This comes from today'sSBN:

quote:

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Selling D-Ray Tickets

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are offering something extra to lure fans to the ballpark for this week's series with the New York Yankees. Fans who purchase a full-priced ticket for the three-game set, which started Tuesday, also will receive a free general admission ticket for Friday's game against the Minnesota Twins. The offer does not apply to $4 Southwest Airlines seats. That and this report from The Tampa Tribune's Gary Haber

The promotion allows fans to see two of the American League division leaders for the price of one. The idea is to get casual fans, who might otherwise come out to see only the Yankees, to return to Tropicana Field.

"It's using the dates and assets you have at your disposal," said John Browne, the team's vice president of sales and marketing. "The Yankees have always been one of our better draws.

"The Twins have been one of the surprise stories of the year."

The Twins, who make their first Tropicana Field appearance this season starting Friday, held a one-game lead in the AL Central over the Cleveland Indians going into Tuesday's game. Three of the Rays' five largest crowds of the season came in June against the Yankees. The three Yankees games drew an announced total of 80,533 fans. It's the first time the Rays, who have the second-lowest attendance in the majors, have tried a promotion like this, Browne said.

The Texas Rangers did something similar earlier this year. Fans who bought a ticket to a game against Oakland got a free ticket to a game against Seattle. (source The Tampa Tribune's Gary Haber)

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This is pretty smart on the D-Ray's part. A big part of the Tampa baseball fanbase is comprised of Yankees fans.

Don't know if it'll work, but it's a nice idea.


-New Yorker
Did you really think that Hoboken was the birthplace of Base Ball?

Smart yes, if they can get some more concession sales and maybe get return visitors for a later game it reduces this years $ loss, the Expos did the same thing for the same reason but we know they have no intention of staying in Montreal long term and I am beginning to doubt the D-Rays will be in Tampa/St.Pete to many more years either.

The Texas Losers gave free Mariner tix to whoever paid for a game against the A's? Pathetic.

Any city that needs to do promos for division-leading teams like the Mariners and Twins has problems, if you ask me.

Portland in the National League.

Easy, DM, I doubt the Rangers are giving away free Mariner tickets for people who buy tickets to see the A's as a serious, on-going marketing technique. It sounds to me more like a one-shot deal to see how it works getting people to games that are not going to draw as well as the Mariners right now. The Rangers are still well over 30,000 per game for a pretty bad ballclub, so the situation in the Texas Metroplex is not as desperate as that move might seem.