I've been telling my kids how spoiled they are as NE sports fans... Hard to believe when I grew up the only really successful team was the Celtics, but the Bruins popularity was off the charts (is Boston really a blue collar town ).
IMO, the Sox failures this year are mostly pitching related, but there's a bit of lack of timely hitting. Way too many games lost because they don't have a consistent/good closer. As for Porch-Rocker - look at his W/L stats - he was destined for a down year after a good year. I'm not too surprised actually.
w/r/t: the Rays drive and population discussion:
St.Pete may the 'actual' home and accessible by two bridges with traffic woes; however, that makes me wonder if you've ever tried to drive to Fenway *and* find parking... The Trop is really easy in and easy out comparatively. I won't even try thinking about driving to Yankee stadium let alone find parking - public transportation is the best way there. It's probably a good thing that a new home in Ybor City was supported - travel to/from and parking would have been a challenge there. I believe using population numbers, drive times, etc. is a poor excuse for why fans don't show up for a team that's doing well. Even without a good team people go to Fenway for the experience. BTW having lived in Charlotte for a bit ... they have a MiLB team that gets OK support. Their NFL team gets support now because of Cam, but when we first moved there it was a different story - parking for $5. They're trying really hard to get a s*r team, but cannot get the necessary community $$ support even for that. Doubtful they'd get enough support for a MLB team.