The Tampa Bay Rays have everything a contender could want — except fans motivated to go see them play.
In the long run that is more damaging to the organization than sharing a division with the Yankees and Red Sox.
For the Rays have done a great job turning a little (money) into a lot (of talent), enough to have won as many division titles over the last three seasons as the Yankees or Red Sox while emerging as the majors’ best team through April of this year.
Yet the fans still do not go to the monstrosity known as Tropicana Field. And we can assume that is never changing. The Rays drew 1.81 million while winning the AL title in 2008, and there hardly was any benefit last year when the total was 1.87 million. They are on track for around
1.8 million again. And this is despite having all of the elements that should make them appealing. They are not a fluke.
The Rays might not play .700-plus ball this year, as they have so far, but executives from two teams who have played them this year both used the word “great” to describe Tampa Bay’s roster. That deep/talented roster is filled mostly with the kind of homegrown products that usually cultivate strong followings. The style of play is replete with the electricity of power arms, power bats and speedy legs that appeal to fans. And the Rays are the alluring underdog story, matching arsenals with the ultimate overdogs of the sport in the AL East, the Yankees and Red Sox.
There is interest because TV and radio ratings are actually up, yet few come to the games. The Rays barely cracked 10,000 against Oakland on Tuesday and Wednesday. The presence of the Yankees did not nudge the attendance past the low 30,000s, and postgame concerts by John Fogerty and ZZ Top did not nudge it past the low 20,000s.
What is the answer? Brooklyn-born Rays owner Stu Sternberg politely refused to discuss the issue during a phone conversation and has his entire organization on silent mode on this issue, feeling no good will come as a franchise by complaining about the lack of attendance. But it is clear that this is not going to work in St. Pete. As opposed to say Baltimore or Cleveland, teams which have a history of drawing three million in attendance when they have been good, and Toronto, which actually bettered four million, there is no legacy of drawing in St. Pete to suggest that fans will one day show up in significant numbers.
Think of St. Pete like New Jersey: People might go from New York to Jersey for eight weekend football games. But I don’t imagine a lot of folks in Brooklyn or Queens would go constantly for 81 baseball games, in the way that Jersey-ites are more willing to go to baseball in the boroughs. Tampa residents seem to have the same inclination when it comes to traveling to St. Pete; they just won’t do it in the way St. Pete residents will go to Tampa, the Rays surveying has shown.
So the team either will relocate to the Channelside area on the waterfront in Tampa, which would provide a downtown location and a business district, or the Rays have to leave Florida. Their lease is through 2027, but it is hard to see the franchise sticking it out until then. The usual suspects for an address change are Portland, Charlotte, San Antonio, Mexico City and Vancouver.
But I think the ideal locale would be Connecticut, somewhere in the Greenwich to New Haven area. Now there is no way this is going to happen because of territorial rights held by the Mets, Yankees and Red Sox. They all draw fans and business partnerships from that region. Nevertheless, the good of the game should be prioritized here. There was a time when baseball actually had three teams in New York and two in Boston at the same time, so putting a team in Connecticut should not be farfetched.
The population of the region and the presence of businesses for sponsorships could support it. The Yankees and Red Sox would remain powerful, but it would put a bit of a dent into their huge financial advantages while heightening a northeast corridor rivalry among the three teams.
Without a move, the Rays will have to remain as cutting-edge smart as they have been in recent years. They have, for example, two of the best major-league prospects in left fielder Desmond Jennings and starter Jeremy Hellickson. That puts them into position to make a dynamic trade come July. The Rays know they are losing Carl Crawford as a free agent after the season, but Jennings gives them a ready-made replacement, which means they could deal Crawford for multiple pieces that can help now and in the future.
More likely, though, is that they could use Hellickson or one of their 28-or-under rotation stalwarts Wade Davis, Matt Garza, Jeff Niemann, David Price or James Shields, in a deal. For example, the Rays badly need a catcher for now and the future, and the Indians need an affordable ace, so how about something like Price for star switch-hitting catching prospect Carlos Santana?
That all of those starters are under control at least through 2013 means Tampa should stay pesky to the Yankees and Red Sox for a while, even as Sternberg already is on record that he will take the $75 million payroll down at least $20 million next year to better reflect the organization’s finances. The Rays have $40 million in free agents coming off the books (Crawford, Carlos Pena, Pat Burrell, Rafael Soriano and Dan Wheeler).
The creative front office will try to keep finding a way to stay atop the standings even as the stands remain too empty.
joel.sherman@nypost.com