Rays Attendance 2009 (Here We Go Again)

So, with the Phillies in town and the first 2 games of a 3-game series being attended to the tune of 19,000-20,000, the debate about Rays attendance is back on. We've written about this before (click here for our analysis of attendance back in 2008) and will probably write about it again (that's so unfortunate). But, let's also not lose sight of some of the facts that were nicely outlined in an article in today's St. Pete Times):

"Through 34 home games (not including Wednesday's game against the Phillies), attendance at Tropicana Field had increased 23.3 percent from the first 34 games of last season. The spike translates to an extra 4,284 people per game. Only the Kansas City Royals, who completed a $250 million stadium renovation, have seen a higher per-game increase.

At the same time, the rest of baseball is struggling.

Attendance has dropped nearly 5 percent across the sport in 2009. Excluding new smaller stadiums for the New York Mets and New York Yankees, baseball attendance has decreased 3.7 percent.

So while the rest of baseball is trending fewer sales, the Rays are selling more.

To summarize, after posting the largest increase in attendance in all of MLB in 2008, the Rays are near the top in % increase once again in 2009. Yet, management is complaining about the market and the fans.

The biggest issue, in my opinion, is expectations. For one thing, the Rays have only been a good product for 1 season. I am a believer in the new regime and see all of the very positive things they are doing for this team (which is why I am investing in this team as well as a full season tickerholder). I was a little ticked at Matt Silverman's comments the other night and took personal offense to them as a fan and long time member of the Tampa Bay community. But, he did seek to clarify his dumb comments a day later when he said, "I may have said things about the market but not our fans — we love the fans that come to the games." Frankly, I'm still a little offended that he is not backing down from his comments about the Tampa Bay area. As a native, I love this area and I know we have a passionate sports fan base. The fact that he only loves the folks that pay him money does not really cool my jets all that much (but, I digress)....

CONTINUE TO PUT A GOOD AND COMPETITIVE PRODUCT ON THE FIELD AND PEOPLE WILL SPEND THE MONEY TO SEE IT!!!

But, it takes time to build a fan base and dissing on the community is not a helpful tactic. I see lots of kids wearing Rays gear while their parents wear Yankees or Red Sox gear. These kids will drag their parents to some games, but they don't control the purse strings just yet. Rays management needs to be focused on the product and stop venting to the media about attendance and the market. It's obviously not productive to do this (note the DECLINE in attendance from Tuesday to Wednesday).

If the Tampa Bay Bucs can go from the least valuable franchise in the NFL to one of the most valuable franchises in this lovely place I call home, the Rays can climb the franchise value ladder also. But, it takes a bit of time and investment! Continue to invest in this team as you have been and you will see the rewards (including a possible new venue down the line). If you threaten, belittle and otherwise hate on this market, you are going to lose the support of your most loyal fans such as myself (caveat: winning cures a lot of these hard feelings).

Aki back in 6-8 Weeks? BJ Wins AL Player of the Week!

The Rays just finished a decent road trip having split the 6-game trip 3-3. They easily could have taken 4 or even 5 games with a couple of good breaks, but I will take 3-3 given we played the hottest team in baseball (Rockies have won 16 of last 17 games) and a solid Mets team on the road.

In other interesting news, it looks like Akinori Iwamura could be back by mid-August! Doctors originally thought he had a full tear to his ACL, but it turns out that it was only a partial tear AND he only needed to have his knee scoped. This is HUGE news as the Rays believed he was done for the year, yet he may only be out 6 to 8 weeks. Aki is a great player and could be a huge lift to the Rays come September (and hopefully October) if he can get back.

Secondly, BJ Upton has quietly (until today) started hitting the ball! He's hitting a very strong .329 BA with an OBP of .386 in the Month of June. Also in June, BJ has scored 13 runs, hit 6 doubles and 3 home runs, and stolen 11 bases (and that's only through June 21st). It's really nice to see BJ coming around and he is now getting the recognotion for it by taking home the AL Player of the Week for last week. Nice work, BJ!

The Rays are only 2.0 games back of a playoff spot and the team is just now getting Burrell and Bartlett back to full strength! Go Rays!

Welcome, Matt Joyce! (and 9=8.com is now on Twitter)

Welcome to the Bigs, Matt Joyce!!! After a brief stint with the team to begin the season, Matt Joyce has been tearing up AAA since returning to the farm. With the injuries to the Rays, Matt Joyce was called up and is making his case to stay in the Bigs with back-to-back strong performances (2-for-3 and 3-for-4 with a couple HRs and lots of RBIs). Wouldn't it be nice to have an everyday right fielder that brings some consistency to the lineup and the outfield? Maybe Zobrist can hold down the fort at 2nd base with Aki gone and Joyce in RF. That leaves Aybar at the super utility guy and gets some really good bats in the lineup everyday. Additionally, the Rays are playing better baseball. In spite of the Indians series (I'm choosing to ignore that as an outlier for now since so many things happened that week that were negative), the Rays have won 11 out of the last 16 games and seem to be rounding into shape. In fact, excluding the Indian's series, the Rays only lost 1 series in all of May (they split a couple of 2 game sets and 1 4-game set). It's important that the Rays win the KC series and have some positive momentum going into the upcoming series against the Yankees, which is a big one! GO RAYS!

Also, 9equals8.com is now on Twitter. Check us out and follow our tweets at https://twitter.com/9equals8_com

GO RAYS!