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Rays in rare position of envying Royals for passionate fans - KansasCity.com (http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/29/2262669/rays-in-rare-position-of-envying.html - broken link)
Rays fans are just as good as any fans (except we wont riot and destroy our own city if we win a WS). Give any other baseball market as many obstacles as the Tampa Bay market has, and their attendance would be just as bad. But don't blame fans for it.
In reality, Rays attendance is not as bad as sportscasters on ESPN are making it out to be.
The Rays are 7th in attendance when adjusted for population
The Rays are 7th in TV ratings
Only 19% of the metro area population lives within a 30 minute car drive of the Trop, worst in MLB, and almost zero public transit
Considering there is no baseball team in Tampa Bay, it's a relatively moot point. Though I would pick KC over St. Petersburg any day.
Every game I've seen at the trop has tons of empties. Not that there arent empties at Kauffman, but relative to team performance, one would expect more from Tampa. I havent been to the Trop, but I was at a game in KC against the Orioles - about as meaningless as it gets - yet the tailgating and overall fan atmosphere was quite spirited. People were very nice too; a guy sold me and my friend 2 extra tickets at under face value so we wouldnt have to stand in the huge ticket line. Probably a midwest thing. What you see in person vs. on tv are two different things, but the trop just looks like a depressing place to play. If the stadium alone doesnt push me over the edge, the damn cowbells will
I expect them to change their location to Tampa first. St Pete is for artist, retirees, and beach goers.
You really think that would make people in Tampa go to the games? I doubt it. From what people have told me it is the economy of Tampa that can not sustain it.
This isn't even a contest - Kansas City is actually a very solid baseball market and the Royals have drawn pretty well when they are good (which mind you hasn't been the case for over 20 years).
Honest to God true story - less than an hour ago (probably around 10:20 PM ET on Tuesday 10/5) I checked ticket availability for the Rays-Rangers ALDS Game 1 on Wednesday. On the Rays' website (i.e. the Tampa Bay Rays section of the MLB.com website), I could have bought FOUR tickets together in Section 303 (3rd base side of home plate) in Upper Reserved for $30 each excluding service charges (the cheapest tickets available are $30). Unbelievable.
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