A little more on Sunday's stories

A lot of good reaction to Sunday's story. But I want to focus on a comment made by Jay:

"The bottom line is that the Rays are going to have to open up their books if they expect to get any kind of public support or funding for a new stadium. It's foolish to think otherwise, so why is there such resistance to the idea?"

Like we said Sunday, we have a pretty good idea how much in revenues the Rays are taking in. And we also feel pretty confident that they're among the lowest earning teams in all of baseball. So what's the big deal in sharing? And perhaps more important, will Jeff Lyash's baseball commission ask to see the Rays' figures?

Stay tuned on that one.

*

Comments

[Thank you FOX Sports]

Tampa doesn't deserve the East-leading Rays
Dugout Central

Updated: September 7, 2008, 7:54 PM EST

Small-market advocates aren't going to want to hear this. Marxists are going to throw their copy of Das Kapital at me. Jimmy Carter would kindly disagree with me. But here goes:

Tampa Bay doesn't deserve the Rays.

Tampa, for years, has suffered greatly in attendance. They tried the free parking, then lower prices and allowing fans to bring their own food and drinks to the game. But we all knew that wouldn't solve the problem; it would just mitigate it. The only way to truly pack the house is to have a winning team.

Well, guess what? After years of losing — and losing badly — including a 66-96 record last year, Tampa now has the best record in all of Major League Baseball. And they still aren't packing the house.

In fact, they're 26th in attendance, besting only Oakland, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Florida. They average just 21,322 per game. True, that's an improvement from last year's 17,148. But it's nowhere near what they should be averaging.

And we can't blame Tampa's small-market status. Why? The Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater market is the 19th largest in the U.S., ahead of Baltimore (26,956 average attendance despite having a woefully boring team) and Denver (33,533). Tampa's market is 80 percent larger than Milwaukee's, yet the Brewers are averaging 38,006 fans.

The problem is that Tampa is not a baseball town and never has been. It might take decades of good play from the Rays, with a smattering of teams like this year's, for the Rays to become a baseball town. And it's not fair to ask Rays' owner Stuart Sternberg to miss out on so much revenue for that long.

The Rays need to re-locate. That much is clear.

The more relevant question is to where? We've talked about areas that are ripe for a team: Portland, Las Vegas and maybe Oklahoma City. But the difficulty all these options present is the same one that has doomed Tampa — none of them are baseball towns. The Rays, or whatever they might be called, would have to go through the same prolonged fight to woo new fans and build their base.

Moving to a "new" city is not the proper course. Moving to an "old" city is.

That's why Boston, New York and Philadelphia are the three rational choices.

In New York, both the Yankees and Mets have averaged more than 50,000 fans per game. New York is the largest market in the U.S. It can support another team. Heck, it probably could support two more teams. Sternberg is from New York, so you know he's aware of the unmet demand there and has thought about this.

Boston is a far smaller market but has a much smaller supply for its baseball-frenzied population, with a maximum capacity of just 37,400 at Fenway. I'd attend a Boston Beaneaters game.

Philadelphia offers the same opportunity as Boston: large market, just one team and a passionate fan base. Plus, it has the extra advantage of being starved for a champion. How about the Philadelphia Centennials, as a salute to the National Association's 1875 entry.

Sure, there'd be a lot of red tape involved with moving the Rays to a city already having a team. But MLB worked that out with Baltimore when the Nationals moved into their market. If there's money to be made, Sternberg and MLB can make it work. My bet is on Philadelphia.

[Thomas]

So in the posters and Fox Sports humble opinions, St. Pete and the greater Bay Area exist solely to ensure Mr. Sternberg can make maximum profit with his baseball team.

Astounding logic.

[matthew]

Aaron, Surely you've heard of professional sport's teams' "voodoo economics" that's where you have enough "expenses" that any and all gains are completely wiped out. How about, for one, the owners taking salaries out of the profits and calling player salaries "losses." That's allowed in MLB but not anywhere else in the business world. I am sure the Rays are as adept at cooking the books as any other sports team. Why don't you do a colunn on that sort of "creative accounting."

[Gotta love those Rays BaseBALLS]

Hey Thank You,
I wonder if you and Fox Sports have considered how much this "pay for our new stadium and give us the land too" thing has COST the Rays in goodwill here and what impact that's had on attendance? Do you really think all those people with red signs in their yards FORGOT the past ten months here?

I noticed that you did make one good point in all your maundering though I doubt you intended it quite the way it turned out...

If Philly or Boston or New York has a ready and willing supply of tax-paying SUCKERS who will give Stuie and da'boyz what they want, they WOULD be crazy to stay here. Don't panic though, the money they have to give us to buy out of their contract will finance the redevelopment of the Trop AND refurbishing Al Lang. SWEET huh?

That's what I call a DOUBLE PLAY!!!

[Gotta love those Rays BaseBALLS]

Hey Thank You,
I wonder if you and Fox Sports have considered how much this "pay for our new stadium and give us the land too" thing has COST the Rays in goodwill here and what impact that's had on attendance? Do you really think all those people with red signs in their yards FORGOT the past ten months here?

I noticed that you did make one good point in all your maundering though I doubt you intended it quite the way it turned out...

If Philly or Boston or New York has a ready and willing supply of tax-paying SUCKERS who will give Stuie and da'boyz what they want, they WOULD be crazy to stay here. Don't panic though, the money they have to give us to buy out of their contract will finance the redevelopment of the Trop AND refurbishing Al Lang. SWEET huh?

That's what I call a DOUBLE PLAY!!!

[Gotta love those Rays BaseBALLS]

Hey Thank You,
I wonder if you and Fox Sports have considered how much this "pay for our new stadium and give us the land too" thing has COST the Rays in goodwill here and what impact that's had on attendance? Do you really think all those people with red signs in their yards FORGOT the past ten months here?

I noticed that you did make one good point in all your maundering though I doubt you intended it quite the way it turned out...

If Philly or Boston or New York has a ready and willing supply of tax-paying SUCKERS who will give Stuie and da'boyz what they want, they WOULD be crazy to stay here. Don't panic though, the money they have to give us to buy out of their contract will finance the redevelopment of the Trop AND refurbishing Al Lang. SWEET huh?

That's what I call a DOUBLE PLAY!!!

[Kathleen]

A half game lead in AL East.