Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins (Post 7970923)

Is there a major American city with a worse economy than Detroit? Nevertheless, those fans have no problem supporting that team.

Whereas the fans of KC don't deserve a team as shitty as the Chiefs, the fans of Tampa don't deserve a team as good as the Rays.

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins (Post 7970923)

Is there a major American city with a worse economy than Detroit? Nevertheless, those fans have no problem supporting that team.

Whereas the fans of KC don't deserve a team as shitty as the Chiefs, the fans of Tampa don't deserve a team as good as the Rays.

Originally Posted by CosmicPal (Post 7970600)

Geezit, most of you are ignorant tools. Seriously.

The Rays had a tough time selling tickets for a number of reasons:

1. Most people didn't realize they were actually in the playoff race until the last minute.

2. The location of the Trop is just plain awful. It's nearly an hour drive for anyone who actually lives in Tampa. Imagine if the Royals put an ugly domed stadium in Topeka and you can picture what the Trop is like for those who live in Tampa.

3. The game itself was changed to a Tuesday afternoon game at the very last minute so most everyone had to change plans on the fly. Not a good thing to do on a Tuesday.

4. The economy stinks in Florida, and most particularly in Tampa where the unemployment rate is still in the double digits.

5. Sunshine, beaches, golf, fishing, boating, warm, tropical weather, etc. Florida rocks when it comes to things to do, so they would much rather spend the day at the beach or the golf course, and then go home and watch the game on the TV instead of piling everyone in the car and spending $500 on tickets, gas, food, and drinks for a family of four.

6. Oh, and I was at the Bucs game Monday night- it was sold out. Not everyone hangs out in their seats however. I've been to a couple of games now and it looks to me like people like to party around the pirate ship. We left our seats and hung out down there during the second half of the game.

7. It is a damn shame the Rays can't sell tickets. There is talk they are going to build a stadium in downtown Tampa, right off the water, which would be sweet. I think if they were to do just that, then they'd sell a lot more tickets.

8. Lastly, much like Denver was full of transients, so is the Tampa area. Almost everyone I meet is from NY, or Boston, or Philly, or Virginia. There's actually quite a few people I've met from the KC area too. But, NYers and Bostonians seem to flock her like it's nothing.

Originally Posted by alnorth (Post 7970809)

The Rays main problem is probably the location of the ballpark. It is in St. Petersburg, which is a pain in the ass for anyone in Tampa to get to, and St. Petersburg isn't anywhere close to big enough to support the team, itself. At first I didn't buy the argument, thinking "come on, if its in the area, how hard could it be to drive?"

Go ahead and look up St. Petersburg on a map, see where that is in relation to Tampa, and you'll understand. Go ahead, if you don't know the geography, take a look right now and come back to this thread. The location is utterly horrid.

Originally Posted by thurman merman (Post 7971026)

Okay, according to google maps, it is 25.7 miles from Tampa Bay to Tropicana Field. Not a valid excuse. Have you ever been to Chicago? New York? Los Angeles? Do you know how long it takes to get around in cities like that?

I used to live in suburban Chicago, 30 miles from the city, and it took an hour to get there. You don't see jabronis in Chicago complaining that it takes too long to get to the ballpark, or there's too much to do in the city. "Oh man, I gotta eat some Gino's East today and go to the art museum and go to Navy Pier. Too busy to go to the Cubs game today!"

The fact is that the entire state of Florida sucks at watching sports, and the Rays fans are the worst of them all.

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP (Post 7971033)

If you move to Denver are you going to start attending Broncos games on a regular basis?

Originally Posted by thurman merman (Post 7971048)

A) Why in the hell would I move to Denver?
B) No. The Broncos are gay.

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP (Post 7971053)

Exactly. Many of the people in the TB area are transplants from NY, Boston, Chicago, Ohio, etc. When their teams are in town they go to the games. Look at the attendance difference when the Rays play NYY or BOS. You can't expect people to change allegiance just because they change locations. It's not that Tampa has bad fans or that people in Tampa suck at going to games. People stay fans of the teams they've always been fans of and they attend games when their team is playing.

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP (Post 7970925)

Yeah, but what else is there to do in Detroit and how many people move there from out of state?

Originally Posted by thurman merman (Post 7971026)

Okay, according to google maps, it is 25.7 miles from Tampa Bay to Tropicana Field. Not a valid excuse. Have you ever been to Chicago? New York? Los Angeles? Do you know how long it takes to get around in cities like that?

I used to live in suburban Chicago, 30 miles from the city, and it took an hour to get there. You don't see jabronis in Chicago complaining that it takes too long to get to the ballpark, or there's too much to do in the city. "Oh man, I gotta eat some Gino's East today and go to the art museum and go to Navy Pier. Too busy to go to the Cubs game today!"

The fact is that the entire state of Florida sucks at watching sports, and the Rays fans are the worst of them all.