Advertisement

Huizenga: Florida should have at least two teams

 
Published June 15, 1993|Updated Oct. 9, 2005

Wayne Huizenga in favor of another major-league baseball team in Florida? Wait a minute. Haven't we heard all of this before? Isn't this the same guy who

Oh, never mind. He'll probably say it again when the occasion arises, like when someone other than a fellow franchise owner is listening.

Anyway, when St. Petersburg Times business writer Mark Albright met the owner of the Florida Marlins on Monday in Tampa (where Huizenga was attending a reception honoring 50 Florida teachers cited for excellence in teaching economics), Albright asked him about baseball in Tampa Bay. Here's what Huizenga said:

"There isn't any question your area will have a team. It's just a matter of when. Some of the owners are even talking about it now. Florida should have at least two teams. The sooner the better."

Interleague play? He's in favor of it on a limited basis if baseball expands to five teams per division, and he doesn't care if an expansion team is in the National League or American League because with interleague play it will become a non-issue.

Hockey? His Florida Panthers join the NHL next season, and he says he's looking forward to an in-state rivalry with the Tampa Bay Lightning. (Gee, we wonder how he'd have felt about that rivalry if he'd gotten the state's first NHL team.)