Abstract
Three years after San Francisco Giants owner Bo Lurie failed to sell his franchise to investors in Tampa Bay, Florida, Major League Baseball (MLB) officials met in West Palm Beach during March 1995. In a 28–0 vote, they approved the 13th and 14th expansions in major league history. A syndicate, led by former engineer and sports entrepreneur Vincent Naimoli, was awarded an American League (AL) team to be located in Tampa Bay and later nicknamed Devil Rays. For the other expansion, American businessman and sports executive Jerry Colangelo and his investment group received permission from MLB to own a National League (NL) club, place it somewhere in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and eventually name it.
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Notes
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1Two well-researched sources for information about the history of new MLB teams are Frank P. Jozsa Jr., Major League Baseball Expansions and Relocations: A History, 1876–2008 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009), and James Quirk and Rodney D. Fort, Pay Dirt: The Business of Professional Team Sports (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992).
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2For specific events and time periods regarding this topic, see “Tampa Bay Rays Timeline,” http://www.tampabayrays.mlb.com, cited 20 February 2015.
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3Some Devil Rays highlights are in the Official Major League Baseball Fact Book 2005 Edition (St. Louis, MO: Sporting News, 2005) and also in “Teams,” http://www.baseball-reference.com, cited 28 January 2015.
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4“Stuart L. Sternberg,” http://www.tampabay.rays.mlb.com cited, 8 August 2015
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5The references for team financials are “The Business of Baseball,” http://www.forbes.com, cited 28 January 2015, and “Major League Baseball Valuations,” http://www.bloomberg.com, cited 2 February 2015.
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6Paul Swaney, “2014 MLB Ballpark Experience Rankings,” http://www.stadiumjourney.com, cited 23 February 2015
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7“MLB Team Loyalty Winners and Losers,” http://www.brandkeys.com, cited 14 February 2015, and Barry Janoff, “Report: When It Comes to 2014 MLB Fans, the Most Loyal Group is the Cards,” http://www.nysportsjournalism.com, cited 23 February 2015
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8See Wade Tyler Millward, “Rays Future in Tampa Bay in Jeopardy as City Council Rejects Trop Exit Deal,” http://www.bizjournals.com, cited 19 February 2015.
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Jozsa, F.P. (2016). Tampa Bay Rays. In: American League Franchises. SpringerBriefs in Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25996-3_4
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