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Rays Eye Games In Orlando Area

By CARTER GADDIS The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 29, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - The Devil Rays are exploring the possibility of playing several regular-season games in the Orlando area, perhaps as soon as the upcoming season, as part of an effort by the franchise to broaden its fan base beyond Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

"One of our business goals is to become a regional baseball team, with support from a large portion of the state of Florida," Devil Rays president Matt Silverman said. "Some of our efforts have come to fruition, especially with Charlotte County hosting spring training [starting in 2009], and we have several ideas to cultivate areas east, toward Orlando."

In order to change venues, even temporarily, the Rays would need approval from Major League Baseball and likely would have to negotiate an agreement with the players' association.

Also, moving games away from Tropicana Field would require negotiating with the city of St. Petersburg, which holds the lease on the stadium and receives a portion of ticket sales.

St. Petersburg mayor Rick Baker said he has been approached by the Rays about the idea.

"I've had talks with [Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg] about this, and I would be willing to explore the idea," Baker said. "Whatever the deal is, it has to be fair to the city. But my objective is for the Rays to succeed here in St. Petersburg. And if succeeding here means doing things to help build the fan base in other parts of the state, as long as something can be worked out that's fair to the city and the season ticket holders, I'm willing to explore it."

A spokesman for Disney's Wide World of Sports said that Disney and the Rays have had "very preliminary" discussions about using the baseball stadium there for regular-season games. The listed capacity at Disney's stadium is 9,500, but the Braves drew 11,431 fans for a spring game against the Yankees this past March, and six other Braves games drew more than 10,000 this year.

A spokesman for MLB said the Rays have not yet contacted the commissioner's office, an indication that the idea remains in the exploratory stage. If the plan picks up steam for next season, one possibility would be to move the scheduled three-game home series against the Marlins (May 18-20).

The games would be used, essentially, as a living "commercial" designed to draw fans from the Orlando area to Tropicana Field in the future.

Kirk Wakefield, who chairs the marketing department in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, said the idea would be a sound marketing strategy, especially if fans are given the opportunity to interact with the players.

"Actually, that's a pretty good approach," said Wakefield, who has conducted fan research across a wide spectrum of professional sports. "The idea is, the more you can get fans involved and exposed to certain players, the more likely they are to think of this as 'our' team. The typical fan, if they ever meet a player, they'll follow that player in the box scores and on TV, because they had a personal encounter. The wiser thing to do would be not just to take the games over there, but have the fans get opportunities to meet the players.

"The bottom line is, you want people to think of this as 'our' team."

Moving regular-season games off site is not unprecedented.

The Montreal Expos played a quarter of their "home" schedule in 2003 and 2004 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Rays and Yankees opened the '04 season in Japan, four years after the Cubs and Mets did the same.

The Rockies and Padres opened the 1999 season in Monterrey, Mexico. In 1996, the Padres and Mets played three games in Monterrey, and the Padres and Cardinals played a three-game series in Hawaii in 1997.

Major League Baseball also is exploring the possibility of opening the 2008 regular season in China, something Silverman said the Rays would be willing to consider if asked to participate.

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.