Over 20,000 fans showed up to the first of the three-game series against the OriolesGETTY IMAGES
The Rays’ $2 ticket promo for this week’s series against the Orioles at Tropicana Field was “again a success” on Tuesday, drawing a “second straight announced crowd in excess of 20,000,” according to Marc Topkin of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. The Rays “can’t sustain offering that kind of deal,” but team personnel “can learn that price point matters.” Topkin: “Fans can realize they can make attending a game work if they want to” (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 7/3). In Tampa, Martin Fennelly wrote conspiracy theorists believe the lowered ticket prices and subsequent large crowds are "all part of the Rays ultra-secret plan to show baseball and Tampa Bay just what lengths they have to go to fill the Trop" before possibly moving games to Montreal. Fennelly: "All I know is that Rays against the Orioles would normally have drawn flies on a Monday night in July" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 7/2).
TAKING A STAND: In Tampa, Ernest Hooper reports the Rays and the Giants are among the "more than 200 major American corporations" that have signed on to an "amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting workplace rights for the LGBTQ community." The brief "calls for the court to rule that current federal civil rights law bans job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity." Companies that also signed the brief included Nike and Disney (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 7/3).
