2020 Tampa Bay Rays!

[theurbanfiles]

Well to be fair with hockey-it is a smaller arena, and I think they have done a good job creating an experience. But, northerners drive things in a BIG way still. Difference being that with hockey, more northerners have embraced the Lightning compared with other northerners still following their native teams and not coming out to the games. The location is the best of the 3 still. But, given source within organization, north, and Canada specifically, play a HUGE role. There's a reason that until a couple years ago the arena had a Tim Horton's, and still has a poutinerie (an excellent one, I might add). And yes, there is solid local support too, but any game against teams like Chicago, Boston, Washington, etc., is gonna have LOADS of fans from those teams. We have season ticket holders with full time residence in Toronto or Montreal that get season tickets, and unload/sell their season seats for every game except the ones where Maple Leafs or Canadiens come, and they escape for a week during the winter (which, BTW, is still cheaper than buying a single game up north for them sometimes lol).

Make no mistake though still-the Lightning have won the area marketing and location and etc. sweepstakes on multiple levels lol. Succeeding in the way the Lightning have attendance and attention wise isn't at all a given (see: Atlanta Thrashers, Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Arizona Coyotes, etc.)

[theurbanfiles]

As per the Rays, anyone heard about this yet?

https://987theshark.com/2020/02/24/r...-game-tickets/

I remember listening to 620 the day they were actively discussing it and thinking what a good idea it would be. The only suggestions I would make would be to add certain blackout dates (from a business perspective, as the Trop occasionally sells out or close to it when big teams come to town), and also to allow subscription or payment by the month or at least by the half-season, as sometimes people are out of town, etc.

[mrviking]

The NBA and NHL have smaller buildings to play in. Yet the lightning still sell out their arena with over 19K in average attendance every game. That puts them in the top five every year in the league. That would put them in the top on average in the NBA as well. The rays might have a larger building but they have surpassed 19k only three times in the last 10 yrs. They have been less then 16k over the last 5 yrs and under 15K these past two seasons. In spite of being a competitive team these past few years, their attendance has been dropping like a rock.

[Bumby88]

A shortened schedule is going to seriously help/hurt certain teams this year. The more it hurts the Rays though, the better their attendance will be. As much as I'd like to see a new schedule that attempts to be fair to all, I know that teams (and Stubhub) are trying to avoid giving tens of millions in refunds. That's why MLB is stalling...as long as they keep the scheduling options open, nobody has to give any refunds.