Rays Would Be Insane to Split Time Between Montreal and Tampa Bay in 2 New Stadiums

It's no secret that the Tampa Bay Rays aren't against relocating. The team consistently draws small crowds to their home games at Tropicana Field every year, even this season with a Rays team that currently owns the first AL Wild Card spot and is just 3.5 games back in the AL East. So far this season, the Rays are 29th in all of baseball in attendance with an average of 14,545 fans, only ahead of the lowly Miami Marlins in this category. The Rays also play in what many believe to be the ugliest and most poorly-operated stadium in baseball.

Change is clearly needed, but splitting their home games between two entirely different locations? That ain't it chief.

To say that this proposition -- splitting homes games between Florida and Quebec -- is head-scratching is a vast understatement. It's downright moronic.

If Tampa Bay fans weren't interested in their team before, why would they show any more interest if they ony played half the number of games down at the Trop? Montreal has had a franchise before, the Expos, who moved to Washington due to similar problems that the Rays now face; moving to Montreal entirely would be risky enough, but to split time between two different locations where baseball has failed? Idiotic.

Why not take a page out of the Expos/Nationals book and simply move to a new location entirely? Even in a season in which the Nats are losing and lost their franchise star over the offseason, they still are 15th in all of baseball in average attendance, and are typically much higher.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want to move to Montreal, commit to doing so. Playing half of your home games there and half of them in Tampa Bay (or anywhere, for that matter) is an incredibly stupid idea.