Although the Tampa Bay Rays have been playing excellent baseball for years, they still can’t get fans to go to their games. In a curious PR stunt, the team is giving away 20,000 tickets to its Wednesday night game against the Baltimore Orioles. Will they be able to get fans to stick around for the playoffs? I’m not too sure.
On one hand, it’s pathetic that the city hasn’t supported this fine team. There are lots of young and exciting players that are bringing it at a high level. In that respect, the players have a point when complaining about the lack of attendance. On the other hand, the economy blows and the last thing people want to hear is some millionaire athlete whining about how nobody watches him play.
What do you think of the Rays’ situation? Should the denizens of Tampa Bay be paying closer attention?
I've read comments from Evan Longoria and David Price. I want both of these highly paid athletes to suffer career-ending injuries for whining about fans not showing up like they did in 2008. I've sent them angry Twitter messages. You should too!
no way ray, im with longoria on this one…i hope they dont win a world series, cause the fans in tampa dont deserve it
i think you are a little jaded raymond, you live in LA, you guys have like 355 professional sports teams…i live in va…we have minor league hockey and double AA baseball
richmond flying squirrels FTW…(yes thats the actual name of our AA baseball team, SF giants affiliate)
"double AA=redunancy
mah bad
@thundercracker A big reason there are no fans is that the fans don't have money. Two years ago the Rays played in a pack stadium when they clinched against the Twins (who don't draw crap). Last week, they only drew 21,000 against the Yankees. Everyone draws against the Yankees. Don't you think money is a big party of it? Does hearing highly paid players whine about it help anyone? Eff both these guys.
it does matter because the rays have a very good team that they cant afford to keep together.Lack of fan support is a big difference between large market and small market teams. I hope you enjoy carl crawford because hell be the yankee's starting left fielder next year. I guess what im saying is that there are millionaire athletes who bitch about a lot less trivial stuff than this. I fully understand being bummed about playing in front of 10000 people if i were a first place team. Its not like they went on TV and had a kanye west type rant about lack of support. It was a tweet. I have a bigger problem with your boy jeter pretending to get hit by a pitch or Hal Steinbrenner charging 600 bucks for lower level tickets to a game in june
im acting like a total douchebag
must be the avatar, sorry ray
The Rays are gonna draw over 2 million fans this year. That's more than some of the great teams in history ever drew when there were no games on TV every night. Now, even with games on TV every night, the Rays are gonna draw 2 million fans to their ballpark. They don't have an issue with fan support. They have an issue with the economics of baseball being broken.
The problem is the business model that requires a team from a smaller market to compete directly with the two of the most egregious spending machines in Major League Baseball (the Yankees and Red Sox). This is not a sustainable business model for the health of MLB's smaller markets. Even here in Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the US, the D'Backs would have to hemorrhage money in order to win.
I'm saying this as a Yankees fan. At some point the $200M payroll BS has got to stop for the good of the game.
FYI, here's a great reference proving my point:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/
Just look up some of the past WS winners. The Big Red Machine in 1975 drew 2.3 million fans to the ballpark. The 85 Royals drew 2.1 million. The 81 Dodgers, at the Height of Fernando-mania, drew 2.3 million.
And here's the real kicker….the 1961 Yankees, in the height of the HR record chase between Maris and Mantle, drew 1.7 million fans to the ballpark.
@thundercracker David Price posted the tweet. He has more than 12,000 followers, but the tweet was used in several national articles. Evan Longoria was quoted by dozens of national publications too. I understand the sentiment, but the way they handled it was classless when unemployment is as high as it is and millions of people are struggling to make ends meet.
im of the opinion that if you are really good at something, that you should be arrogant about it. Humility is a waste of time
Longoria is the best third baseman in baseball…what longoria is to the hot corner, raymond padilla is to verbal entertaining
@thundercracker Sure, but good doesn't always mean popular. Floyd Mayweather has been the best boxer for the last decade, but he only became popular after getting the rub from Oscar De La Hoya — prior to that, he couldn't draw. My site is better than…ah, never mind. Ha!
@ Thunder
Blame the Bills not the avatar lol.
I think you would have to give me free tickets to see a game at Tropicana Field