Recently Evan Longoria and David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays called out the local Tampa Bay fans because only 12,000 people showed up for the a potential playoff berth clinching game. Longoria used the words “embarrassing” and said that he just “doesn’t get it”. The Rays ownership decided to give away 20,000 tickets to Wednesday nights game, and the fans came out to a packed stadium. There was not an empty seat in the house as the Rays took on one of the worst teams in the league the Baltimore Orioles, and the Rays managed only three hits and were shut out 2 – 0. So you complain that fans do not come to the game, and when you do get them out there (albeit because of free tickets) you put up probably your worst performance of the year. That will sure get them to come back and pay next time. Both sides of the argument are easy to see, but Longoria is a bit off base with his comments.
Longoria needs to realize that he is not living in a rich ritzy area, and that the stadium location is located as far as you can get from a large portion of the wealth in the bay area. Couple that with the fact that the Rays are still a relatively young franchise, and up until recently the Rays were one of the worst run franchises in all of baseball. It will be very difficult to overcome all of those factors in a few years, establishing a solid fan base can take decades of sustained success. Longoria also needs to realize the current economic state of the people in the Bay area, tourism is down as people do not have available discretionary income to spend. That means less jobs in the state of Florida and people being laid off at record rates.
People often look at things from their PERSONAL situation, everyone’s situation is different. The economy has hit Florida hard, and the state has been in the top 5 for foreclosure rate over the last 3 years. If people can’t pay their mortgage what makes you think they are going to go to a baseball game? Obviously this is not a new issue, attendance has always been a problem. Well the team had a crappy owner back then who had a $30 million payroll, unfortunately when the team did become a contender these other issues arose. But the stadium placement is the bigger issue. The fact that the current stadium is in a bad location, and the proposal for a new stadium has it being built near the same inconvenient location.
The Stadium is in St. Pete a smaller town and not actually in the city of Tampa. A large portion of Tampa’s families with a decent amount of discretionary income (Household income $140k average) live in North Tampa. To leave your house and go to a game on a weekday with a 7:10pm first pitch is a cumbersome, expensive, and tedious task. Here is a mock timetable of what a family living in North Tampa would experience to make it to a game.
5:00pm – Get off Work
6:00pm – Grab Wife & Kids from home for the game and change out of work clothes, leave for game.
7:20pm – Drive 1 hour 20 minutes (40 mile drive with traffic), pay for parking and get to seats
9:30pm – Game ends get in car start driving home (40 mile drive)
10:35pm – Arrive home get kids to bed, shower, prepare for work the next day.
11:25pm – Go to bed
That is a lot to deal with 2 or 3 times a week for a home series, and that’s assuming you leave your job right at 5pm which most don’t. If the stadium were in Tampa rather than St. Pete you cut a lot of time off of the entire event, in this scenario you have to eat dinner at the stadium which is over priced already. People are not willing to put an extra 240 miles per week on their vehicle and the cost of gas going to Rays games, especially when people want to plan family vacations and other events. People show up for games in spots, but consistently being there on a week in, week out basis is asking a lot from the average person.
Tampa has a lot going on other than the Rays, Bucs Football, USF Football, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Storm, The Beach, Two Colleges, Various Concerts, Hard Rock Casino, Several Dog Tracks, among other things. In a town 
like Gainesville where the only thing to do is UF Football and Basketball then you get huge fan turnouts.
Tampa and Miami are known for bandwagon fans, just about every decent sized city is (Los Angeles ring a bell). Green Bay sells out every game because there isn’t anything else to do, and New York has a more than enough people to support two teams. Factor in people with kids whose children are in leagues and other interests, and the Rays are always going to be be put on the back burner. Several fans have claimed that they drive over long distances to Rays games, and it’s not a big deal. This is a short sighted personal view. These people fail to realize if things are not convenient for the average fan in the largest population centers then people will not patronize the team by attending games.
Who knows what the solution will be. The Rays may move to another city, and some would protest, but most will be indifferent if they leave. In the meantime Longoria, Price, and any other players who have an issue with the attendance need to take a good look at the financial dynamics going on the Bay area. The fact that people came out and packed the place less than 24 hours after free tickets were announced gives credence to the fact that cost is a big factor in the current attendance numbers.
