Attendance??

by Rays4ever on May 12, 2008 1:29 AM EDT

I was just wondering.....where the hell is everyone???? noone goes to these games and its getting pretty annoying. They are playing some unreal baseball right now and are competing. Im not from Florida and i became a fan of the Rays because of Kazmir. I loved watching him dominate the Red Sox ( im a Boston Native) and after i few times of watching him pitch i became a pretty die hard fan and parted ways with the RED SUX. I kno alot of you guys are from Florida and im just wondering where are all the fans...does baseball not just work in Florida, do people think this team is just going to roll over and die and hit rock bottom....someone tell me why noone is sitting in the trop watching this young talented competetive team play!!!!!!

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come back 1 month from now

5 weeks of competitive ball doesn’t erase 10 years of last baseball. I wish it was that easy, but the fans should start coming out more and more after the Boston series 2 weekss ago at home, and then a solid road trip through the division, followed by another sweep of a great team at home. We have had injuries, and the season is young. The MLB scene is starting to shape up and if we keep winning for the next couple weeks you will see 25,000 per game. Just like Saturday nights game

by blazinrayz on May 12, 2008 4:51 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Just too add

It’s not just the Rays who have had poor attendance. Yes, baseball parks like Fenway, Wrigley, and Yankee Stadium tend to always have sell out crowds, but alot of teams can’t get huge attendaces at all. I’m from Florida, but go to school in the metropolitan D.C./Baltimore area and in 2005 when the Orioles were doing pretty good (I believe they were in first place up too mid-June), Camden Yards barely had anybody in the park. Also when the Nationals first came here from Montreal, we had huge attendances the first month, and then it died down. Suddenly in the mid-2005 the Nationals were in first place by like 15 games or soemthing, and not even that could get fans to R.F.K. Stadium.

No one should take the attendance of a ball game persoanlly. Hockey teams, unless their in Canada or the playoffs rarely get a packed house. The same with basketball, unless you’re in the playoffs alot of people don’t always come Plus this ain’t Football where there are only 8 homes games and then the playoffs. Baseball as we all know has 162 games/81 home games. That’s alot, probably the most in professional sports. People will come, it may not be all at once, but I know no one in the bay area/Tampa/Clearwater/Dunedin can deny how awesome the Rays are playing this year. In fact, I’m from Jacksonivlle and my buddies and I when I get back home are going diagnolly across the state of Florida just to see the Rays.

by Cooperstown Kid on May 12, 2008 8:58 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

the lightning have a packed house every game.

by davidsmarch on May 12, 2008 10:13 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

come back today,

there will be LOTS of people there. of course, they will all be cheering “lets go yankees”....

by davidsmarch on May 12, 2008 10:12 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Baseball in Florida

I remain optimistic that fans will come as the Rays contend. But it does concern me that attendance at baseball seems very poor everywhere in Florida.

I go to a lot of minor league games: Dunedin, Clearwater, Tampa and elsewhere in the state. Recently went to Lakeland to see Hellickson, a beautiful park, and as in Clearwater et al, the stands were empty. Some terrific and highly touted prospects play here, but to no effect I can see. I went to a Phil Hughes/Cole Hamels matchup a few years ago and there was an empty stadium. The best I’ve seen, aside from the Clemens game in Tampa, was a Vero Beach game with about 1200 fans.

Perhaps it isn’t fair to compare it to higher classifications, such as Montgomery which had nice crowds when I went there a couple of games. (How does Jacksonville do in that league?) But the NY-Penn league is rookie ball, and not only do Staten Island and Coney Island sell out, but so does Hudson Valley. I used to have to buy tickets in advance to make sure I could see the Renegades, and they hold almost 4500 people in a semi-rural area and charge $5 ($4 then) to park with tickets between $5-$13.

No cracks about how there is nothing else to do near Fishkill, NY. There are plenty of entertainment alternatives there.

by bobr on May 12, 2008 11:23 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

The Jacksonville Suns have a pretty impressive attendance mark

They play in a beautiful new stadium, and they draw fairly good crowds.

by Patrick L. Kennedy on May 13, 2008 5:50 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Give it time.

I think the problem here in Florida that most sports towns do not have is there is a large number of people here from other areas of the country. They move to Florida and keep their old team allegiances. It takes a contending team to create enough excitement and enthusiasm to lure those fans away from their old teams to our Florida teams.

There was a time you could walk up to the gate and buy tickets to the Lightning or Bucs. They both had to get better in the game before they were able to draw better crowds. The Rays will draw bigger crowds, give it time.

I’m curious to hear what the attendance levels are for the Rays now versus this time last year. I be they’re up from last year.

by floridaroar on May 12, 2008 12:00 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

18,565 per game v. 17,131

"I've seen many, many blue skies turn gray, but the sun will eventually return, and so will I. So will I." - Carlos Pena

by R.J. Anderson on May 12, 2008 3:06 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Was the 17,131 the 2007 final or year-to-date average?

We have to be way ahead of last year’s pace year-to-date since the Rays played the Yanks and Red Sox only a combined two times at the Trop at this point last season. Our first home game vs. the Red Sox didn’t occur until July 27th.

Longlorious.

by RATW on May 12, 2008 4:52 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Year final.

Which is pretty impressive.

"I've seen many, many blue skies turn gray, but the sun will eventually return, and so will I. So will I." - Carlos Pena

by R.J. Anderson on May 12, 2008 5:41 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Don’t expect attendance to turn around overnight. If the team is fighting for first around the break, you might start to see more people show up. Until then, probably later, people are going to remain skeptical unless it’s the stretch run for the playoffs. If the team is competitive all season, the benefits will likely truly reflect next season with improved season ticket sales, etc.

The FSL draws poorly because the market is saturated with teams, as well as other baseball opportunities in the form of spring training and a couple major league franchises. Even if you disregard the influence of spring training and the Rays/Marlins, I can’t imagine there is another metro in the nation with as many minor league teams as Tampa/St. Pete (Lakeland, Clearwater, Dunedin, Tampa, Sarasota), especially given the population size.

Longlorious.

by RATW on May 12, 2008 12:44 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs