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Rays Need to Get Out of Tampa

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Since we're all talking about it anyway, I figured I'd give us a thread for it. Yay for attendance talk! In all seriousness, I know people are taking potshots at Steve Berthiaume, especially since this is far from his first time mentioning the Rays' attendance issues, but the actual article is a lot more fair than the headline. I disagree with his overall point -- that attendance is so much a problem, even a new stadium may not fix it -- but he at least puts more research and thought behind his position than many other people. No matter how you cut it, the Rays attendance has been really weird this year: averaging 18K per game, the lowest total since 2007. I'm sure the Lightning cut into that some, and I think the economy is a larger factor than Berthiaume suggests. Also, where would the Rays go if they were to move from Tampa? I still think this market has more potential than many of the other options out there. If you find yourself getting defensive and really worked up about this article, try and relax -- we're just going to see more and more of these articles written in the coming years. You might as well start resigning yourself to that, and realize that these articles won't influence whether the Rays stay in Tampa Bay or not. That fight is up to the politicians and lawyers.