The Rays' Yearly Cycle of Self-Imposed Empty Blue Seats

*sigh*

I might need some more time to really contemplate my position as a Tampa Bay Rays fan. Because to be honest I’m not sure how much more I have left in the tank here. I can supposedly talk about the injuries, about Wander Franco’s ridiculousness, about an offense that completely sputtered in the second half of the season.

But then I’d be contributing to what has become the biggest problem with the Tampa Bay Rays: Contributing to a repetitive cycle.

And look, I can fully support a team year after year regardless of performance for as long as the effort to succeed exists (which doesn’t always happen in sports, look at the white flag of the Mavs and Blazers last season), as long as they don’t support the scummiest of people (Cleveland Browns, you know what you did), and as long as they allow the personalities of their players to shine.

The Tampa Bay Rays are a well-run organization that always manages to overachieve despite the constant roster changes, the diminished spending habits, their shoddy stadium, and being in one of the toughest divisions in all North American professional sports.

But I feel like we’re hitting a routine, we’ve hit an ugly cycle, and it feels like Major League Baseball is also getting sick of it-----and I have a theory they’re angry towards the franchise’s lack of effort to move the team’s playing venue to a more populated and financially sustainable part of Tampa Bay to truly develop the franchise into a true fixture within Florida sports.

Major League Baseball, fully knowing the attendance situation, decided to hand the Rays and their long-suffering fans a mere 35-hour notice of having all their home games being played in the middle of week at 3:00 P.M., an absolutely brutal time slot for a team and a stadium already having attendance issues because of the venue, the location, the traffic, and it bears repeating the awful awful location that has experienced next to no growth since the late 1990s.

MLB and Rob Manfred are fully aware of the situation in St. Petersburg, so why do this? Why 3:00? Why 3:00 on a Tuesday and Wednesday? Why embarrass the team like this?

Pretty sure its because Sternberg and the upper management in the organization deserves the reminder about the current location, especially when it concerns the future of the franchise. Apparently they want to build the new stadium in the SAME BAD LOCATION as where the Trop is currently located.

Are we serious?

Not Tampa?

Not Lakeland?

Not Pinellas Park?

Not the Fairgrounds?

Not even Ybor City, or anywhere closer to where St. Pete is actually experiencing growth?

All of those locations mentioned have two things in common: they would draw significantly stronger crowds, and that’s where you’ll actually find the Rays fans who have supported them towards strong yearly television and radio ratings. Of course MLB knows this, as does Sternberg, but to not have to fully pay for a stadium, the franchise’s wheels continue turning but with no forward progress.

The Sternberg crew basically wants to spend less money by making a newer, shinier Tropicana Field with a dome (ugh), with artificial turf (ughhhhhhhhhhh), and a smaller capacity than the average baseball stadium while forking only half of the overall costs. This is all cyclical behavior, none of this looks like an actual attempt at growth for a franchise that has completely eliminated its ugly Devil Rays reputation for about a sporting generation now.

So why are we repeating the same steps that has led to dismal attendance figures? Because MLB is guaranteed profit, no matter how shoddy the attendance numbers are. Sternberg is basically trying to cut corners whenever possible, which is why he once tried that dumb two-city proposal, which is why the Ybor City and Tampa talks kept failing, and why were going to continue seeing these issues related to empty seats in playoff season even as MLB remains the second-most profitable sports league in the planet.

The Rays will continue making the playoffs under current stellar scouts and on-field management, but will also continue having those empty seats, and Sternberg will just continue shrugging and pretending like he doesn’t understand why----while boosting his bank account with the revenue created by other teams actually giving a damn. The Rays have a formula for baseball success that has also historically created a disconnect with the fans.

Name ONE player who spent a decade with the team.Name one player who spent their entire career with the organization. The answer by the way is none.

The Tampa Bay Rays have never built a consistent team, a consistent core, or made any attempts to elevate their winning formula to the next level which would include a stronger budget, a stronger outreach to other Florida cities to bolster their social presence, and most importantly forking over the necessary funding to actually build a proper stadium in a proper place for us Rays fans to actually enjoy visiting.

You want me to battle hours of traffic in a rapidly-growing area (while spending nothing to improve the traffic infrastructure) to enter a shoddy part of town and enter a shoddy stadium with closed-off seats, wild parking prices, and an experience that includes never taking cash and never being able to see the sun? Please.

I think MLB set the Tampa Bay Rays up for failure, embarrassment, and a public reminder that the current situation of the franchise is unsustainable, especially once the wins stop piling up. I am a huge Rays fan because we have luckily been blessed with so many fun players to watch over the years (Shoutout to Randy Arozarena).

But eventually Sternberg and the Rays have to grow up, and stop being so damn stingy towards their budget and towards the fans within Central Florida trying so damn hard to root for a disconnected franchise that looks like is owned by Mr. Krabs.

*sigh* see you in 2024.