Tampa Bay Rays Attendance, Money, Revenue, Ect.

by R.J. Anderson on Feb 15, 2009 3:24 PM EST

A study commissioned by the Tampa Bay Rays determined that baseball fans from beyond Tampa Bay generate between $136.5 million and $212.5 million in direct tourism expenditures annually, while attendance has grown over the past three years.

And:

The report said the Rays' 2008 post season created $23.1 million in publicity for Tampa Bay.

Poll

Attendance O/U: 24.5k per game next season?

Over

137 votes

Under

138 votes

275 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 25 comments | 1 recs |

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Comments

JUST over

by mittens on Feb 15, 2009 3:35 PM EST reply actions

Between 136 and 212 million?

That’s a 78m fudge factor? What kind of study is this?

What's on my mind

by Jason Collette on Feb 15, 2009 3:42 PM EST reply actions

It's probably difficult to pinpoint because we'd get a lot of tourism anyways

Did they come for the beaches, and decide to go to a game or vice-versa?

by GomesSweetGomes on Feb 15, 2009 3:51 PM EST up reply actions

90% of economists didn't think the US was in a recession

in the 1st week of September, 2007, 9 months into the recession. Most people are not very good with these sorts of things.

by Mulva on Feb 15, 2009 8:34 PM EST up reply actions

fail on may part

2008 that is…

by Mulva on Feb 15, 2009 8:35 PM EST up reply actions

Unlike last year, attendance will be solid from the start. We also won’t have those 8,000s from the three games in Orlando. We averaged about 22,300 last year…barring a freakish collapse, 24.5k will be easy.

by steve-o1285 on Feb 15, 2009 7:37 PM EST reply actions

Yeah, I'd wager in the 27-28k range

by kericr on Feb 15, 2009 7:51 PM EST up reply actions

Probably safe to say that every Fri-Sun game will be sold out. I hope anyways.

Rays 2009 Slogan: "Come back with your shield or on it"

by PriceMultiCyYoungs on Feb 16, 2009 8:25 AM EST reply actions

Shove this up the stadium opponents butts

Frickin idiots

by Sveet on Feb 16, 2009 10:30 AM EST reply actions

well, except..

The study was commissioned by the Rays, so won’t the stadium opponents immediately dismiss the results as biased?

I just hope the stadium debate and eventual votes don’t devolve into a repeat of the never-ending Marlins saga, which is nearing Expos/Nationals proportions of silliness. Although, unlike those two examples, Mr. Loria is in no way involved and hopefully the commissioner’s office stays out of the fray.

by RATW on Feb 16, 2009 11:07 AM EST up reply actions

Good over/under

You’re getting about half of the action on both sides. Vegas would approve.

I will tell you right now that I guarantee you not every Fri-Sun game will be sold out. Attendance will obviously be up, but we forget about the rhythms and routines of the baseball season. Things will settle into a routine, and the stadium is still where the stadium is.

I think they’ll get over the posted number here. But I also don’t predict some sort of 30k attendance bonanza.

by Bobby Fenton on Feb 16, 2009 1:27 PM EST reply actions

Exactly

I commend the over/under number- It looks like our attendance will be about 24.5k/gm!

by Thejeffg on Feb 16, 2009 3:08 PM EST up reply actions

I think overall attendance in the MLB will slide with the current economy.

Any increase over last year’s attendance would be a good thing. Hopefully there is another pennant race at the end of the year to boost the average up.

by TBfisherman on Feb 16, 2009 4:45 PM EST reply actions

You may be right about overall atendance, but...

I think it would take an extremely poor season by the team to not beat last years number by at least a couple of thousand a game average. I think weekends will be packed. Most if not all Saturday nights will be sold out. I think the weeknight games will still have a very tough time drawing more than 20K

by Sveet on Feb 16, 2009 5:19 PM EST up reply actions

Except for the 15 weeknight games against the Yanks/Sox/Phillies

Throwing in some scrub games in the 9=8 package will help the others.

by steve-o1285 on Feb 16, 2009 6:46 PM EST up reply actions

Those will help

I was more talking about the non-marquee games.

I still think the weeknight attendance increase dramatically, but they will only get 18-20k instead of 12-14k.

by Sveet on Feb 17, 2009 9:17 AM EST up reply actions

Do you know what games are included in the 9=8 package?

by Sveet on Feb 17, 2009 9:20 AM EST up reply actions

There were 3 different packages (same teams, different days)

Each package included the home opener, a prime game (Red Sox or Phillies), a marquee game (which I believe was a game against the White Sox)…and then six weeknight games against teams like the Os, As, Royals, Jays, etc.

They only sold them for 2 days, which is unfortunate, but I heard they were quite popular.

by steve-o1285 on Feb 17, 2009 11:24 AM EST up reply actions

I'd look at our position relative to the rest of the league.

Nobody seems sure what the economic conditions will do to attendance around the league. Let’s say the Rays attendance increases only 8% (24,000 avg per game). Would that be a disappointment if the rest of the league is down 5%? If such a scenario played out, the Rays would have passed Texas and Baltimore and maybe Cincinnati in average attendance with Cleveland, Minnesota, Seattle and Washington next around 27,000 per game.

by RATW on Feb 17, 2009 3:04 PM EST up reply actions