Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman Speaks on Revenue

Home game attendance at Tropicana Field soared 30 percent last year, from 1.4 million fans in 2007 to about 1.8 million last year. That’s good news, but it still doesn’t put the team much beyond the middle of the pack among the 30 major league teams.

Wow, last time I checked, 26th in the league wasn’t anywhere near middle of the pack. Considering the Trop has a capacity of about 36,000, if they sold out every game this year, the Rays would be looking at a maximum attendance of about 3M, which would only be good for about 10th in the league. Middle of the pack is exactly what this team should be aiming for long term, around 2.4-2.6 million.

Most teams coming off a World Series appearance average about 2.5 million fans the following year, said Mark Fernandez, a Rays senior vice president and chief sales officer.

That may be a little ambitious for the Rays, so the team is using 2 million fans as a goal this year. By comparison, perennial fan favorites the New York Yankees draw about 4 million fans a year.

I believe I’ve stated this before, the front office has an established track record of conservative estimates. Indeed, 2.5M may be a little bit ambitious this year, but 2M sounds a bit low; roughly 25k per game. I would hope that we do better than that.

Commenting on the cash-flow-negative estimate, I seriously hope that isn’t the case, even without a playoff appearance. I know they’re pushing for a new stadium, but I really do find the idea that they’re going to lose any significant amount of money this year laughable unless something unbelievably bad happens.

This is key. They are building value by branding this team and building a following with a possible new stadium down the road. They invest more and more and show cash-flow losses that negate tax burdens and continue to pay down what they owe. They are building the franchise brilliantly and I would expect it to be worth way more than what they bought it for when this group sells it. The LT benefits will be enormous compared to the ST expenditures. This is why I take all comments about freezes in player salary with a grain of salt.

That number should follow a diminishing returns type curve over the next few years.

He is sitting in the catbird seat – failure to draw gives them leverage to move….if they draw great! I used to hold 4 season tickets back in the late 90’s early 00’s to support the team. I gave up on Namoli – but I am back with a 20 seat package this year. Let’s hope we pack the Trop in 09.