Bianchi making an ass out of himself as usual

[smazza]

seriously, who can drive out to st. pete for half of those 10 billion games baseball plays each year?

They shouldve built the stadium near the fairgrounds in tampa or near ray jay

Seriously - why can't people from Tampa get off their butts and drive to St Pete?? People from St Pete drive to Tampa for ALL other sporting events and you don't hear them complaining about it all the time like those from Tampa do!  Do not say we don't support the Rays over here - WE do - Tampa does not.

you need to build stadiums where people are

you dont build stadiums away from populous and hope people show up

[Joe]

Eats It, comparing attendance of the Mets back them to the Rays the last few years is not a good comparison.

MLB averaged about 14-15000 fans a night back then, mostly because most teams didn't offer season tickets.

Most of the current Rays fans are bandwagon. Look a the Rockies they have had some terrible teams, but always drawn well (never under 23k).

The Rays hadn't drawn over 20000 a game since year one.

Really, I'm gonna root for the Rays and watch every minute. I know I'm not lying to myself when I said I've actively watched the Rays since day one.

But 70% of the fans at game one can't say the same.

I'm a Rays fan, always have been, as baseball is my fav sport after collee football. But, I'm not gonna BS like the Ays couldn't build a fanbase.

We saw the same stuff with the Lightning and Bucs.

[mulheap]

seriously, who can drive out to st. pete for half of those 10 billion games baseball plays each year?

They shouldve built the stadium near the fairgrounds in tampa or near ray jay

Seriously - why can't people from Tampa get off their butts and drive to St Pete?? People from St Pete drive to Tampa for ALL other sporting events and you don't hear them complaining about it all the time like those from Tampa do!  Do not say we don't support the Rays over here - WE do - Tampa does not.

Tampa does support the team, and would support them even more if the Trop was in Tampa.  I've been to numerous games this season, every playoff game, and both World Series games and I can tell you where the traffic is headed after games.  TAMPA!  there probably are a minor few from st. pete that support the Rays, but no one in Sarasota/Bradenton does!  and it is even a shorter ride there than to Tampa!

You don't build stadiums away from the population centers!  If you st. peteians are so proud about "traveling over to tampa for bucs and lightning games", then you shouldn't mind traveling over for Rays games.

and another thing, practically everybody I meet at a game is from Tampa, Lakeland, Polk County, USF,  Brooksville, New Port Richey, Brandon, Valrico, etc., etc., you get the picture, etc.

[Triple B]

Eats It, comparing attendance of the Mets back them to the Rays the last few years is not a good comparison.

MLB averaged about 14-15000 fans a night back then, mostly because most teams didn't offer season tickets.

Most of the current Rays fans are bandwagon. Look a the Rockies they have had some terrible teams, but always drawn well (never under 23k).

The Rays hadn't drawn over 20000 a game since year one.

Really, I'm gonna root for the Rays and watch every minute. I know I'm not lying to myself when I said I've actively watched the Rays since day one.

But 70% of the fans at game one can't say the same.

I'm a Rays fan, always have been, as baseball is my fav sport after collee football. But, I'm not gonna BS like the Ays couldn't build a fanbase.

We saw the same stuff with the Lightning and Bucs.

I don't think _EI was disputing the fact that most of the Rays fans right now are bandwagoners. His point, I believe, was that there are very few, if any, fan bases that WEREN'T built by bandwagoners so shut the **** up about it already (not you) ... that even the mighty New York teams went through some lean times when the teams sucked.

[Singabull]

seriously, who can drive out to st. pete for half of those 10 billion games baseball plays each year?

They shouldve built the stadium near the fairgrounds in tampa or near ray jay

Seriously - why can't people from Tampa get off their butts and drive to St Pete?? People from St Pete drive to Tampa for ALL other sporting events and you don't hear them complaining about it all the time like those from Tampa do!  Do not say we don't support the Rays over here - WE do - Tampa does not.

Tampa does support the team, and would support them even more if the Trop was in Tampa.  I've been to numerous games this season, every playoff game, and both World Series games and I can tell you where the traffic is headed after games.  TAMPA!  there probably are a minor few from st. pete that support the Rays, but no one in Sarasota/Bradenton does!  and it is even a shorter ride there than to Tampa!

You don't build stadiums away from the population centers!  If you st. peteians are so proud about "traveling over to tampa for bucs and lightning games", then you shouldn't mind traveling over for Rays games.

and another thing, practically everybody I meet at a game is from Tampa, Lakeland, Polk County, USF,  Brooksville, New Port Richey, Brandon, Valrico, etc., etc., you get the picture, etc.

And not to mention, there's 81 home games per season.  It's not like the average fan can go to most of the games.  You gotta think, monday - thursday night the games start at 7:00.  They usually end at 10:00, unless kazmir's pitching then 10:30.  By the time you walk out, get to your car, get through st. pete traffic, get through 275 traffic and back to tampa, it's 11:30, then you end up getting to sleep after midnight, and when you have to wake up at 5 or 6 in the morning for work, it makes it difficult.  If the rays had a schedule like the lightning (half as many games) they'd draw 25k a game for weeknights.

And quit trying to compare tampa bay to other sports cities.  Almost everyone of those other cities are twice the size or more of tampa.  You can't compare pure numbers when you're comparing 300,000 people to 2,000,000 people.

[Singabull]

Eats It, comparing attendance of the Mets back them to the Rays the last few years is not a good comparison.

MLB averaged about 14-15000 fans a night back then, mostly because most teams didn't offer season tickets.

Most of the current Rays fans are bandwagon. Look a the Rockies they have had some terrible teams, but always drawn well (never under 23k).

The Rays hadn't drawn over 20000 a game since year one.

Really, I'm gonna root for the Rays and watch every minute. I know I'm not lying to myself when I said I've actively watched the Rays since day one.

But 70% of the fans at game one can't say the same.

I'm a Rays fan, always have been, as baseball is my fav sport after collee football. But, I'm not gonna BS like the Ays couldn't build a fanbase.

We saw the same stuff with the Lightning and Bucs.

I don't think _EI was disputing the fact that most of the Rays fans right now are bandwagoners. His point, I believe, was that there are very few, if any, fan bases that WEREN'T built by bandwagoners so shut the **** up about it already (not you) ... that even the mighty New York teams went through some lean times when the teams sucked.

Exactly, your not just gonna have an entire city jump all over the worst team in baseball at any second.  It takes time.  Not to mention, there's a ton of transplants here that have become rays fans, but most didn't convert right away, and I wouldn't expect them to.