Historic low: Less than 20,000 Tampa Bay Rays fans showed up to the team's first playoff game
Despite another strong season, posting a 99-63 record, the fourth best in MLB this season, the Tampa Bay Rays can't seem to draw a crowd.
During Game 1 of the team's AL Wild Card series against the Texas Rangers, which they lost, 4-0, Tropicana Field hosted a measly 19,704 fans. That's the lowest attendance for a non-COVID playoff game since 1919.
Why don't fans want to see the Rays?
The Rays have been one of baseball's best franchises in recent years, reaching the playoffs in each of the last five seasons, including a World Series appearance in 2020. Yet fans in the area don't flock to the stadium.
Sure, Rays attendance has increased each of the last three seasons, but the playoffs are supposed to be the time of year when even casual fans head to the stadium to watch their favorite team play.
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The Rays had 33 regular season games that had more attendees than today's wild card game. Nearly half of their home games this season had more fans in attendance that the team's playoff game.
The Rays have struggled with attendance for a while, even going as far as proposing a "split-season" plan to play half of their home games in Tampa while the other half were played in Montreal back in 2019.
The plan was rejected by MLB, but it showed Rays' fans that team ownership was dissatisfied with what fans were giving them in Tampa Bay, and although the team currently has a plan to build a 30,000 seat stadium in St. Petersburg, it won't open until 2028. The Rays will have to endure at least four more years of poor attendance.
It would be easy to chalk things up to fatigue. After years and years of competing for a World Series with nothing to show for it, maybe the fans are just over the constant disappointment.
That doesn't seem to be the case though. When the Rays are hot, fans show out. At the start of the season, the Rays went on a 13-game win streak. That 13th game hosted over 21,000 fans. When the Rays returned home with their streak snapped after a six-game road trip, more than 20,000 fans showed up in two of the three games in their following series. There is definitely reason to have hope if you're Rays owner Stuart Sternberg, but not enough consistent attendance to afford refusing to look at all your options.
What happened in 1919?
The last time a non-COVID year MLB playoff game saw lower attendance than today's Rays game was Game 7 of the 1919 World Series in Cincinnati. Yes, the same series where the Chicago White Sox were bribed to lose the World Series.
The issue wasn't about the scandal though. Nobody knew that was going on until after the fact. However, back then, the World Series was best-of-nine, with the top seed hosting Games 1, 2, 6, 7, and 9. After clinching the National League pennant that year, the Reds required fans to purchase tickets in sets of three if they wanted to watch their team in the World Series. Game 7 was the team's fourth home game of the series. Single game tickets were only put on sale for a very brief time, and as a result, Reds' fans didn't show up.
Even worse, there was also a miscommunication about where tickets were being sold for the game. According to a Cincinnati Enquirer column from October 9, 1919, there were long lines outside the Reds' main ticket office, but after they realized the tickets weren't being sold there, many of them decided not to bother.
When is the Rays' next game?
Game 2 of the AL Wild Card series is scheduled for 3:08 p.m. ET tomorrow, October 4.
After falling to the Rangers 4-0 in Game 1 of this best-of-three series, the Rays are one game away from elimination. Hopefully more fans will show up to show support of their team with their backs against the wall.
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