Baseball Fever?

I am baffled. The Nationals, with the worst MLB record, have more fans per game than the winning record Rays? The same Rays that made it to the World Series last year against the Phillies? Wow.

True, the Rays increased ticket prices from last year over 20%. You would think producing an American League Champion team would allow for that increase – especially considering that it still is the eleventh least expensive average ticket price in the league according to TMR. With the Nats record and ticket price combo, it is no surprise that photos from Nationals Park look like spring training. Can you fault team President Silverman for calling Tampa Bay “the worst major-league market in the sport” (not fans mind you, market)? While it is not the most endearing tactic to draw new fans, owners and presidents have said far worse in the past.

Here’s the vicious cycle. Fans don’t go to the games –> sponsors see the value of the sponsorship deteriorate and don’t renew or pay far less –> the team has less money to spend on salaries, marketing and venue improvements, product suffers –> fans lose interest in a product that doesn’t live up to expectations and don’t go to the games. Rinse and repeat.

In the nineties, someone had the idea to bring baseball to Tampa Bay, and a stadium was built to help lure a team. This isn’t just done on a whim, there is research and planning that goes into taking on that financial endeavor, so at some point, baseball in Tampa Bay made sense. Maybe all of those years of an irrelevant product took a toll on the fans, but the bandwagon generally begins to fill after a successful season, followed by a good start to the next season.

Now this might be a bit of a news flash, but owners don’t like losing money. Eventually those owners who can’t put people in the seats sell their teams. New owners really don’t like losing money, and it’s a lot easier for new owners to come in and take their teams where they think they can make money.

Sports fans, it doesn’t matter where you are or how your team is doing … come on, you gotta support the team (or risk losing it).