The stage was set. The once atrocious Tampa Bay Rays had the chance to clinch their second Division Title in three years. The players were ready, the managers were anxious and the fans were…silent. The Rays, the best team in baseball, the classic example of worst to first, were going to clinch the division in front of a crowd that would make a minor league team laugh. This isn’t a new problem however, they Rays have struggled with attendance for as far back as one can remember. This also
isn’t a problem exclusive to the Rays, the Lightning of the NHL and the Buccaneers of the NFL also have a suffering attendance problem Sunday’s ‘home’ game for the Bucs against the Pittsburgh Steelers seemed more like a neutral site rather than a home game. When the opposing team intercepts the balls and returns it for a touchdown and the first thirty rows of the stadium are jumping and hooting and waving yellow towels, you have yourself a doozy of an issue. So this raises the question: is Tampa the worst sports city in America? 
So it’s no surprise that players are now speaking out against this. It seems pretentious when considered, a multi-million dollar athlete saying “Hey come see me play, and pay top dollar for it,” but when it’s broken down and analyzed a different view is discovered. We get it, the economy is bad and it’s hard to pay over half a hundred dollars to see product you can see in your living room for free, but the controversy comes when you have fans claiming to be die-hards, yet they don’t show up to support their team. Imagine the outrage if Evan Longoria decided he’d rather play tonight’s game on MLB 2K11 rather than show up for the game in person. He’d be ripped in every column and every talk show non-stop. Yet when it’s reversed the sides are evenly split. The common reason given for the lack of fans at games is the prices are too high and the economy is too bad; this is a perfect storm for dipping profits in sports. The fact is the economy is bad everywhere; not just Florida. Granted the economic hardships have hit Florida worse than (Florida ranks 38th in average yearly income), yet the median household income is around $45,000. Perhaps Tampa fans don’t appreciate their product. There are plenty of other needy cities that would trade places with Tampa in a heartbeat. Cleveland, for example, is quite possibly the pro sports hellhole of the world. The Indians are no good, the Cav’s lost LeBron, and the Browns have been to the playoffs once since 1999. If the Rays played in Cleveland, they might be being hailed right now as the thing that is saving Cleveland and erasing the bad taste of losing in everyone’s mouths. But instead they are being nationally known as the best team no one goes to see. Miami, a city down the road from Tampa also has an average income of around $30,000, yet the Dolphins have already managed to sell out two games. Another excuse is the poor quality of the stadium, yet the Rays proposed a brand new, ultra modern, sleek and beautiful new stadium that the fans never got behind. Perhaps Rays fans simply don’t care? The most unfair thing in all this is the treatment of the true fans. If there was one way to know a true fan, it’s in Tampa because true fans actually go. It’s laughable that a team with the best record in baseball has to have its true fans shown by whether or not they go to the games. But the tragedy is the fact that Ray’s fans are being lauded as probably the worse fans in baseball, yet they actually have true fans. All 12 of them are being unfairly lumped in with the rest (okay that was mean but it’s almost true, that’s the sad part). The true fans that truly love the team and do save up their hard earned money to go watch their favorite nine play are being lumped in with all he fair-weather fans that show up in the postseason and say they have been there all along. It’s going to be a tragedy when the team either moves to a market where it can be properly appreciated and profitable, or the team is reduced to the shell of a franchise it used to be only five years ago. You’d think that fans would be pouring into the stadium to see what could be the last good season the Rays have in a long while as the team will be gutted this offseason, then again if the fans were pouring in, the team could afford to keep its stars. The sickening part is when the fair-weather fans call into radio stations to complain about how ownership can’t pay to keep All-Stars like Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and eventually Evan Longoria, yet they don’t pony up to go to the games. Perhaps they don’t realize a concept called revenue and the fact that the fans actually pay the player’s salaries to an extent. This is the same thing as one of those fan’s working their absolute hardest at their job and becoming the best employee they can be, yet when it comes to payday, the boss instead pats him on the back and says “Good for you, I knew you could do it all along champ.” The attendance issue could become a colossal rift between fans and players in the postseason. Granted Tropicana Field only seats about 40,000 people, but if Rays fans don’t come, who is to say the opposing team won’t? Assume the Yankees meet the Rays in the ALCS; the Yankees hold spring training in Tampa so it’s not totally outrageous to think that those fans won’t come and fill the Trop. If that happens and the Rays basically forfeit home field advantage in the playoffs, something the players are fighting for so hard, then Tampa will truly be the worst sports city in America.
