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ThunderDome (JJ17014)

$10.00

Product Description

THUNDERDOME

JJ17014

Uncommon ThunderDome title.....reversed image!

Tampa Bay Rays (MLB) (1998–present) Florida Tuskers (UFL) (2009-present) St. Petersburg Bowl (NCAA) (2008–present) Tampa Bay Storm (AFL) (1991–1996) Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL) (1993–1996) NCAA Men's Final Four (1999)

Tropicana Field is a domed stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, which has been the home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays since 1998.

After Tampa was awarded the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Rowdies in the 1970s, St. Petersburg decided it wanted a share of the professional sports scene in Tampa Bay. It was decided early on that they would attempt to attract Major League Baseball.

The stadium, built originally as the Florida Suncoast Dome, was first used in an attempt to entice the Chicago White Sox to relocate if a new ballpark were not built to replace the aging Comiskey Park. The governments of Chicago and Illinois eventually agreed to build a New Comiskey Park (now known as U.S. Cellular Field) in 1989.

The stadium was finished in 1990, but still had no tenants. The venue made St. Petersburg a finalist in the MLB expansion for 1993, but they lost out to Miami and Denver. There were rumors of the Seattle Mariners moving in the early part of the 1990s, and the San Francisco Giants came close to moving to the area, with Tampa Bay investors even announcing they were in a press conference in 1992. However, the sale was blocked by National League owners who voted against the sale and move in November 1992 under pressure from San Francisco officials and the then-owner of the Florida Marlins, Blockbuster Video Chairman H. Wayne Huizenga. A local boycott of Blockbuster Video stores occurred for several years thereafter.

The Suncoast Dome did manage to gain a tenant in 1993 when the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning made the stadium its home for three seasons. In the process, the Suncoast Dome was renamed the Thunderdome. Because of the large capacity of what was basically a park built for baseball, several NHL attendance records were set during their time there. The Tampa Bay Storm of the AFL also played there during the Thunderdome era, and set attendance records for that league as well.

Finally, in 1995, the dome received a baseball team when MLB expanded to the Tampa Bay area. Changes were made to the stadium and the name, which was changed due to the sale of naming rights to Tropicana Products, thus renaming it Tropicana Field in 1996.

Unused 4" x 6" continental size chrome

Dist. by Seminole Souvenirs

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