http://www.sptimes.com/2003/09/11/Columns/How_can_Rays_fill_the.shtml


How can Rays fill the Trop? Does anyone really care?


By GARY SHELTON, Times Sports Columnist
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 11, 2003



Not to start the day out morbidly or anything, but I have come to a decision about death.

I don't want an obituary. I want a box score.

I love box scores, those daily summations of a baseball game's life. Frankly, I think other areas of life should have box scores, too. Such as television shows: "Look, Rachel has now kissed 27,763 people on Friends, a new series record!"

Ah, the box score. Right there, in those precious little letters and numbers, you can translate everything you really need to know about a game you really wanted to watch until you found out Charade was on AMC, and by the time you checked back Doug Waechter was out of the game and It Takes a Thief was about to start.

At any rate, I read the box scores every morning. And when it comes to the Rays, I'm looking for four things.

What is Rocco Baldelli's batting average?

Did Carl Crawford steal a base?

Did Aubrey Huff go deep?

And how many people gave a hoot?

This is like watching a countdown. The Rays started at 45,369, and every night, a few more people seem to find something else to do.

Let's get this straight. I'm not saying you should immediately drive to Tropicana Field and throw money at the ticket office. I'm not saying you owe the Rays a thing. More than anything, I'm not asking you to send me e-mails about what you didn't like about your last trip to the Trop.

For all the recent success, for all the young stars, the Rays remain in last place, and only the Tigers have won fewer games. Telling people they should spend money on that is like suggesting they should eat at a bad restaurant.

Lately, however, a chorus has formed to suggest the wild, wacky idea of actually spending a little on payroll. I admit, I'm singing backup on this one. Lou Piniella is singing lead.

And, yes, Vince Naimoli says payroll will go up "a reasonable" amount next year, which is terrific if "reasonable" means to him what it means to the rest of us.

Still, the talk about a better team and a bigger payroll brings this to mind:

What exactly will it take to get fans through the gates?

As they say, this is the money question. What constitutes a reason to go to a game to a community that, pretty much, hasn't?

Will a competitive, exciting team draw enough fans? If the Rays had won 13 more games, they would have been 71-71 going into Wednesday night's game. How many more fans do you think they would have had?

Will a winning record be enough? What if the Rays were having the season the Twins are having, or that of the White Sox, or the Royals? Do the Rays have to be the Yankees before anyone notices?

Will it take a new stadium, the way it did in Seattle? New ownership? More bobbleheads and fewer bobblegloves? Will it take personal appearances, every game, by a Bucs player?

At this point, nobody knows.

For years we have told each other there was a real passion for baseball around here, and we were just waiting to see some sign of commitment from the Rays. Look what happened when the Bucs got better. To a lesser degree, look at the Lightning last season.

Can it happen with the Rays?

Sometimes, you hope. Sometimes, you wonder.

Waechter, the hometown hero, made his major-league debut last week. The Rays drew fewer than 9,000. He made his second start Wednesday. Again, fewer than 9,000.

Gee. You wonder what the Rays would have drawn if Waechter had been from, say, Left Nostril, Montana?

What if Piniella weren't so popular?

What if they didn't have a rookie of the year candidate in Baldelli?

What if Huff wasn't having the best season a Rays player has ever had?

What if you couldn't get $1 seats in the Beach?

Gee. Then I guess some seats would really be empty, huh?

Hey, no one is suggesting there should be sellouts. But wouldn't you think the Rays' nice little second half would draw a few more fans?

There are times you see the empty seats and you wonder if you are watching a team die on the vine. The Rays have played 74 home dates this season. Of those, 32 have had fewer than 10,000 in attendance. Only four times have the Rays had as many as 20,000.

With seven home games left the Rays are on the low side of a million. They'll have to average more than 11,000 to get there.

Here, then, is the question. What is it going to take to draw serious numbers from Tampa Bay?

Once more: This isn't defending the Rays. They've spent six years running fans away with bonehead decisions and awful marketing. The organization has asked for too much patience, and too much inconvenience, from its fans.

But as a fan base, Tampa Bay has questions to answer too. If this really is a major-league market, shouldn't it be doing better than eight grand a night?

Piniella will tell you the Rays can still make it work. Yes, there is more of a buzz. Yes, more commitment from ownership means more competitiveness, which should help. Maybe there is still a chance.

After six seasons this is what we know: Fans won't support this.

The only chance, then, is to dig deep, to spend a little money, to realize what the costs of major-league baseball are.

That's true of the ownership.

It's true of the fan base, too.

_____________________________________

And now a home venue for the Expos

quote:

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That's true of the ownership.

It's true of the fan base, too.

