Rays Should Move Out Of Tampa-St. Pete

[griswold]

Two years ago when the Rays were on their pennant run, we were told their crowds were awful because there's "no tradition" of baseball there.

Well, what's the excuse now? This week's attendance is a disgrace: 12,000 or Monday, 13,000 last night for a first place team that does everything right.

Tampa Bay is a great organization. Fantastic scouting team and minor league operation that develops homegrown talent. Great pitching and fundamentals. Excellent manager.

But the organization is not appreciated or supported by its fans. And, the paltry crowds often include people cheering for the other team----transplants from other cities.

The Rays should leave and go somewhere where the fans care (I honesly think Los Angeles or New York could support a third franchise). Maybe Indianapolis, a great sports town.

[wayne1218]

You will hear the same excuse i've heard here 100 times from Rays fans. The ballpark is in a bad location.

[violivei12]

In my personal opinion Flordia just isn't a good sports state in general, other than high school and college football... They would be selling out every night if they were in most other cities. Imagine what Pittsburgh or Chicago would give to have them as a team.

[griswold]

You will hear the same excuse i've heard here 100 times from Rays fans. The ballpark is in a bad location.

There isn't a ballpark in America that isn't inconvenient to some people. Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx, for crying out loud.

Cubs fans drive 300 miles from Iowa to go see a rotten franchise that never wins. Yet people in Tampa won't drive 45 minutes to see one of the most exciting teams in the game?

Several Rays players openly complained about this this week; I don't blame them.

In Miami, they blame the rotten attendance on the hot weather and constant rain. Yet, the Rays play in a dome.

Want a bad location for a stadium? Try Detroit. Their entire fan base is way out in the suburbs. Even Dodger Stadium is a total pain to get to because of the awful freeway traffic.

They just make these excuses to cover for the fact they aren't real fans and don't like going to games.

How bad would the attendance be if the Rays sucked, as opposed to being one of the best franchises in the game?

[wayne1218]

I'm with you gris. Everybody in New England drives in to the nightmare known as Boston too.

I think it is a VERY lame excuse. I don't care where the park is, everybody within 2 hours of it is capable of going and they don't. I don't want to hear any crap about traffic or anything else. We all deal with that when we go to a game!

[insidethe8thpol]

MLB should put KC & Pitt in a hat and whichever is picked, Tampa moves into their park, and they get sent down to Triple A for 5 years until they can prove they can field a real Major League ballclub