The baseball team that plays in Anaheim but calls Los Angeles home drops into the Trop today and we all know what is going to happen…a lot of fans are going to come dressed as empty blue seats.
James Borchuk St. Petersburg Times
That will, of course, create a cacophony of national media members chastising us for not appreciating our
ballclub. Hell, the manager or leftfielder may even chime in to note their disappointment. There is no topic more popular than critiquing the number of people hitting the turnstiles at Tropicana Field. (Sidenote: We need to bring back the turnstiles. The ladies that scan the tickets are very nice, but the turnstiles just seem like they belong in baseball).
Look, a discussion about attendance is legitimately newsworthy. The best two teams in baseball have not often played a September series with first place on the line and had empty seats watch the game. In fact, the Wall Street Journal has even done a study showing that home attendance can be worth late inning runs — something the Rays obviously could have used Tuesday night.
What’s weird is that almost every media member that has opined on the Rays attendance concludes that low attendance numbers are caused exclusively by indifference to Major League Baseball in our community. I have already written — convincingly in my humble opinion — that this IS a baseball town. But that really isn’t the point.
How can anyone write or talk about attendance at an entertainment event in this area without mentioning the local economic conditions? The Tampa Bay Business Journal had a nice piece yesterday on the decline in Total Personal Income in this market. That shouldn’t be news to anyone. Central Florida was hit particularly hard by the economic downturn. A huge portion of our economy was built on the housing market and another portion built on collecting the discretionary income of folks that don’t live here — not the most reliable sources of income since 2007. Even worse, unemployment is higher in the Rays’ market than other places in the country (the Labor Department is expected to announce that it high 11.5% today, up from last quarter).
So, spare me your platitudes about the importance of filling the Trop. People are struggling to feed themselves and their families. It is distasteful, at best, to chastise those people for not dropping $100 on a night at the ballpark.
Mark,
I could be one of those blue seats in attendance at tonight’s game. I have a better offer (dinner with Smurfette’s Nana).
Your economic points are right on. But that is only one factor. I could part with the entry price, but it is the two hour commute to get there and back that makes me think twice and then give up to watch on television. Let’s face it, the Trop just is not very convenient to get to. But, that is a whole other discussion.
Meanwhile, enjoy the game!
There are, admittedly, a lot of factors that are hurting attendance. I just think it is close-minded for the baseball intelligentsia to act as if Major League Baseball is not subject to the world at large and to ignore the obvious factors, other than fan interest, that contribute to a team’s attendance figures.
I probably shouldn’t chime in on this, but I’m going to anyway. I have lived here all my life. I used to go to Bucs games for $20 and sit with my legs and arms spread out (Actually I can do it again this year too, but that’s another story). The problem with this area is that it is a hodgepodge. We have so many people from so many areas of our country that have moved here that we don’t really have a fan base. I am a fan of all our teams (because my parents didn’t watch sports in the towns they grew up in). However, mostly everyone in this area has family that routes for another team or they themselves route for another team. Add that with Tom Jones’ (Sp.Times) comment that the Rays are not steeped in tradition (as in your grandfather went to games and if you are a lifetime fan of the Rays you are only 12 years old now), i.e. NY, Boston, Chicago can you really say our fan base is that bad? True we do not have the numbers we need, and if the Rays moved to another city I would totally understand why. I cannot afford games (at least more than one or two a year) with my salary. So what are we to do? I do not have the answer, but stop blaming us for not coming to the games. Those that can afford it, are probably routing for NY anyway.
You hit on one of the points I have been making for several years. It isn’t fair to drop a new team into an area — particularly an area already interested in baseball that, necessarily already has other fan allegiances — and then evaluate the fan base after just 10 years.
You need at least one generation to grow up with the team before deeming it a failure. The Bucs are a good example. For me, the Bucs always existed and therefore, have always been my favorite team. For my father and his peers, they had to adopt the Bucs when they showed up in town and slowly convert from their other favorite NFL teams. Now that the Bucs have been here for a generation, I think it is fair to say they have a strong following. (I am willing to chalk up their current attendance issues as part of a larger economic and technological trend that is effecting almost every NFL city.)
This will happen for the Rays. Think of all the 10 and 12 year olds that only know the Rays who will buy season tickets and talk about the glory days of the Crawford era. Give it time.