The franchise joined the Southern League in 1973 as the Orlando Twins, a minor-league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, which held spring training in Orlando, Florida at the time.
Despite the fact that the team played in a state-of-the-art stadium that was built in 1997 and used during spring training by the Atlanta Braves, attendance did not meet expectations; after trailing the Southern League in attendance in multiple years, the Rays' owners announced the team would move to Montgomery in 2004.
While in Orlando, the franchise won three Southern League championships: in 1981 (as the Twins), 1991 (as the Sun Rays), and 1999 (as the Rays).
Vince Naimoli, owner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the OrlandoRays, was in for the minor league season opener.
What the Rays and Orlando need is a new, state-of-the- art minor league ball park, a la Disney World no doubt.He quickly announced that he and the Rays were not in the stadium-building business, and that the people of Orlando, who seem so willing to subsidize the Devos family, should do the same for him.
Are there no standards anymore?The economic significance of the Rays to Orlando is somewhere in the same category as the Moscow Circus, with or without the bears.
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