Hello Rays fans, I am planning a business trip to Miami in mid-August, and am going to look at renting a car, driving up to Tampa, and scheduling my return flight from there so I can catch a game at the Trop. Looking for advice from local fans.

First, I'm assuming car rental is the best way to make the 4.5 hour trip from Miami to Florida. Let me know if there's some sort of public transit I should consider.

Secondly, where should I look to stay the one night I will be in Tampa? I would prefer something on the cheap side close to the stadium to minimize driving, but want to avoid any 'bad parts of town' that I wouldn't know about, as I will be likely travelling by myself.

Lastly, I'm assuming the best way to get a single (maybe 2) ticket(s) will be to wait and scalp before the game? Maybe check StubHub as the game approaches, as I prefer to get into the games early and watch BP. Any recommendations on where to sit, anything must-sees at the stadium, or must-dos before/after the games?

Thanks in advance.

First, the stadium is in St. Petersburg, not Tampa, I don't know if that makes a difference to you, but if you want a hotel that would be easy transit to the Trop I would recommend finding one a little North of downtown. I wouldn't go anywhere South of the Trop. There are plenty of hotels so just find what you like (Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn...). Second, tickets are relatively easy to get to the game if your weekday (games have usually 15,000 or less unless). Low 300 level has always been enjoyable for me. If your lookin cheap the TBT Party Deck is like 9 bucks or a little more (the seats are benches).

Thanks for the replies - I will look into the flight and hotels north of the Trop or near the airport.

Tropicana Field is located directly across a narrow city street from the St. Petersburg Police Department Central Headquarters!

Took, you appear to be a clueless klowwwwnnnn! First of all, St Pete's downtown area is nicer than anywhere in the dump called Tampa. Have you been to the Vinoy, stoooopid, easily the classiest hotel in the entire St.Pete/Tampa area? Spend a couple of extra bucks, stay at the Vinoy; take the Vinoy shuttle back and forth to the game(5 min. Ride) and don't listen to anyone that recommends staying at an airport hotel, because they obviously don't get out much!

Police station!!!! Not exactly across the street from the Trop..Try around the corner about a good Block and a half walk..I'm told they have a response time of 45 mins to the trop parking lot...

I frequently take the trolley from The Pier and get off right across the street from the Police Headquarters right nearby to the beer joint ... and walk along a sidewalk leading directly down to the stadium property and an entryway to the stadium. The closest stadium parking lots to the police station can't be much more than 100 yards away ... and it can't be much more than another 50 or 75 yards to a stadium entryway. (?)

And ... as I'm sure you well know ... the cops aren't going to be particularly quick to respond to, say, a fender-bender accident in a Trop parking lot ... plus ... the order of the day in terms of traffic control is ... move'em up and get'em out ASAP ... double ASAP ... and, I'm sure, anything else gets a second-tier priority (unless it's a medical emergency or major crime of some sort). (?)

(I recently had a car stolen ... went through the reporting process ... and then located the car myself two days later in a restaurant parking lot with the possibility that the thief was in the restaurant as a customer or employee ... and I immediately called and reported my find directly to MY pre-specified incident contact at the Sheriff's Department ... and while I surreptitiously and at a distance kept my car under survelillance in that parking lot ... it took nearly TWO HOURS for a sherriff's deputy to finally show up and take control of the matter. So ... the Great Bush Recession ... and its effects on reducing the number of available teachers, firemen and police ... among other public services ... apparently had an effect. ?)

Maybe they were listening to a Yankee game on .820AM LOL

Staying St. Pete would be advisable at a place like the Vinoy, Don Cesar, a bit pricey but well worth it. As for public transportation....there is none as the bus service is absolutely terrible on both sides of Tampa Bay. If you go to a night game, by the time the game is over the buses have stopped running. Rent a car and that way you can get around town a lot easier and quicker. Enjoy your stay and enjoy the Trop.

Naw, they probably keep coming because they're hoping to see that Sternberg has replaced The Batter's Eye restaurant with a strip club and has simultaneously decided to begin renting out all the unused private suites on an hourly basis.

