Despite Baseball’s Best Record, Attendance Still Lacking for Rays
Don’t let the numbers fool you. According to official tallies, the Tampa Bay Rays’ attendance is up significantly from the 2007 season. Just last week, the team crossed the one-million fan mark at the second-earliest point in club history (only the inaugural season was faster). But these numbers are deceiving.
You see, the Rays have had the benefit of playing the Chicago Cubs in
The Rays have also had five games that have featured the team’s Summer Concert Series. Each game had a different promotional theme, with a different act performing after the game. So far, the Commodores, Trace Adkins, Kool and the Gang, Loverboy and Gilberto Santa Rose have performed. Each one of those games attracted a crowd of over 29,000 fans.
Let’s take a look at how this breaks down. Those above-mentioned games (14) plus the sellout on Opening Day equaled a total attendance of 491,657 fans. The other 35 home games, including three games in Disney World with less than 9,000 per game, totaled 561,424 fans.
Subtract the totals from the 15 “prime” games from the overall attendance, and the Rays, with the best-record in baseball, are averaging a paltry 16,040 per game.
An outsider would look at those numbers, then look at the Rays’ record and ask “why are people not coming”? As a lifelong resident of the
1) Tradition: The Rays have no history. They’ve been around a little over 10 years. Most people in the
2) Success on the field: After the nostalgia of the first season wears off, fans were anxious to see winning baseball. Well, up until this year, the franchise hadn’t delivered anything close to that. In fact, the team has finished in last place every season except one in its existence. Sure, other teams in other cities go through periods of sustained losing—the Pirates immediately come to mind—but those teams have a history and a tradition, and in some cases, a new ballpark, to keep fans coming to the games. When the new ownership came to town and promised to spend money to compete, fans were skeptical (who could blame them). Fans would ask “why should I spend money to watch a team that doesn’t spend money themselves”? This offseason, though, the ownership of the Rays spent money to sign Troy Percival and Cliff Floyd, while inking Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Evan Longoria to long-term contracts. It’s going to take more than a great first-half to convince a lot of fans that were turned off by the team’s lack of success over the last decade.
3) Tropicana Field: As someone who has been to Shea Stadium (widely considered a “dump”) countless times over the first 29 years of my life, I can tell you that Tropicana Field is worse. It is a lousy place to watch a baseball game. It was built in the early ‘90s with the hopes of luring the Giants or the Mariners or the White Sox to the area. When that didn’t work, the focus turned to expansion, which finally came when the Rays played their first game eight years after the Trop was completed. It was obsolete then, and it is even more obsolete now. There are no amenities to draw the casual fan (save for the roof keeping the areas summer thunderstorms out). The stadium is right off interstate 275, so getting there is not the problem. A new waterfront stadium was proposed, but that has since been tabled for at least the next two seasons. There is no way the Rays can be competitive and profitable playing the next 10 years at Tropicana Field, and the sentiment in the area is that if a new stadium isn’t built, the team will leave town.
4) The economy: This is, very possibly, the main issue keeping some fans from coming to the Trop. With gas averaging over $4.00 per gallon, driving to the stadium, paying $10 to park, and enjoying the game with a family of four could cost well over $200. For some fans, that just isn’t affordable. There just aren’t too many people in the area that can afford the tickets for me to believe this is a major, major issue.
In my opinion, these are the major reasons keeping fans from coming out to the ballpark and watching their first-place Rays. One of my best friends, when I mention to him that the Rays won again or that they are playing amazing baseball, always responds the same way “Yeah, but it doesn’t mean they’ll make the playoffs. Let’s see them make the playoffs!”
If that is the belief that is going to continue to be shared around the
Many people compare this team to the ’69 Mets, who went from laughing stocks to winning the World Series. If the fans continue to sit on the couch rather than in the Trop, it’s going to take a “miracle” to keep our Rays in
09 July 2008 15:46
I Blogged about this a while ago (http://jeffespo.blogspot.com/2008/05/perpetual-optimism.html)and wondered why the hell they can’t draw. They are young, exciting and the tickets are cheap – plus you can bring your food in. Try to do that in most other parks. I do believe that they will make the playoffs, but will it really matter to the fans? A winning season was looked at as a pipedream, now not making the playoffs would be a dissapointment, thats asking a lot from a young team. Plus with the playoffs, ticket prices will rise…So will the fans show up, or will FLA show that they can’t support a MLB team?
