JohnF posted:
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.
All fair points re: the Rays. I do think the Red Sox and Yankees are unique cases to a great extent, given their long, storied histories. The presence of good mass transit networks helps, too.
So what factors drive attendance. Florida does not draw well for MLB. But spring training tickets seem to be harder to get every year. The Marlins arguably have crushed their fans' spirits (repeatedly) and aren't winning now. But the Rays are good and a lot of fun to watch. The Trop is not a great stadium (or even a good one), but it's air conditioned and can't rain out--I still like going to games there. The area around the Trop is seeing a wealth of new restaurants and bars, but that isn't helping. Many Floridians come from other places and maybe keep their hometown team allegiances--but Arizona manages middle of the pack home attendance despite also being a magnet for retirement and relocation.
The 2019 attendance figures show one obvious trend: winning teams tend to draw well, losing teams do not: http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance
The Rays are the obvious outlier when it comes to W/L records and attendance. Cleveland comes in 23rd in attendance--pretty low, but still ~50% more fans per game than TB.
The Cubs sold out home games even when they were terrible. Classic urban stadium, easy access on mass transit, long tradition. Getting your fan base to think of your team as "lovable losers" means you don't have to win to sell tickets--a neat trick if you can pull it off.
Sorting the data by attendance at away games yields a few surprises: The Red Sox rank much lower in road game attendance vs. home games, while the Padres, Reds and Pirates rank a good deal higher (maybe because the latter three play a lot of in-division games at popular parks like Dodger Stadium and Wrigley?). The Rays are attendance bottom feeders at home or on the road. The Twins, for some reason, are MLB's worst road draw even though they are very good this year (because the AL Central is otherwise so weak except for the Indians?).
As for a new home for the Rays: Charlotte has been #1 or #2 in MiLB attendance since they built a new downtown ballpark a few years ago. A lot of those are corporate season tickets though, and on weeknights you usually see quite a few empty seats despite an announced sellout. An MLB team would require tearing up said new stadium--I assumed that getting a new MiLB park meant Charlotte was opting out on MLB. I don't know if any city will be willing to pay for a new ballpark to get a team--that madness seems to have died down. (Although I think Charlotte likely will build a domed stadium for the Panthers new billionaire owner, so who knows...?)