There was a movie out a few years ago that had a slogan "If you build it,they will come"..Naimoli convinced the city of that and he was peeing in the wind..But he is laughing now ,he got his money and ran (or hides in the city somewhere while he spends his earnings in the bahamas...Sternberg bought into the City,The Rays and the people and his partnership invested into the area by buying the team..They built a team that competes and thats what they are in business to do..They invested into the area,they do put money into the area its youth projects and charities....They keep the ticket prices lower than any team..Even gave free parking..By buying the team they made a point that they believed in the City...But they haven't had that feeling returned..So next option is to find a solution to the problem..they will never please you but they don't have too.I understand your civic minded tax payer concerns but you continue on a problem that don't exist until it does..There has been no request except to find a location feaseable for the Bay Area to have MLB thrive..You worry about losing as a tax payer..Well you lose everyday there is a game..Low attendance means low income and low income for the city means Taxes go up...So when do you come out a winner instead of a Whiner???

Naimoli paid MLB $300 million to BUY an MLB franchise which he wished to locate in the City of St. Petersburg because they had a new, A/C'ed, domed stadium handy to house that team. Naimoli made money for revenues provided him by MLB via their reveue sharing plan. In turn, Sternberg bought the team and all its obligations from Naimoli for the $300 million that naimoli had paid MLB for the franchise. neither "invested in the area" ... BOTH "invested in a franchise" ... just as hundreds of thousands of other businesspeople nationwide have done, e.g., McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Jiffy Lube, etc.

And ... the reason the franchise was awarded to the City of St. Petersburg is very simple ... it was the ONLY possible expansion location which HAD A NEW DOMED BASEBALL STADIUM ALREADY BUILT AND READY TO GO!

An MLB baseball franchise is just another business ... and it brings FAR LESS direct economic benefit to its locale than do most other local businesses with similar annual revenues ... AND ... since Florida has no income tax ... and very low corporate taxes ... an MLB team ... and the salaries it pays ... add very little to the tax coffers in those respects ... plus ... since Tropicana is City-owned ... there aren't even any advolarem or school taxes able to be collected on, really, the only high-dollar-value physical asset an MLB team night have! (Unlike a Wal*Mart, for instance, which has to spend $100 million on building its own place of operations ... while paying a few million in property and school taxes on it EVERY year. In fact ... a Super-Wal*Mart (or a major shopping center) probably has W-A-Y more economic benefit to a city, county and state than does an expansion MLB franchise!)

Either way ... the issue isn't "how much each taxpayer has to put up" ... the REAL ISSUE is ... HOW MANY MORE VALUABLE PUBLIC USES ARE THERE FOR THE MONEY!!!

As opposed to, say, Detroit?

The City of St. Petersburg ... for a city of its size ... probably has one of the nicest downtowns ... and clearly one of the nicest waterfronts ... in the U.S. There's clearly NO comparison to Tampa ... which has been laboring (pretty unsuccessfully) with its unfortunate downtown area for the last 50 or so years that I know of.

(You know ... like their are extreme idiot political partisans ... there are apparently similar extreme idiot Tampa partisans. It usually boilds down to those kinds of people not really having a clue.)

OK we have a difference of opinion..I don't feel that my opinion will make any more of a difference than yours in the long run..I'm a Rays fan and I hope they stay somewhare in the area so our youth can enjoy rooting for a team like I did...

Your mini-minded and condescending sarcasms are nothing more than geeky middle-schoolisms.

If downtown Tampa is your idea of an aesthetic, vital, vibrant, economically-well-developed and highly desirable central city which accomodates both attractive employment and entertainment resources and options for a diverse citizenry of all ages ... well ... you're entitled to that opinion ... regardless of how uninformed and unrealistic it may be.

Right. And, regarding decisions concerning a new stadium and re-locating the tean ... the only opinions that actually do matter are those of the Rays' executive management developed in concert with MLB, Inc. And, my belief is that the ONLY outside factor that can sway those decisions is a political jurisdiction's offer of providing free public money in an amount sufficient enough to satiate the team's executive management and its MLB, Inc. franchisor.