Could Florida baseball teams do battle for Tim Tebow?

Despite a ten year absence from the sport, Tim Tebow could land in St. Petersburg or Miami where fans are not exactly flocking to the stadiums.

Imagine, if you will, a stadium in Florida that has so many fans they won’t know what to do with them all. Nah, just kidding. But when it comes to the Tampa Bay Rays and the Miami Marlins, putting Tim Tebow into one of their uniforms could have visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in the heads of ownership.

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That early Christmas present would be in the form of an added revenue stream for what would be a modest investment. Make no mistake, anyone who signs Tebow will be doing it as a public relations stunt rather than a sound baseball decision — but who cares? Tebow has legions of fans that will follow him to the ends of the earth just to see him wearing his familiar No. 15. They don’t care for what team so long as they just see him.

Former teammate Eric Decker put his finger right on the hot button, according to a report at Fox Sports, by saying, “Someone is going to sign him. I guarantee you that, because it’s Tim Tebow.”

For the Marlins, the choice is simple. Get him some work in the minors and call him up on September 1 when the rosters expand. Few teams fill out the full 40 man roster anyway so he is pretty much guaranteed a spot. Unfortunately, if they remain in the pennant race in the final month of the season, how much playing time will he get? Are fans ready to cough up major league ticket prices just to see him ride the pines?

Miami needs fannies in the seats even though they have a very competitive team. They have stars, but they still cannot get people to come out to the ballpark as they rank 27^th averaging 21,814 a game through 55 dates.

If you look across the state, the situation is more critical.

The Rays are dead last in attendance where they are drawing just 16,438 per game. They are not in a race unless you call getting out of last place something to cheer for (entering play on Wednesday they are ten games out of fourth in the AL East).

Tampa Bay is known for operating on the cheap and they really have just one bonafide star in Evan Longoria and overall they can hit a little bit. Other than the seven players who have double digit home run totals, they hit very little.  Sure they have some young pitching, only they have underachieved all year.

So what do you do to get some excitement at Tropicana Field? Right now they need to offer one dollar more than anyone else to get Tebow’s name on a contract. That cha-ching you will hear will begin before the ink dries.

After a brief stay somewhere in the minors, where that club will be guaranteed sellout after sellout to boost their bottom line, he can get the call and be plugged in almost immediately. Tebow will like that, a chance to play, something the Marlins cannot guarantee. There is no pennant race so he has no pressure on him to produce.

And the Rays have one more advantage. Tebow’s alma mater, the University of Florida, is just 150 mile up Interstate 75. It’s win-win for everyone and if, after a decade away, he doesn’t look like he can shake off the rust, he gets a one-way ticket back to the SEC Network.