Mobility Mike: Take Me Out (On A Train) To The Ball Game

"We don't have a lot of people who can get off work and jump on a train to get to the game. People here have to travel an hour or hour and a half.'' – a fan in the St. Petersburg Times expressing her frustration about getting to Game 4 of the Rays-Rangers series.

More than 100 years ago, “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was written on a subway ride to New York’s Polo Grounds. Since then, trains have been linked to sports. The Los Angeles Dodgers are named for their ancient history as the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. The images of ballplayers riding the rails on barnstorming tours are iconic. This year, the Tampa Bay Rays reenacted these trips between Boston and New York.

Trains have been a part of fans getting to ballparks and arenas across the country. Denver links all three of their sports venues on the same light rail line. Boston’s ‘T’ runs special service for Patriots games. Madison Square Garden, “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” is built on top of Penn Station, one of the busiest rail hubs in the world. Visiting St. Louis this summer, I took the train to a Phillies-Cardinals game and left the platform a bloop single away from the third-base entrance of Busch Stadium. (See photo right)

Of course, in Tampa Bay, we don’t have this option, and it impacts our opportunity as fans to attend games. Aside from the Tampa Streetcar (which cannot take surburban fans to and from Lightning games), Tampa Bay lacks transit connections to our sporting events. HART actually detours service near Raymond James Stadium during Bucs games. (As a comparison, St. Louis’ Metro runs a “Redbird Express” connecting St. Louis’ Illinois suburbs to Cardinals games.) As the chart below demonstrates, the Tampa Bay Rays are one of three MLB teams without a rail connection or regional public bus shuttles to games.

The frustration expressed in the quote above is part of the reason why the Buccaneers, Lightning and Rays supported the transportation referendum in 2010. Sure, if fans rode a train or bus-rapid transit to a Bucs game, the team might lose out on parking fees. But, wouldn’t you go to more games if the cost of transportation was a $5 fare card and not two hours in traffic, gas and $20 to park your car?

That is why pro teams have supported transit. Not only is it cheaper for you to ride a train or bus to the game, it’s easier. Teams want to make it easier to get to games, so you’ll want to come to more games. Plus, with a train or bus, you don’t have to leave in the 7th inning to beat the traffic and miss a seven-run comeback.

Eventually, you will take a train or a bus to games in Tampa Bay. And you won’t miss sitting in traffic.