The Rays during their ALDS loss to the Rangers “needed another bat,” but team Owner Stuart Sternberg said that “they cannot afford to pay more because of all of the empty seats,” according to a front-page piece by Gary Shelton of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. Yesterday's Rangers-Rays Game Four drew a crowd of 28,229 at Tropicana Field, the “smallest playoff crowd in the history of the team” and the “smallest crowd in the MLB playoffs since 1981.” The attendance is “probably not going to get significantly better, and the payroll isn't going to go up.” Sternberg said, "It won't be my decision, or solely my decision. But eventually, major-league baseball is going to vaporize this team. It could go on nine, 10, 12 more years. But between now and then, it's going to vaporize this team. Maybe a check gets written locally, maybe someone writes me a check (to buy the team). But it's going to get vaporized." He added, "If I had $80 million to put out there, we'd be moving along in life. We just don't have $12 million to put into a hitter." Sternberg: “There are 29 other teams passing us like we're going in reverse now. Except on the field, and at some point, that changes. … I could decide to mortgage the future and trade all the young guys, but the truth is that we would only get $9.82 extra at the gate. So what's the sense?" Sternberg said that even with a $42M payroll, the team “didn't turn a profit this year.” Sternberg: "If we won the World Series this year, I wouldn't think my attendance would get higher. It didn't go up in '09 when we got to the World Series (in '08)" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 10/5). Sternberg: "I am frustrated this year. We've replicated last year (on the field) and our attendance numbers were down 15 percent and our ratings were down. The rubber has got to meet the road at some point here” (ESPN.com, 10/4).
