of the running as a possible candidate.
Let me put this way: suppose a different potential host had issued an identically worded statement about having had no conversations with the Rays and not anticipating hosting the team due to logistical challenges. How many people would be jumping into action on this forum and trying to convince folks that the statement doesn’t mean exactly what it says, or that the host is by no means off the table? If you said exactly zero, you are correct. In fact, you’d be seeing a lot of posts about how this is fantastic news for the chances of the Rays coming to Durham.
The Bulls proactively issued a statement taking themselves out of the running. It would be best to take the statement at face value rather than scrutinizing it for signs of wiggle room because it would be nice if it said something different from what it actually says simply because this is the potential host that’s closest to Raleigh.
This is a unique situation so you could be right. But in general it’s fairly typical in the sports world for people to issue denials up until the moment something is a done deal. It gives breathing room for the parties involved. But I haven’t been paying attention here though. At first glance, I doubt this had reached the media frenzy of a typical SEC football coaching hire, so it’s probably fair to take the denial at face value rather than misdirection.
I don’t think anyone really thinks they’re moving to Durham for an entire season. But a team that already struggles with attendance is going to have an even harder time in a spring training facility. They might see it as an opportunity to at least get a few sellouts.
A sold out series or two would go a long way for the area, that’s all my post was hoping for. Which I don’t rule out given that the Bulls specifically said full season, and we’re early in the process. It’s all speculation but sometimes speculation can be fun instead of a downer.
It isn’t the mosr exciting locale but if the Bulls are saying it won’t work & Tampa needs an option & MLB wants to “test a market”…it’s an option…free of conflicting schedules
On paper, it makes sense. But would the Yankees want to help a division rival? And then comes the awkwardness of the Rays playing in a building that is heavily coded towards said rival.
I can see the Yankees being that petty especially after the debacle of the 2012 Empire State (Scranton-Wilkes Barre) Yankees being forced on the road for a year for renovations.
I think the big question will be what they do in late summer. It rains almost every other night in Tampa, thus the need for a dome.
If they tried to play outdoors during this time, it would wreak havoc on MLB’s scheduling. You could do a bunch of double-headers, but if it’s the 3rd game of the series, you’d have to have them come back and play it during their next series together (if there is one). And what if there’s not another series between the two?
This, to me, is where a location further north makes sense (at least for those rainy months)
ESPN was reporting this afternoon that the Commish says they want to keep the Rays as close to their fans as possible. That does sound like they are leaning towards one of the pre-season training parks, if the deal can be done.
“We’re hopeful that we can figure out something in [the Tampa Bay area] for them and that the repairs can be done in a way that allows them to resume playing,” Manfred said on an episode of “The Varsity” podcast published Sunday. “The easiest thing is always to stay in the market where the clubs are anchored, if we can manage it.”
It’s possible no one informed Commissioner Manfred about the situation with the rain in the Tampa area and the havoc it would wreak on MLB’s schedule, but it sounds like that’s their preferred option right now.
Interesting enough the average yearly rainfall is almost exactly the same in Raleigh as it is in Tampa Bay… in fact Raleigh has a slight edge over Tampa Bay.
Yes, Raleigh and Tampa get about the same amount of rain total, but as you can see, Tampa stays mostly dry from Oct-June, but then from June to August, they get most of their rain in that short window. It is still a situation worth keeping an eye on.
@daviddonovan I’ll ignore the condescending delivery of your comment (which was laid out in a way to suggest that I think I know more than Commissioner Manfred), and just say that obviously, the Rays want to stay close to home. My comment was explaining where Durham WOULD fit into the conversation at all (and the reason they were floated by the national media before anyone locally even chimed in).
“I’ll ignore the delivery of your comment” is a statement that refutes itself once you say it out loud, but I’ll ignore that, now that I’ve mentioned it explicitly.
The Rays-to-Durham idea never really made any sense. Calling it half-baked would greatly flatter the amount of baking involved. (Yes, national media floated it first, but usually near the end of a long list of spitballed possibilities.) Until the Dome is fixed the Rays are left with nothing but really, really bad options, but playing in Durham would combine all of the disadvantages of playing in a minor league stadium with all the disadvantages of playing hundreds of miles from home with all the disadvantages of sharing a stadium with another full-time tenant.
