Is a new stadium, located in Tampa, going to get the franchise to middle of the pack attendance? Or is it that we can remain a bottom third attendance club, even with a new stadium because the new stadium would bring other revenue somehow?

What is the “model” that Stu is aspiring to? What is the ultimate goal – I know to make money, but what is his plan to get to the goal – because new stadiums on their own don’t bump attendance dramatically after the first year or two.

But it seems to me that nothing is going to change unless Selig gets involved and explains to the St. Pete mayor that the Tampa Bay Area is absolutely going to lose MLB if he intends to hold the Rays to their lease. And he has to be prepared to back it up.

Anything short of that, and I think you guys will be able to duplicate this thread five years from now.

Congrats to the Rays for their sensational organization and to those fans who actually attend a lot of their games.

There are major demographic, economic, and political headwinds. We simply can’t support 3 major franchises, unless the economy is booming. And even then, I doubt we could. This isn’t a location issue. Although a better stadium location would surely help (we’d be far better off if all our major stadiums were together in some complex like other cities). The issue is number of fans, and prioritizing their entertainment dollar. It isn’t a matter of this being a football town. It isn’t. Baseball would thrive if the bucs left town and the stadium was in Tampa. Just like the Bucs would be selling out if baseball disappeared. There just isn’t enough fans with enough money to support all these teams. There is simply too much other stuff to do that takes away fans in general, and pools the actual fans money away from the three franchises.

I agree with everyone – attendance is an issue, and is for quite a few different reasons.

But what’s the goal? 29k was bad on Tuesday, would 30k have been OK? If we’re in a new stadium, would 20k/game be OK? Or are we looking to be able to get 30k there for each game? Or if the numbers are the same, but we’re selling fancier corporate boxes, are we doing OK?

Heck, with this year’s payroll and revenue sharing, I’ll be the Rays made money. If so, then didn’t we have enough attendance (assuming the payroll doesn’t grow much in the future.)

If someone knew those answers, might be able to see if moving the stadium would really help enough.

It is an absolute joke that they always make us play in the middle of the day during the week.

Crying poverty because the Rays lost due to their imperfect roster. It was less an indictment of the Rays or the stadium than just sour grapes. Unfortunately it plays on the worst of our fears that we could lose the Rays, but honestly in this economy, at this moment a new stadium seems unlikely unless the Rays choose to build it themselves. Which they probably should.

Of course he will probably never cry over the fact that the rays are worth substantially more than when he took over a few years ago.

If the Rays send Moore to the minors to start the season,I don’t want to hear another G.D. word about attendance from Sternberg,or anyone else in the organization!!!