Heyyyyyyyy, remember how Tampa Bay Rays execs released extremely generic renderings of the outside of a proposed stadium for the Tropicana Park site but claimed they hadn’t designed the insides yet? Turns out that’s not entirely true:
With the interior still to be designed, here’s a rendering of what the #Rays proposed new stadium for St. Pete would look like with a pavilion style roof and “an outdoor feel” with windows and doors that open. pic.twitter.com/IR1tl97XMP
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) December 9, 2022
No, I don’t have any idea what it means for there to be a rendering of the interior of a building that’s “still to be designed,” let’s just run with it:
- Let’s get this one out of the way: They don’t need those “Rays” banners, you can tell it’s a Rays game because there’s nobody in the seats. Thank you.
- While the middle deck appears to feature some roughly drawn in ramps, the upper deck doesn’t even feature vomitoriums, so the only way to leave after the game would be to plunge to your death.
- Those support pillars that cut through the upper deck don’t appear to reach the ground, so maybe fans won’t have to wait until after the game to plunge to their deaths.
- Come to think of it, didn’t Rays execs previously tell Topkin the stadium would have 30,000 seats but no upper deck? Maybe no one is sitting there because it’s just a holographic projection?
- This is probably nitpicking given all of the above, but the Rays grounds crew is going to have a hell of a time keeping the ivy on that big left-field wall alive with a few small skylights providing the only natural light.
Topkin doesn’t actually say where the rendering originated, so far all we know he designed it himself with an old copy of MLB: The Show 2006. If nothing else, it’s an excellent reminder that stadium renderings are never to be taken seriously, as they’re just PR fluff meant to pull the wool over fans’ eyes in preparation for asking them for lots of public money or at least season ticket dollars. Wonder how that’s going so far — oh.
Those aren’t support pillars, they are view obstructors to help make the atmosphere old-timey, like a cheap seat in the ancient Comiskey Park.
What a joke. If the owners want a new stadium then they can pay for it themselves. Why should the taxpayers get stuck with the bill for a billion dollar stadium when about 10 to 12,000 people attend the games?
I guess Texas started the warehouse look trend. Looks as if the is no big video screen at that version of the Rays park. If those two Rays banners are actually screens, they are going to have to show line scores vertically.
Rays are a good team and deserve an upgrade
As long as they pay for it…..
Your obviously not a baseball or probably a sports fan.
The Rays have made the postseason four years in a row, so they’re a pretty good team. Not sure what that has to do with “deserving” an upgrade, though.
Unless that “you’re” was directed at me, in which case the three computer baseball leagues I’m in will have to suffice as evidence to the contrary. (Give it up for the 2022 Up & In League champion Flatbush SewerSharks!)
It doesn’t matter how fancy a new Rays field is built if they insist on staying in St. Pete with the bridges and the total lack of mass transit. Tampa makes so much more sense for more than just doubling the number of ticket sales.