In 2019, the Tampa Bay Rays have not disappointed, but their fans have.
In professional sports, teams need fans in order to create revenue, and the Tampa Bay Rays have none. The Rays only trail the Miami Marlins for lowest attendance in Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2019 .
For example, the New York Mets currently sit in fourth place at 35-40 overall to start the season. Even worse, they show no signs of improvement. This forced them to give out special giveaways such as their “McDonald’s Ticket Offer”. Fans are able to buy one ticket and get another one free. This all from a team currently ranked No. 13 among attendance rates in baseball. This goes to show how detrimental low attendance rates can harm an organization, as revenue comes through ticket sales, concessions sales, merchandise sales, promotions, etc.
The Rays’ front office has been known to be a little unorthodox over the years, most recently creating “the opener”. This idea allows teams to use a relief pitcher for an inning before bringing in the scheduled starting pitcher. This allows for a better matchup against the top of the order. However, on June 20, 2019, things would get a little more unorthodox.
MLB Commissioner, Rob Manfred, announced that he has granted the Tampa Bay Rays permission to explore playing in two different cities. This would be the first organization ever to accomplish this feat.
No timetable for the move has been set, as there is much to solved. The current idea is to have the Rays play the first half of their season in St. Petersburg at Tropicana Field, and play the second half of their season in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) at the former home of the Montreal Expos.
Forget it, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said, as Tropicana Field is located in his city. “I want to be crystal clear. The Rays cannot explore playing any Major League Baseball games in Montreal, or anywhere else for that matter, prior to 2028 without reaching a formal memorandum of understanding with the city of St. Petersburg,” he said. “And ultimately such a decision is up to me, and I have no intention of bringing this idea to our city council to consider. In fact, I believe this is getting a bit silly,” he said.
Private equity mogul, Stephen Bronfman, whose father, Charles, was the original owner of the Montreal Expos, is intrigued about the potential idea of bringing baseball back to Montreal. He stated, “This concept is definitely one that is of interest to my partners and me and we are looking forward to studying this further.”
The Rays are looking to keep baseball in Tampa Bay for the foreseeable future. With no way of getting out of St. Petersburg, this may be the best alternative for Rays’ management. Despite the Rays’ success thus far in 2019, their fan base remains to be seen. This is in large part to their location and ballpark.
“The Trop”
Tropicana Field, famously known as “The Trop”, has been said to be one of the most generic and poor-functioned stadiums. Players, coaches and journalists who have gotten the opportunity to experience the dome in St. Petersburg all agree.
Many potential homeruns have turned into outs with the existing cat-walks that surround the dome. This infuriates players and managers on both sides, who must agree to the ground rules before every game.
Fans also have a bone to pick with Tropicana Field, as there are continuous power issues. This includes a 45-minute power outage on May 13 of this year. The resulting delay lasted an hour, as the main switch fused out.
Twins Broadcaster and MLB Hall of Fame Pitcher, Bert Blyleven, called for the destruction of Tropicana Field in 2016. This was after Miguel San launched a no-doubter to left-field that hit a catwalk and ricochet’d into the glove of Willy Adames. That bounce resulted in the final out of the inning, according to the stadium ground rules. Before going off the air, Blyleven says “Blow this place up!”:
Location
The Tampa Bay Rays only trail the Miami Marlins (27-46, 5th in NL East) for worst attendance rate in the MLB. The Marlins, however, have the excuse of being the worst team in the league. Tampa Bay currently only trails the New York Yankees by 3.5 games for first place in the American League East. The Rays currently with a record of 43-31.
By now, it is safe to say that most Tampa natives believe that downtown St. Petersburg is not the ideal spot. This is bad news for the Rays, considering their availability of land and funding mechanisms for a new stadium. Their lease on Tropicana Field does not expire until 2027. The stadium also sits far from the area’s corporate base and wealthy suburbs in Hillsborough and Pinellas County, Florida.
“I was excited when the Ybor Site was selected. The population growth in Eastern Hillsborough along with Pasco and even Polk Counties has been staggering in the 21 years I’ve lived in (the) area. My guess is (the) St. Pete area is about (the) same in population as when team started in ’98.,” said a reader of the Tampa Bay Times in an article written by sports columnist, John Romano, back in April.
