The future of MLB in Florida is still debatable

It's not easy being a fan of Major League Baseball in Florida. The Miami Marlins don't really spend much money and not making too much in revenue to begin this. The Tampa Bay Rays are constantly flirting with relocation and need to be in a new stadium by the end of this decade. It's frustrating to watch how the game is currently working out in our great state. So, what's going on?

The Miami Marlins can still be a bigger success in Florida.

It's pretty widely known that Bruce Sherman is probably not going to be a big spender in any off-season. Peter Bendix doesn't likely have the resources to sign any big names, but he can use his knowledge to still build a winning team on the cheap so to say.

I'm not sure where things really went wrong. Sports in Florida are a big deal. The Miami Heat were huge back during the LeBron James days. I would bet that they were the most popular team in the NBA during that time. The Miami Dolphins had their days as well, being pretty popular in the state.

The Miami Marlins have a history of bad ownerships groups, that were largely unwilling to spend on the team. It's interesting to note that The Fish were still able to win two World Series. The 1997 win was at the time the fastest for an expansion team in history. The 2003 win put The Fish into elite category of around 10% of teams who won it all in the last thirty years.

One of the problems that The Fish face is the lack of a salary cap. Both the NBA and the NFL have salary caps, MLB does not. Is that the reason for the team's issues? Maybe. I suspect that if the Marlins were consistently winning, the fans would show up and then revenue would rise and so should the payrolls as well.

The Tampa Bay Rays are a consistently low payroll team that has never won the World Series. Now, there's a legit reason to believe that they could be leaving Florida. If they can't agree on a new stadium deal, relocation seems logical and it seems that the team is open to it.

What can the MLB do to improve things for the Florida teams? Stepping in to help the Rays could be one move. Making sure that the Miami Marlins have owners that spend would be another. I don't expect it to happen, but the game needs help as Florida is a great place for sports.