The Rays Owner Says That Sister City Plans Are Going To Happen In The Future In All Sports

Lost in the news that the Tampa Bay Rays would not be splitting their future seasons in Montreal and Tampa was the fact that their owner Stuart Sternberg tried to slip this right by us. He mentioned that in future sports leagues we will be seeing partial seasons in different locations, sister city plans if you will. Sternberg says that "partial seasons are going to be the wave of the future in professional sports." I don't see how that will ever work in any sport. I don't care which of the major leagues it's in, it won't work. He also says that "MLB wasn't prepared to go first", that's kind of a no-brainer answer there too. 

Of course MLB wasn't ready to send a team to another country for half of a year during a pandemic, they can't even guarantee us a full season worth of games. This whole Rays sister city plan has been a shit show from the beginning. They planned to unveil a sign advertising their eventual move to Montreal during their first playoff series, in what world is that a good idea? Eventually it was scrapped because the idea is dumb as hell and it's a huge slap in the face to their fans, as is moving half your home games to another country. Did they really think taxpayers would be okay with paying for a ballpark and then they don't even play their full schedule there? On what world is that a good idea?

But I'm calling bullshit on Sternberg saying this is the wave of the future, it won't be successful. We've seen the Bills do their preseason games in Toronto and they toyed with that for a while, obviously the NFL and the Jaguars are in love with London, other random NFL and NBA games in Mexico City. But a team splitting a season between sister cities would never be successful. How do you sell that to either fanbases? I couldn't see how this would fly anywhere with any franchise. And there is just no way it's the future of sports. You think people are eventually going to be rooting for the Texas/Nashville Rangers? The Phoenix/Atlanta Coyotes? Not a shot, no chance Sternberg. It was a dumb idea from the beginning and the fact that he was saying it's MLB's fault it's not happening is because MLB wasn't prepared to be the first league to do it is laugh out loud funny. Maybe instead of trying to move North for the summer just build a new ballpark that's, I don't know, near Tampa Bay and not 45 minutes away? If they don't want to be in Tampa just say it and leave, but you can't do this sister city stuff, it will never work.