Stamford Devil Rays?

What what what?

From the Stamford Times:

A prominent baseball columnist has sparked the idea of a Major League Baseball team coming to Fairfield County.

Peter Gammons, a columnist for MLB.com and analyst for MLB Network, wrote in a column "there are smart people in the Major League Baseball offices wondering if there's hope of even discussing a potential move of the (Tampa Ray) Rays to New Jersey or Southern Connecticut ...

The same article notes this is most likely a long shot.

Gammons, who did not return messages seeking comment, went on to say in his column published Jan. 22 that any move would have to overcome "certain protests from the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Phillies."

Major League Baseball uses an anticompetitive territory allocation system and it is believed that the New York Mets and Yankees territories spread through Southwestern Connecticut.

It’s a fun prospect to entertain none-the-less. Former Mayor Malloy confirms the Sound Tigers original interest in Stamford over the Bridgeport for the minor league hockey stadium. JR from Streets wrote up the tale at some point but it seems lost in the internets right now. Pitney Bowes objected to the stadium becoming their neighbor in the South End and threatened to move their factory as leverage. Few years later Bridgeport lands the Stadium and Pitney Bowes moves out anyways.

Malloy even stated in the article the Nets entertained interest in the City That Works. At least we can breathe easy we were sparred any chance of the Frank Gerry starchitect clusterfuck that was his Atlantic Yards design for the Nets move to Brooklyn.



Even if unlikely, were a new sports stadium to come to Connecticut, one could imagine Stamford as a top contender (particularly with a sympathetic Governor in Hartford…) The only potential footprints in town are in reasonable distance of the Metro North. Mass transit would have to play heavily into the stadium in this congestion-clogged region in order to keep such an enterprise from plunging us into full-blown traffic apocalypse.

Putting aside any entertainment value for the area residents, the question has been raised whether bringing a new stadium to a city is worth the effort. Often taxpayers heavily subsidize them with questionable return on investment. Many times attendees drive in, spend their money in the bubble of the complex and leave nothing behind but back ups on the on & off ramps. Bridgeport has little to show in economic revitalization near their two stadiums.

Baseball though does seem to offer an exception in “context stadiums”. Old school in the architectural style & layout, these ballparks front city streets and are in walking distances of retail, restaurants, housing and transportation. A number of minor league ballparks have been built in this style and embedded in an existing urban fabric. Major League baseball has some prominent and beloved examples in Fenway & Wrigley. Hell, the apartment buildings across the street from Wrigley have stadium seats built atop them to watch games. You can’t weave a stadium and city any tighter together than that.

Could something in that style be a fit for Stamford? I think so. Let’s do Devil Rays, put your bat in our hole and let’s make a stadium!