Tracking Tampa Bay's wins -- and attendance
Tampa Bay's stunning turnaround in the standings has an interesting sidebar to it -- whether unexpected success on the field can translate to more enthusiasm among the fan base.
Not only did the Rays wallow at the bottom of the the standings last year, they vied with intra-state rival Florida for the worst attendance in the majors. According to statistics on ESPN.com. the Rays attracted 17,148 fans a game, while the Marlins drew 16,919 in 2007.
After a win yesterday over Pittsburgh, the Rays slipped into first place again in the AL East, marking the biggest win-total turnaround ever for a team that finished with the worst record in baseball the previous season. At 49-32, Tampa Bay is now within 17 victories of its entire total from last season (66-96). Whether they can keep it up will be answered over the new few months, but a similarly interesting question is whether the Rays can recapture a fan base that has become understandably disenchanted with a franchise that has been a perennial loser since it came into the league in 1998.
So far, attendance figures don't offer a clear-cut answer. In their most recent home series in mid-June that included nine interleague-play games with three opponents, the Rays averaged a stadium about 65 percent full. When the Cubs were at Tropicana Field for three games in mid-week, there were more than 30,000 at the ballpark for every game. Then, when Houston rolled in for the weekend, attendance slumped badly to an average of about 21,500.
Obviously, the Cubs have drawing power on a couple of counts: there's a big Cubs expatriate following base in Sunbelt locales, such as Florida and Arizona, plus the Cubs have been among the best teams in baseball this season. But after the Rays swept the Cubs, you would have thought the Rays' fans would be in an exuberant frenzy to support their team against whomever was coming into town next -- Houston in this case -- and it just didn't happen.
At this point in the season, the Rays are well ahead of last year's average attendance with a little over 20,000 (last year at the same time, it was nearly 6,000 a game fewer). Obviously, if Tampa Bay can keep it up on the field and steam into August and September in the hunt for its first playoff spot ever, you'd expect attendance to become even stronger. But it will be interesting to see if wins can infuse enthusiasm into a fan base in a part of the country that some observers have doubted is really fertile ground for Major League Baseball.
Comments
Florida is a tuff market for baseball fans. If they have moved from other markets, then they already have alliances to that team. Then, you have the snow birds that have gone home for the hot summer tourist season. Then you have the tourists and (undocumented immigrants), neither are much for attending ball games.
Posted by: Captain Jack | June 30, 2008 11:01 AM
if the fans don't start showing up now it's sad. they may show up in sept if the team is still in the hunt but those types of fans only show up when you're winning and it's late in the season.
Posted by: fkterp | June 30, 2008 1:02 PM
Historically around baseball, the casual fan base is usually about a year behind the action on the field – that's why teams always set their attendance records the year after they go to the World Series. In the Rays' case, it'll be interesting to see how they draw in the second half, especially if they contend for the division title all the way to the end.
But I agree with Captain Jack – the Florida markets have never drawn well for baseball. Along with the reasons he stated, I also believe that a good portion of the retiree population is just too cheap to buy Major League tickets.
The stadiums down there are also problematic -- I'm very curious to see what kind of bounce the Marlins get from their new "Orange Bowl" stadium, and I was a little surprised to see the Rays back off of their plan to try to build a new waterfront ballpark. Personally, I always thought the state of Florida should export those two teams to cities that care and focus all its efforts on making Spring Training the best possible experience it can be. ----------------------------------------------- Joe, I think you are right on about the last point. Florida does have a very full baseball season, it just lasts six weeks. And that's what is more important to the broader economy there. -- Bill O.
Posted by: Joe Dalhart | July 2, 2008 12:10 PM