http://www.sptimes.com/2003/05/29/Columns/Most_suffering_fan__t.shtml

here's the highlight of the article

To an outsider, it can look like a dying franchise. Not through Vince's eyes, however.

"This team will make it," Naimoli said. "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. As this team gets better, there will be more of a crowd. Look at the Bucs' crowds. When they weren't winning, they didn't have great crowds, either."

I dont even know why tampa got a team. It seems that only one team of the 2 from the last 2 expansions to the MLB have actually done something. Florida won a world series and colorado hasnt even made the playoffs. Arizona won a world series and Tampa has not left the cellar from the begining. In Colorado their is a chance, but in Tampa I dont think they have a standing chance.

Tampa is like a One Legged man in an *** kicking contest.

Tampa Bay got a team because 1) they have the demographics (metro area is a little bit bigger than Portland-Salem); 2) they had a stadium in place (Tropicana Field); 3) they had an owner lobbying hard for it; 4) they were a better choice in most people's eyes than Washington. All Tampa Bay needs to become a successful franchise (IMO) is to develop a decent, competitive team, and I think Lou Pinella will eventually lead them to that (at least I hope he does, because I want to see EVERY baseball team be successful, at the gate anyway).

Colorado made the NL playoffs in, I believe, their 3rd year (1995) as a wild-card, but haven't made it since. That was the quickest for a new team ever to make the playoffs until Arizona did it in their 2nd year (1999).