Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg on Saturday said that the team’s “attendance ‘is what it is’ and he was tired of talking about it,” according to Topkin & Smith of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. Sternberg said that he “will focus for now on the field and his team's efforts to get back to the playoffs.” The Rays' attendance ranked 13th in the AL and 28th in MLB before Saturday’s game against the Red Sox at Tropicana Field. Sternberg said that the reported MLB-high 37% decline in TV ratings “was ‘not good’ but wouldn't affect operations.” He “sounded resigned to waiting out the stadium issue, currently being held up by a disagreement with St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster, and perhaps a bit exasperated by the situation given the team's on-field success.” Sternberg: "We're not changing anything at this point. I've tried everything. People know it. We hear it all the time; we're winning on the field, we're putting a good product out there, the place is inviting, we've got concerts, we've got the second-most affordable team. There's not much else to be done at this point.” Sternberg also said that he found the “excessive speculation about incoming Astros ownership coveting executive vice president Andrew Friedman ‘very irresponsible’ but wasn't concerned about losing his top baseball man” (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 7/17). Sternberg said that he was “being frank when he said he is not focused on the attendance.” Sternberg: "I'm tired of thinking about it, talking about it. You're tired of asking me the question, and most importantly, everybody is tired of hearing about it. So it's really all about what's going to be is going to be. And what it is, is what it is” (MLB.com, 7/16).
LOOKING FOR FANS TO COME OUT CONSISTANTLY: ESPN aired last night's Red Sox-Rays game, and ESPN's Dan Shulman discussed the Rays' attendance issues during the broadcast. He noted the Marlins and A's are the only teams to draw fewer fans per game than the Rays. ESPN's Orel Hershiser said, "They need the people to keep coming out, not just when Boston or the Yankees are here, but when every team comes in. ... It’s not about the product they put on the field. This is an outstanding team.” ESPN's Bobby Valentine said Friedman “is so creative and so understanding of the revenue that he has to spend and the competition that he has to beat, that I think he could move some players and still wind up with a better product on the field.” Shulman: “Tampa Bay does a great job focusing on what they have, not what they don’t have or what the other guys have” (“Red Sox-Rays,” ESPN, 7/17). Meanwhile, ESPN's Tim Kurkjian reported before the game that the Rays "are going to be buyers, not sellers, at the trade deadline." Kurkjian: "There is an outside chance they’ll deal B.J. Upton, in part because pretty soon he’s going to price himself out of this market” (“Baseball Tonight,” ESPN, 7/17).