09 July 2008 19:22
Those are 4 good reasons and I agree with all of them. But compared to other stadiums in the country, attending a game is cheap. But on a sunny day, the last thing people want to do is sit indoors. The dome has to go.
10 July 2008 06:24
I don’t think you should discredit the Rays for their schedule and promotions. As members of the AL East, they’re going to play the Red Sox and Yankees at least 9 times at home each year. The Cubs are the only true “bonus” team on their schedule over previous years.
Additionally, finding promotions that brings fans out to the game, even if the game isn’t what interests them, is a vital part of many organizations. For example, even though the White Sox have drawn well the last few years, they still have many promotions that still boost attendance like Mullet Night. Based on the numbers you provide, I think the Summer Concert Series should be something the Rays get credit for doing to create attendance.
13 July 2008 10:33
[...] Seamheads looks at the Tampa Bay Rays and their attendance. Even though they are having the best season in their history, they just broke the one million mark for attendance. That’s rough for the management. Perhaps they will be moving sometime soon… [...]
28 August 2008 08:18
The number one and two reasons the Rays aren’t drawing crowds are the Stadium and the Location.
The Tampa Bay area has had HUGE growths in population over the last 15 years. So many have moved from up north, and almost to a person, you will hear them rave about the weather, the beaches, the SUN, so many beautiful days.
Now, here you have the area’s baseball team in the Sunshine State, that plays indoors in a dingy, dark, dump of a stadium. Ask anyone who’s attended spring training at any of the numerous facilities around the bay area, especially Brighthouse Field in Clearwater and they LOVE the experience because it is baseball the way it is meant to be played — OUTDOORS. There is absolutely NO POSITIVE experience at the Trop. In fact it was laughable for years that they had a section called “The Beach” which was up in the rafters and had nothing to do with a beach or anything.
Secondly, the stadium is located in St. Petersburg, which is a beautiful waterfront city, but is also retirement central. The growing families, white collar professionals, corporate types, game going fans live around the outskirts of Tampa Bay. Starting in Palm Harbor and Pasco now, moving over to Oldsmar, Westchase and Lutz, across to New Tampa and around to Brandon. These areas ring the bay area and are the huge areas of growth over the last 15 years. The established affluent live in South Tampa. The stadium might as well be in outer Mongolia to these people. They do not travel to St. Petersburg. It’s just not in the DNA of the area.
If you want an incredibly successful stadium, locate it in Tampa, possibly around the Bucs Stadium or Legends Field. Also downtown area. The lightning play in a very good area. The airport, Westshore area also works well.
You don’t want to make the mistake of putting it out by the fairgrounds, as you will not draw out there either. There is nothing there.
Locate it outside, preferably near good scenery, along with the beautiful months of April to Mid June, and enjoyable nights of the summer, and the stadium and rays will be a success for the Rays long term.
28 August 2008 18:24
My wife and I spent 10 days in St. Pete about four years ago and we loved it so much we bought a condo there. While we were there we traveled to Fort Myers to watch the Red Sox play Boston College in a spring training game and the weather was perfect. The game was a blast (because both teams were from Boston, the fans were rooting for both) and the atmosphere was perfect.
Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for the last 30+ years, I can empathize with Rays fans who are forced to sit indoors to watch their team play. The Mariners played in the Kingdome for 22 years before they finally blew the damn thing up and replaced it with Safeco Field. Granted, the rain in Seattle warranted a covered stadium, but not necessarily a dome (Safeco has a retractable roof). The Kingdome was a dump.
As a future resident of St. Pete (when I finally retire), I’m thrilled that the Rays play in a stadium that’s only five minutes from my condo. But if moving the team to Tampa will bring more fans to the games, I’d have no problem making the 40 minute drive from St. Pete to watch them play. It’s too bad the citizens of Tampa aren’t willing to make the same drive.