This email turned out to be entirely accurate. The population of Hillsborough was in the ballpark of 940,000 when the Rays organization took off in 1998. Hillsborough has since grown exponentially, currently sitting at a population of 1.43 million. Pinellas County has also grown by about 8%.
But despite the growth around “St. Pete”, the Rays have been hurt with a very serious lack of transportation. There are an assortment of bridges that must be crossed in order to get to and from both areas. This makes things quite difficult for potential fans to make it out to the ballpark.
The Rays and Player/Fan Engagement
It’s very clear that Tampa Bay’s front office, headed by Chairman, Stuart Sternberg, takes a very unsentimental approach when conducting business and building the ball club. The Rays consistently establish different approaches and ways of thinking and playing the game before 29 other ball clubs. However, despite their knowledge, it’s clear they care more about their place in the standings than the names on the jerseys.
This makes the Tampa Bay Rays the most successful franchise in baseball in one way. The Rays get the most “bang for your buck” on a payroll. However, this logic has robbed fans of getting to know, and potentially, falling in love with certain players on the roster. Meanwhile other teams had players like David Ortiz in Boston, or Derek Jeter and New York.
“You can’t keep a single one of your treasured players long-term without spending more money. And every time one of them goes it is like a gut punch … there will never be generational support when the team has no players that fans come to know and love for the long haul,” another reader of the Tampa Bay Times said in Romano’s article.
Evan Longoria was a player drafted out of the Rays’ organization and became well-known and loved by fans in Tampa Bay. Playing third base and creating memories for nearly a decade. That was before getting traded to the San Francisco Giants following the 2017 season.
Fans will always remember September 28, 2011. Longoria connected for a walk-off homerun against the New York Yankees. This hit clinched a Wild Card berth after trailing 7-0 going into the bottom of the eight inning. Moments before the homerun, the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox 5-4. This meant that if the Rays were able to win the game, they would clinch a spot over Boston.
Longoria leads the franchise in homeruns, doubles, runs, runs batted in, walks, games played and at-bats. All of this made him an instant icon in the eyes of Tampa’s faithful. No. 3 only trails Carl Crawford for most hits in franchise history. Crawford finished his Rays career with 1, 480 hits.
Fans will also remember when current Red Sox left-hander, David Price, was on the mound defeated the Boston Red Sox to clinch the 2008 American League Pennant in Game 7 of the ALCS that sent the Rays to their first World Series appearance.
When he was called up in September of 2008, Price was considered Tampa Bay’s top pitching prospect. He immediately made his impact in the bullpen when picking up the save in the pennant clinching game. The left-hander would become an all-star starter during his time in Tampa Bay, getting the start in the 2010 MLB All-Star Game in Anaheim. Price also brought home the 2012 AL CY Young Award before being traded to Detroit during the 2013 season.
Price leads Tampa Bay all time in win-loss percentage at .636 and earned run average (ERA) at 3.18.
From a competitive and economic standpoint, getting Evan Longoria and David Price’s contracts off the books is smart. These moves have proven to turn fans away in recent years though. Feelings of betrayal spread when they were shipped out of town. Even worse, the Rays are still searching for their next franchise star.
Tampa Two-Cities?
It remains to be seen whether or not the Rays can actually pull this off. They currently have permission from the league commissioner, but not their own mayor. They also have to take players and their families under consideration. Players, coaches and media personnel would have to pick up their families and live somewhere else for half the year. This would happen every year, for as long as their tenure with the Rays.
Money will also play a massive factor, as taxes have increased significantly in the Montreal area. Total taxes for businesses have gone up 6.3% since 2012. With the lack of revenue coming in via ticket, merchandise and concession sales at games, Stu Sternberg may have a tough time completing this move. Broadcasters across the league have already turned down the potential move, saying “there’s no way”. This includes SportsNet LA’s Joe Davis (Dodgers) and SNY’s Gary Cohen (Mets).
The Tampa Bay rays are as unorthodox as they come. They’ve created ways to minimize their cap space, like no other team before them. In addition, they’ve been able to utilize their players like no there team before them, such as creating “the opener”, which took the league by storm in 2018.
Will the club become the first sports franchise in history to call two different cities home at the same time? The clock is ticking.
