Bus Takes Rays Fans to the Trop

Here’s how it often goes with baseball fans in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel: They want to go to a Tampa Bay Rays game but soaring gas prices and distance become the excuses.

Well, there is a solution.   

Dubbed the No Excuses Tour, Lee Roy Selmon’s, JoeRaysFan.com and Paradise Worldwide Transportation have teamed up to offer a chauffeured luxury bus for fans going to the game. The price is $9.95 roundtrip and riders are picked up and dropped off at the Lee Roy Selmon’s on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa.

Given the price of gas and parking, the ticket is quite a bargain.

“We like to call it the best deal in Tampa Bay sports,” said Steven Isbitts, who runs JoeRaysFan.com. “It’s not a money-maker.”

The Rays open their season today against the New York Yankees at home, and this marks the second year the No Excuses Tour is being offered. It will be available for home games on Saturdays, Sundays and select Fridays, Isbitts said.

After departing from , the bus stops at the Lee Roy Selmon’s near International Plaza to pick up more passengers before heading to Tropicana Field. 

Riders are free to bring their own food and beer on the bus. Isbitts said there is not a wild, party atmosphere though “people call us a rolling tailgate.”

The No Excuses Tour came about from all of the talk about poor attendance at the Trop and the relocation of the team. “Especially for people in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, it’s a haul,” Isbitts said. “So we said, let’s try to find a solution.”

Fans can reserve a seat by going to the website,  http://www.NoExcusesTour.com, or by paying cash at the bus stop.