RJM posted:Chico Escuela posted:RJM posted:The Indians and A’s are leading the Rays for the two AL wildcard spots. But does anyone in Tampa care? If so, they might draw 15,000.
Rays fan here. The truth hurts, but can you let me just enjoy a playoff run? (And the Rays are #1 in the wild card standings as of today!) I'll be at the Trop this weekend for the Jays game.
And how about a team contending while posting THE lowest total payroll in MLB? Just over 25% of Boston's, and the Rays will finish ahead of the Red Sox.
The Rays are good at selecting and developing pitchers. Kevin Cash is a very good manager. But on a year to year basis I’ll take the Sox.
If the Rays had the interest level the Sox have they would have the money. The money comes primarily from the tv and radio contracts and attendance. The Sox know they’re going to draw 2.8 to 3M every year. All the peripheral places money comes from the Sox also do well.
Don’t claim it’s market size. The population of central and northern Florida exceeds the population of New England.
No question Red Sox Nation supports the team. And with a payroll almost 4x the Rays', the Red Sox ought to outperform them over the longer term. (I have no quarrel with teams whose owners are willing to spend--good on the Red Sox.)
Florida cities' relationship with MLB is troubled across the board. I can offer only one primary defense (rationalization?):
You referred above to "Tampa" in connection with the Rays. Many folks forget that the team actually plays in St. Petersburg--they are the Tampa Bay rays, the bay being a body of water that Tampa, St. P and several other communities border. Why does that matter? There are just over 3M people in the Tampa metro area. But St. Pete is on a peninsula that is home to maybe 300 to 350,000 of those folks. The other 2.5+ million (as well as the throngs to the east in central Florida) can only access the peninsula via a few bridges that at rush hour are terrible bottlenecks. St. Petersburg is a great town--but it was a bad place to put an MLB stadium. As I said, Florida has a... complicated relationship with major league baseball. But if the Rays played on the Tampa side of the bay, they'd have better attendance. (A new stadium would help, too.) I'm not confident attendance would improve enough, but it would improve.
P.S. -- Boston metro population is 4.6M vs. 3.06M for Tampa -- a full third larger. So there's another rationalization in defense of the Rays. 