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Even When On Top, It's Lonely At The Trop

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

Even with the Rays' stirring success so far this season, fans have been slow to respond by filling Tropicana Field

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By JOE HENDERSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 1, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - It's clear who the Rays need to take with their first-round pick in the upcoming baseball draft - Trace Adkins. And put him in a trucker hat.

Thanks to a postgame concert by the country music star and a giveaway of the aforementioned trucker hats, a sold-out crowd made its way to Tropicana Field on Saturday night where, by the way, the warm-up act was a baseball game between the Rays and Chicago White Sox.

Clearly the Rays are on to something with the convergence of concerts and curveballs. Last weekend, a crowd on the north side of 30,000 took the bait of a postgame Commodores concert and found its way to the Trop.

That's all good.

What's not so good is what happens on nights when the only attraction is baseball. The Rays continue to attract among the lowest average turnouts in the game, even though they have the look of a contender for the long haul this season.

"It's not a concern right now, but more so a question," team president Matt Silverman said.

So what's the problem?

It's the economy. It's the price of gas. It's the Trop's location. It's the franchise's wretched history up until now. It's the traffic. It's the bridge. It's trying to fit one more thing into the stressed-out schedule most folks have.

It's all of that and none of that.

It became quite an issue last week. Despite the best record in baseball, the Rays drew 33,612 fans for a three-game series against Texas. Thursday night, three individual games in other cities attracted more fans than that.

Fun fact that gets overlooked: Attendance actually has increased significantly. Through 31 home dates, the Rays drew 550,792 fans - an increase of 108,344 from the same number of dates last year. That doesn't count Saturday night's turnout, which will bump the margin more.

Waiting To See

Still, everybody has a theory about why attendance hovers in the low-teens most nights, so here is mine. I think you have to look at the lack of season tickets.

The Trop's location (whether our friends in St. Pete want to admit it or not) is a problem for most of the market. No one would invest millions in a business, place it as far from where the most people gather and live as possible, and then try to lay a guilt trip for not making the drive at $4 a gallon.

Fans have the right to spend their hard-earned dollars any way they choose. They don't owe this franchise anything. You either go or you don't; it's a personal choice.

But I still think more people from Hillsborough County would make the drive if someone handed them two or four tickets and said, "Wanna go?" That brings us back to season tickets.

Season tickets are mother's milk for baseball teams. In 1998, their first year, the Rays sold about 22,000 season tickets. Attendance that year was 2.5 million - by far their record. Local companies bought a lot of those tickets and gave them out as perks to employees or clients.

The Rays don't reveal season-ticket totals now, but it's a safe bet it is among the lowest in baseball. Teams that come from nowhere to contention like the Rays have done traditionally don't experience the overall attendance spike until the following season. Part of that reason is that clubs market season tickets heavily during the months between the end of a successful season and the start of a new one.

My guess is that's what will happen here, too.

Patience Is Needed

To their credit, the Rays are saying the right things publicly.

"All we can do is continue to put a good product out on the field and make Tropicana Field the best venue we can," Silverman said. "People who come to the park do have fun. It's much better than watching on TV."

Although the plans for a new stadium in downtown St. Pete are interesting, it's my opinion that the Rays could be repeating a mistake. I know they're bound by a tough lease that will keep them in St. Pete for the foreseeable future, but it's at least reasonable to question whether their long-term interests would be better served by a better location.

Put another way, if the stadium referendum goes down this fall, that might not be the worst thing for this franchise. The Rays could hang out at the Trop a few more years and scout a location that makes more sense for the whole market. Even if that location is across the big pond in Hillsborough.

"It certainly has become a community conversation," Silverman said. "That's a good thing."

Yes, it is.

But one important part of that conversation needs be the word "patience." The Rays offered up a decade of slop on the field before this season and eroded any sense of community good will. That's changing now but it will take a while, maybe longer than a while.

In the meantime, the Rays might want to be on the lookout for good entertainers. Right now, that seems to be the one surefire way to get people in the building.

Oh, and the trucker hats. Don't forget those.

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