Rays owner weirdly takes shot at own fanbase for lack of attendance

Rays owner Stuart Sternberg is very blunt about the team’s lack of attendance.

Just because Rays fans don’t show up in droves to Tropicana Field doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg ought to watch what he says to avoid alienating what little fanbase he does have, and that’s according to the man himself.

“Most of our games are attended by less than 10,000 people, so we could probably for the most part run a normal stadium operation,” Sternberg told the Tampa Bay Times, of potentially social distancing in the stands to start the 2021 season. ”Tongue in cheek, but it’s the truth.”

Sternberg isn’t wrong. Rays fans aren’t known for their attendance numbers, as they frequently rank near last in baseball in that department, even when they field one of the best teams in the majors. Tampa Bay is a World Series contender frequently enough, yet they struggle to garner much support from the community.

Sternberg is already on thin ice in Tampa

Sternberg reiterated that the team plans to split their home games in Montreal and Tampa Bay come 2027, which is bizarre to say the least. Not only would it be taxing for the team, but it’d abandon both fanbases for half the season. As if shopping around Blake Snell wasn’t bad enough.

“I still hold out optimism that the local business leaders and local politicians will come around a bit and see the value proposition here in having baseball and doing it in a way that makes a bit more financial sense and doing it in a way that makes it a more robust project here because of the complement of being in Montreal as well,” Sternberg said.

Holding such a proposition over Tampa’s head in hopes of a new stadium is not a new tactic, but maintaining that the Rays will still spend half of their home games in Montreal even with a new ballpark makes next to no sense. What does Tampa Bay have to gain from that, if not a small economic boost? Long-term, they won’t benefit much.