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Basic rule of thumb for any sports club:

The owners have got to commit to improvement, and the fans have got to commit to support the team with their attendance - Neglect either, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Which comes first, the "chicken or the egg"?

With the Twins, A's and Marlins in the post-season, is this team looking like the next relocation candidate? No one goes to the games, and the chances of ever getting a new stadium built are slim to none. After the Expos, could this be a team that could begin to look to move west?

The Devil Rays still have 25 or so years left on their lease, owner Vince Namoli has no intention of moving the team from his home base, and all that this franchise needs is a decent team to draw well. They have some good young players who could have a "Marlins-like" year within the next 3-5 years, so (IMO) the future is actually rather bright in the Tampa Bay area.

The Expos are an extreme example of baseball's problem. Most other teams have struggles that are not insurmountable. After the Expos, I will be very surprised if any other franchises move any time soon, and certainly not if the cities of Minnesapolis-St. Paul, Oakland, and Miami realize that MLB is serious about this relocation bit and get new ballparks built for their teams.

If Portland doesn't get the Expos, I think we are positioning ourselves well to show MLB, "Hey, we're ready for major league baseball in this town", and we will present them with a potential market that they cannot afford to ignore. If the Expos move for 2005, either to Portland or Washington, look for the city that doesn't get the Expos to get an expansion franchise, along with another city (my odds-on favorite is San Antonio) before the decade is out.

Really? San Antonio? What do you think MLB would find appealing about SA?

Why San Antonio? Let me count the ways ...

1) Minor league attendance: While it is not always a clear indicator of how well a city will support major league baseball (as we have argued so well here on Portland's behalf whenever anyone brings it up), San Antonio held virtually all Texas League attendance records until Round Rock surpassed them the last four years, and the Missions continue to average 350,000-400,000 per season for Double A baseball.

2) Demographics: The San Antonio metropolitan area has over 1.6 million people. Austin, 75 miles away, has 1.1 million. Corpus Christi, 120 miles away, has 400,000. Laredo, 100 miles away, has 200,000. The Rio Grande Valley, 225 miles south, has 700,000 and is the 2nd-fastest growing part of the country (after Las Vegas). The large Mexican population of south Texas is known for is love of baseball. The potential fan base is an "awakening giant".

3) Tourism: San Antonio is a beautiful city with wonderful tourist attractions such as the Alamo, Sea World, and Great America Theme Park.

4) Opportunity: Once Portland gets a team, San Antonio is the next largest market in the country with only one of the "big four" sports teams with the NBA's Spurs.

5) Stadium: Nelson Wolff Stadium is a modern new stadium that seats 8,000 and was designed for easy expansion to major league size. While not located downtown, it is only five miles from downtown and located at the intersection of two major controlled-access highways with easy traffic flow into and out of the area.

6) Ownership: Nolan and Reid Ryan, who currently own the Round Rock Express, are in the process of preparing Round Rock for a possible move to Triple A, and have even floated the idea of perhaps some day being the Triple A afiliate of a major league team in San Antonio. They have informally discussed the possibility of an effort to bring MLB to San Antonio, according to some sources I have with ties to the Round Rock club.

All in all, it is my belief that San Antonio has a better-than-average chance of acquiring a major league team in the not-too-distant future - and if I wasn't already involved with efforts in Portland to bring a team here, San Antonio is sure where I'd want to be.

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Originally posted by BC in Newberg:
The Devil Rays still have 25 or so years left on their lease, owner Vince Namoli has no intention of moving the team from his home base, and all that this franchise needs is a decent team to draw well. They have some good young players who could have a "Marlins-like" year within the next 3-5 years, so (IMO) the future is actually rather bright in the Tampa Bay area.

The Expos are an extreme example of baseball's problem. Most other teams have struggles that are not insurmountable. After the Expos, I will be very surprised if any other franchises move any time soon, and certainly not if the cities of Minnesapolis-St. Paul, Oakland, and Miami realize that MLB is serious about this relocation bit and get new ballparks built for their teams.

If Portland doesn't get the Expos, I think we are positioning ourselves well to show MLB, "Hey, we're ready for major league baseball in this town", and we will present them with a potential market that they cannot afford to ignore. If the Expos move for 2005, either to Portland or Washington, look for the city that doesn't get the Expos to get an expansion franchise, along with another city (my odds-on favorite is San Antonio) before the decade is out.

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You can put Oakland right there with the Expos, IMO. They don't care, and when they do start caring, it will be too late.

Give 'em heck, but do it in a good Christian Spirit. "Knock 'em down, pick 'em up, dust 'em off and ask 'em how they feel. If they can answer, knock 'em down again."
- Amon G. Carter, courtesy of Mrs. Swaim