"The rubber has got to hit the road at some point. We're four years into winning. We're getting to the point where we don't control our own destiny. This is untenable as a model…When I came in here in '05 and '06, I saw the stars, and I was confident that we could put a winning product on the field -- and I was told by you guys and others that all we needed was a winning team. Well, we won. We won. We won. And we won. And it didn't do it.” (http://espn.go.com/blog/tmi-mlb/post/_/id/27836/rays-attendance-leading-to-financial-issues)
Owner Stuart Sternberg had that to say this past week, when the Rays were knocked out of the postseason after losing game 5 of the American League Divisional Series to the Texas Rangers. After reading the article (link above) I was compelled to dig a little deeper into the past four seasons for the Tampa Bay Rays. What I found, to say the least, was shocking.
In their game 5 loss to Texas, only 28,299 fans showed up to support their club; falling roughly 7,000+ short of a sellout. To me, this is unheard of. Who struggles to sell out a playoff game; let alone a game 5, series clinching game? This is embarrassing for baseball, for Tampa, for the organization and mostly for the players. Now look, I understand that the baseball season is long; and I mean very long. So sure, I wouldn’t expect a team to sell out game 14 of 162, or even post sellout numbers throughout the season. But when it comes playoff time, and there are still empty seats at the ballpark – that’s trouble.
Being the statistical nerd that I am, it led me to dig deeper into the story. I was curious of how their attendance numbers looked compared to the improved product that the Rays have put on the field for the past four seasons. Everyone who follows baseball knows that Rays were a dormant organization for their first decade of existence; but most expansion teams are. And given the fact that they play in the toughest division in baseball, going up against two of the top payrolls in the game (Boston and New York), much wasn’t to be expected from the Rays.
In 2007, the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays went 66-96, finishing in last place in the American League East – and expectantly, they ended up ranked 29th out of 30 in attendance; understandable. However, ever since then, the Rays have put a winning product on the field. They’ve had stars like David Price, Evan Longoria, Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford, B.J Upton, Desmond Jennings, James Shields and others grace their uniforms. Most teams in baseball would kill for a crop of young talent similar to that of what the Rays possess. Despite of all that, the talent, the success, and the post season appearances; attendance numbers remained stagnant. Since their dreadful 2007 season, the Rays have averaged only 1,784 more fans per game. Yikes.
Before I embarrass Tampa even more – let me share a similar experience. I understand what it’s like to not be excited by a team, to lose faith in an organization and to generally have a negative outlook on your franchise. I am from Portland, Oregon – home of hippies, liberals, Ducks, rain and of course, the Portland Trail Blazers. From 1978 until 2002, the Blazers and the city of Portland set the professional attendance record for consecutive sellouts. If you’re counting, that’s 24 consecutive seasons and 984 consecutive games. Not too shabby eh?
Then we fell on tough times, a time known around here as the “Jail Blazers era” in which the product on the court went from talent to thugs; from good, exciting, wholesome entertainment – to, ‘what the hell are they thinking?’ From 2002 until 2007, or as I like to refer to them, the dark ages of Blazer basketball – most in the city were uninterested and unconcerned with anything that had to do with the Blazers, and I was one of them. So I understand what it’s like to not give a ‘you know what’ about your professional sports team. However, once the thugs were gone, young talent reemerged – and the team put a winning product back on the court, the Blazers have now sold out for three consecutive seasons; or 123 games. Which is what sets my city apart from the apathetic fans that grace the ‘Trop’ with their presence each year.
In 2008, the Rays went 97-65, a 33 game improvement over the season before, yet ranked 24th in the league in attendance – filling up 52.8% of their stadium. Oh, and did I mention they won their first ever American League East title and went to the World Series that season? In 2009, the Rays went 84-78, but ranked 23rd in the league in attendance – filling up 52.9% of their stadium. In 2010 the Rays returned to the post season, going 96-66 and again winning the American League East crown. Yet again their attendance numbers lagged, ranking 24th in the league in attendance, only filling up 52% of their stadium on average. That brings us to this season, in which the Rays erased one of the largest September leads and won the Wild Card on the last day of the regular season – with a walk off home run in extra innings. Sounds like exciting baseball, huh? Not for Tampa fans; while their team went 91-71, they ranked 23rd in the league in attendance – filling up 55% of their stadium.
Even more troubling is the list of teams that had better attendance numbers than Tampa this season. That list includes: the Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburg Pirates, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds. Can you guess the one thing that all those teams had in common? They all finished below .500.
What stands out mostly to me, is the success that the Rays have had compared to the rest of Major League Baseball. The Yankees and Red Sox are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars year in and year out to win. Which is probably why we didn’t hear much from the Rays for a decade, and haven’t heard a sound from the Orioles or Blue Jays in the past 25 years. Yet, somehow someway, the Rays found a way to compete in that division.
Over the past four seasons, the Tampa Bay Rays have gone a combine 368-280. Those 368 wins, gives them the fourth most in all of baseball during that span; behind only the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox (did I mention the Red Sox and Yankees were good?) During those four seasons, only 10 of the 30 MLB teams made multiple playoff appearances, the Rays were one of them. During that four year span, only three teams made more than two post season appearances – the Yankees, Phillies and Rays. Of the eight teams to make the playoffs this season (Yankees, Tigers, Rays, Rangers, Phillies, Brewers, Cardinals and Diamonbacks) six of them were ranked in the top 10 in attendance. The only other outside the top 10 besides the Rays were the D’backs – and losing 97 games last year probably had something to do with that.
Their attendance has caused serious financial problems for the team – which is clearly shown in their lack of revenue. This became apparent this past offseason, when they had to part ways with All-Stars Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford and Matt Garza; because they couldn’t afford to keep them around anymore. Yet despite losing three All-Stars (and how many clubs could say this), they still made it back to the post season.
Being the avid baseball fan that I am, the only thing I can hope for is that Major League Baseball takes note of these statistics. When your 4th winningist’ franchise over the past four seasons has finished, on average, 23rd in the league in attendance – something is wrong. It was understandable for no one to go to games when they were losing. But earth to Tampa, the Rays aren’t losing anymore. I can’t even fathom all the cities across the country that would love to put one of the best run, managed and performing baseball teams in the league in a stadium that would sell out; and Portland is only one of them.
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