Where Are The Fans in Tampa?

The Tampa Bay Rays did not even sell out their last playoff game of the 2011 season. What does it take to get baseball fans excited in Tampa and St. Petersburg?

Monday, the Rays attracted 32,828 fans to Tropicana Field, about the size of the crowd for a good swap meet at Yankee Stadium, but the area could be forgiven because that’s all the building holds. Despite putting together one of the greatest runs in baseball history, despite catching the Red Sox from behind and stealing the final American League playoff spot from Boston on the final day of the regular season, that crowd represented the Rays’ first sellout since opening day in April.

Are you kidding me? That’s pathetic. The Rays are a young and exciting team that won 90 games and against the odds, too, because they are situated in the same division as the big-spending Yankees and Red Sox. They still couldn’t sell out one game during their closing rush to the post-season. Jeez.

Even worse, still alive in the playoffs (And who would think they were out of it after the September run?), Tampa Bay again faced the Texas Rangers Tuesday night at Tropicana and drew just 28,299 fans. That means there were more than 4,000 empty seats for a playoff game with the home team trailing just 2-1 in games. Explain that to me. I must have missed the blizzard warning on the Weather Channel.

I have seen the Rays play at Tropicana Field and it is no Fenway Park or Wrigley Field when it comes to aesthetics. It kind of resembles a larger airplane hangar. You can tell that I.M Pei had no hand in designing it and that its only chance to win an architecture contest would be if the competition included the Super Dome after Hurricane Katrina or the Kingdome after it was imploded. Actually, the best selling point in favor of Tropicana Field, like the Kingdome, is that you know if you buy a ticket for a ballgame you won’t get rained out.

But when it comes to the playoffs, teams are not selling the ballpark experience. They are selling a winning team. Baseball fans in Tampa do not have enough faith. Yes, their team plays in the toughest division in baseball, but the Rays have made the playoffs three of the last four years. The Rays had the second lowest payroll in baseball in 2011 at $42 million, yet they reached the playoffs. Imagine how good the Rays might be if they spent oh, $75 million on talent.

Management won’t spend more because not enough fans turn out. Fans won’t fill the ballpark because management won’t spend more for bigger name players. Given all of the guys the team let go after 2010 no one thought the Rays would contend for the playoffs this year. But they did. They overachieved. And they still couldn’t sell out the building, even for a playoff game.