Teams, cities, and confusion

There's a few things yours truly could never quite figure out in the world of sports. So in no particular order....

Why is a major league baseball team called the Tampa Bay Rays when they actually play on the other side of Tampa Bay (the lake) in St. Petersburg? Shouldn't they be called the St. Pete Rays? Isn't that a lot like the NY Jets and NY Giants actually playing in New Jersey? What's up with that? And what was the big deal about their original name of Tampa Bay Devil Rays? Evidently the word "devil" isn't allowed anymore. The hell you say. Or perhaps "heaven forbid" would be a better way of putting it. Come to think of it -- with their pitiful attendance at Tropicana Field home games -- maybe the Rays would be better off across the bay. At least then we could say, "For Pete's sake, you've got a pretty good team, so where's all the fans?"

For about a quarter century the Detroit Lions didn't actually play in Detroit. Their home stadium was called the Silverdome and was located in Pontiac, some 25 miles away from Motown city limits. The Silverdome had a capacity of roughly 80,000 fans and regularly sold out Lions' games, even though the team was terrible. Further, it was easy to get into and out of, with several entrances/exits and access to major thoroughfares right on their doorstep.

But then those greedy politicos from Pontiac stepped in and tried to squeeze a few more bucks out of the Ford family, which has owned the Lions since about the time the Beatles made their debut in America. So in their infinite wisdom, the Ford family said no. Rather than cough up a few thousand more bucks in concessions, they decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building a new stadium in Detroit. They would call it Ford Field, of course. This stadium seats about 65,000 fans and it's no given that they will sell out all their homes games either. Plus it's a nightmare to get in and out of -- not to mention much more pricey to attend a game. And in case I forgot -- despite the snake oil certain local pundits continue to peddle to the suckers -- the team's still lousy.

But what of the Silverdome? Way back when it was built in 1975, it cost about $56 million. Nowadays it's costs an NFL team more than that to sign a premier player to a long term contract -- but that's the inflation thing. Nevertheless, what was Pontiac going to do with an abandoned stadium? In their own infinite wisdom, they put it up for bids a few years ago. Your guess is as good as mine as to what the fair market price was. Yet they had a bid of $20 million -- which they turned down. Not enough. Somebody will offer more. In the end, the Silverdome wound up going for a measly $583,000 at auction. Is it any wonder Pontiac went broke with geniuses like that in charge? To this day, the Silverdome still sits vacant.

The Detroit Pistons aren't in Detroit either. Far from it, and haven't been for a long time. They moved out of Detroit way back in 1978 to play in the same Silverdome mentioned above. Not content with that, owner Bill Davidson built his own arena for his team -- the Palace of Auburn Hills -- where they play to this day. Unlike the Fords and most other pro team owners in recent years when building a glittery new venue, Davidson paid for the whole thing himself. No tax dollars were extorted from the public and he picked a site where thousands of innocent people wouldn't get thrown out of their homes by the ever dreaded "eminent domain".  The Palace remains a jewel to this day.

There are those that want the Pistons to move back to Detroit. My question would be "why would they even consider that?". They still have a first-class arena with all the necessary amenities that's relatively easy to get in and out of and, needless to say, Auburn Hills isn't exactly Detroit when it comes to crime. So why would new owner Tom Gores want to shell out a few hundred million bucks, taxpayer assisted or not, to move his team into a bankrupt city, rife with corruption and various other mayhem seemingly around every corner? The man didn't get to be a billionaire because he's a fool.

Alas, like the Lions, the Pistons aren't close to being contenders either. But at least a fan doesn't have ro risk life, limb, car, and cough up a house payment to go see them.

Some billionaires and their minions never cease to amaze me. These are the people that think professional sports franchises belong in the heart of the inner-cities they are named after. But the owners sure as hell don't live there -- and most of the people advocating the same live in the burbs themselves.

Can you spell hypocrite?

Personally, I'm still trying figure out where the NFL Patriots play. New England would seem to encompass a lot of territory.