The 13,000 in attendance were going crazy!!!!

Dave I was one of those 13,000 and wonder the same thing....Lastnight 26,000, Friday night 12,000 and it does make you wonder....They keep saying "if they win the fans will show up".....Well they are winning,playing some of the best and most exciting baseball in the AL, but the fans still don't come out........

I'm tired of the excuse, "it's too far to drive...bullspit!"....I live in the Carrollwood area of Tampa and from my house to the parking lot at the Trop.....35 minutes!!!!.......Funny thing is the ones who complain about "it's too far" are the folks from the northeast that would have to drive 2 hours to get to Shea, or The Vet, or Yankee Stadium, so their argument means zero........

There is a solution, but unfortunately the wars between Pinellas and Hillborough County that started in 1912 when Pinellas broke off from Hillsborough to become their own county, still rages on and always will.......The solution would be to run special Hartline charters for a price from several Tampa locations to the Trop and back, but Hartline refuses to go into Pinellas County so they won't even listen to a proposal.......The fact that Tampa Bay has no rapid transit (Thanks Jeb Bush!) hurts as well......

However, I hope the Rays keep on going as they are it is exciting baseball and a long time coming and hopefully the fans will start to turn out and be part of something very special.

Art,

The stadium seems pretty dreary as well.  If the Rays continue to play well, hope they draw better.  Maybe it will take more than a few months of good baseball.  But if the Yankees are going to falter, I wouldn't mind seeing some new blood in the playoffs.  Plus I like Joe Maddon, as he is from my hometown(Hazleton, PA).

Dave,

Thanks, but actually thTrop is a great place for a game and not dreary at all and has one of the best restaurants in the country, The Batters Eye, there......The new ownership sunk 15 million into renovating and jazzing it up and in the midst of 98 degree summer nights the Trop is a Godsend.....The only bad feature are those damn catwalks that get in the way, but thats what you get when you it was originally built on the cheap and in a location the politicians chose because they had land investments there....

The new park down by the water will be absolutely the most fantastic ballpark in the ML and I can't wait.....Meantime GO Rays!!!!

While I agree that more people need to show up we must take into consideration that it was mothers day.  Also, a month and a half of good baseball does not erase the feelings that years of losing bring.  A winning team is not a team that wins in April and part of May, that said, a few more weeks of this and the stadium will be sold out.  This town supports a good product and the Rays are now putting forth that effort. 

Go Rays.

It takes time to build the tradition that leads to consistently good attendance, and winning is almost always the key.  The Bucs never had any kind of attendance until they started making the play-offs in the late 90's.  Now it's a pretty tough ticket.

No doubt this year's Ray team is a good start towards building a better fan base.  I love this team.  If they keep playing this way, and I think they will, you'll see a lot more excitement and better attendance this summer.

Go Rays!

TampaArt,

Why would Jeb Bush have anything to do with public transportation in Tampa?  He was the governor of the state, why would he take money from taxpayers in Jacksonville or Miami and use it to build rapid transit in Tampa?  That's just stupid.  I'm sure the rest of your great state is glad that they aren't paying for a mass transit system that they will never use in a city they don't care about.  You should be happy that your state isn't run by someone like the mafioso we have running things in PA or his predecessor.  Tampa taxdollars would be going to fund stadiums in Miami and Jacksonville just because a crooked politician wanted to buy some votes.  If the city of Tampa thinks mass transit will aid their economy, they should risk their own tax dollars.     

WE PLAY IN ST.PETERSBURG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!