Now that emotions have ebbed, it’s easier to put this rollicking Rays’ season for the ages into some kind of perspective. And, yes, I know we’ve had this conversation before.
Here’s what we know:
*The Rays are not just in a relatively–but hardly absolutely–small market for Major League Baseball, but they’re in an asymmetrical one. One notably–and confoundingly–sans mass transit. No other MLB city has fewer residents living within a 30-minute commute of the playing facility.
*As we well know, Tampa Bay can be a second gulf and there are city-county fault lines on both sides of the bay. Parochialism and provincialism are never a winning parlay. Moreover, they only exacerbate an inherent identity phenomenon: baseball fans with allegiances elsewhere. As in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. They can turn the Rays into a visiting team.
*We also know that Tropicana Field is not just poorly positioned on the fringe of the market with nothing but water to the west, but poorly designed for major league baseball and major league facility money streams. Cat-walk ground rules are a national embarrassment.
*The rule of thumb in major league sports–especially baseball with 81 regular-season home games–is that corporations buy a hefty percentage of season tickets. This area, alas, is corporate headquarters-challenged. Regional and back offices don’t make those kinds of calls–or commitments.
*The recession has hit Tampa Bay harder than any of the other 29 MLB-franchise cities. In fact, it never quite ended. Discretionary spending, to no one’s surprise, has been especially hard hit.
*The “history” of baseball and the Tampa Bay region has been overstated. Sure, Babe Ruth hit that historic, long-distance homer here and major leaguers have trained in the area for nearly a century. But exhibition baseball–often attended by Northern tourists–shouldn’t be mistaken for a tradition of major league baseball. Off-Broadway is not the same as Broadway.
Here’s what else might be at play:
*Candidly, there just might be a prevalent mindset that says, in effect, that there are better things to do in the summer around here than go to a baseball game–let alone one played in a substandard facility in an ill-suited location. More so than other MLB locales, Tampa Bay is much more about leisure lifestyle. Recreation is not a spectator sport.
In short, fishing, swimming, boating, playing golf and tennis and enjoying proximity to the Carolinas in the summer are part of why a lot of folks are here. Most residents are not here by inertia.
And two final thoughts:
*Before its (2027) lease runs out, the Rays will have left the Trop. Even St. Pete’s minor league Mayor Bill Foster must surely know that. The mantra “win and they will come” obviously doesn’t apply.
The Rays won the American League East last year and saw attendance drop by 17 percent (to an average of less than 19,000) this year–while winning 91 games. They will at some point move to the market hub of downtown Tampa, where they would at least maximize chances of Tampa Bay survival, or they will relocate out of the area. That they will move is a given, and Tampa only works if it’s a perfect storm of major private-sector investment complemented by tax increment financing and business-community support.
*Although I grew up a Phillies’ fan in Philadelphia, I moved here and adopted the teams of the area I chose to live in. I was no less crushed by the outcome of the 2008 World Series than any other Rays’ fan. I care that the Rays stay and admire their smart, successful, “Little Engine That Could” culture.
Moreover, I think professional sports can be aquality-of-life addition–in addition to being an indirect, ongoing marketing plus that heightens awareness of this market across the country. They also have a direct economic impact, although the formulas for determining such are typically more self-serving than accurate.
But, arguably, they are critical for a market such as this one. Los Angeles does just fine, thank you, without an NFL franchise. They are LA. But Tampa Bay minus one of its sports axes takes a hit. As a second-tier market, competing more with the Charlottes and San Antonios than the Chicagos and San Franciscos. Tampa Bay can’t afford to be less big league. Nor can it afford to lose a key tool in helping this region sever some of its parochial tethers.
No, we shouldn’t be subsidizing rich people and the games they play. But we should be looking out for our enlightened self interest.
Go, Rays!
Actually, make that: Stay, Rays!
Return On Investment
For what it’s worth: The Rays, with a payroll of $42 million, made it to the first round of MLB playoffs, where they were beaten by the Texas Rangers. The Yankees, with a payroll of $207 million, also made it to the first round of the playoffs, where they were beaten by the Detroit Tigers.
The Yankees finished the regular season with 97 wins. The Rays finished with 91. Dividing the difference in wins into the difference in payroll, the Yankees spent $27.5 million per additional win. That’s what the Rays are up against. That’s obscene.