I just typed up these numbers in response to one of my friends (who happens to be a Phillie's fan) making a comment about how the Rays' fans are bandwagoners. I know I shouldn't get annoyed after hearing this all year, but I can't help but still get annoyed. Anyway, I found some interesting things...
| Tampa Bay | Philly | ||||
| Record | Atten./game | Record | Atten./game | ||
| 2008 | 97-65 | 22,370 | 92-70 | 42,254 | |
| 2007 | 66-96 | 17,131 | 89-73 | 38,374 | |
| 2006 | 61-101 | 16,901 | 85-77 | 33,356 | |
| 2005 | 67-95 | 14,095 | 88-74 | 32,905 | |
| 2004 | 70-91 | 15,936 | 86-76 | 40,125 | |
| 2003 | 63-99 | 13,070 | 86-77 | 27,901 | |
| 2002 | 55-106 | 13,157 | 80-81 | 20,231 | |
| 2001 | 62-100 | 16,029 | 86-76 | 22,001 | |
| 2000 | 69-92 | 18,121 | 65-97 | 19,911 | |
| 1999 | 69-93 | 19,294 | 77-85 | 22,535 | |
| 1998 | 63-99 | 30,942 | 75-87 | 21,182 | |
| Population: | 2,700,000 | Population: | 5,800,000 | ||
| Attendance/game Adjusted by Regional Population (%) | |||||
| Rays | Phillies | ||||
| 2008 | 0.829 | 0.729 | |||
| 2007 | 0.634 | 0.662 | |||
| 2006 | 0.626 | 0.575 | |||
| 2005 | 0.522 | 0.567 | |||
| 2004 | 0.590 | 0.692 | |||
| 2003 | 0.484 | 0.481 | |||
| 2002 | 0.487 | 0.349 | |||
| 2001 | 0.594 | 0.379 | |||
| 2000 | 0.671 | 0.343 | |||
| 1999 | 0.715 | 0.389 | |||
| 1998 | 1.146 | 0.365 |
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To find this last metric, I simply divided each year's attend/game numbers by the metropolitan area population for each city and then multiplied by 100. Obviously it's not a perfect metric, but it's kinda interesting at the same time.
Also, I just find it really funny that while Philly fans are uber loyal, they also didn't draw that many fans when they stunk. Their turnaround from a 65-97 record in 2000 to a 86-76 record in 2001 is comparable to our turnaround this year, but their attendance increased much less between those two years than our's did this year. But anyway, I think this pretty much proves that "fan loyalty" (as presented by the media and opposing fans) is not tied to attendance figures, but to length of a team's existence.
