If each fan came to one more game per year it would make a big difference - Rays owner Matt Silverman
But why one more game? They only drew 1.5 million fans in 2013, does that mean they want to draw 3 million?
The Rays front office has cited 2 million as their attendance goal. In 2013, that would have put the Rays 22nd in MLB attendance.
According to the May 2012 Quinnipac University poll I cited in my post yesterday, there are nearly 700,000 Rays fans in the Tampa Bay area.
Tampa Bay metro area = 2,800,000
46% are baseball fans = 1,288,000
54% are Rays fans = 695,520
With attendance at 1,510,300 last year, that means each Rays fan went to 2.17 games last year.
695,000 x 2.17 = 1,510,300
However, you have to account for opposing teams fans.
A few weeks ago I showed attendance goes up 20-30% when the Rays play the Yankees and Red Sox. The Rays play the Red Sox and Yankees nine times each at Tropicana Field. If the Rays average 20,000 fans per non-Red Sox and non-Yankees contest, and get the added "visitors bump" of 25% (5,000 opposing fans per game), that's 90,000 opposing fans per year just for those games.
1,510,300 - 90,000 = 1,420,300
Divide 1,420,300 by 695,000 Rays fans and the average Rays fan went to 2.04 games per season.
695,000 x 2.04 = 1,420,300
But ....
If we take 695,000 Rays fans and multiply it by three ...
695,000 x 3 = 2,085,000
Add the 90,000 opposing fans = 2,175,000
Now when the Rays say they want fans to attend one more game, you know why. They want the average fan to go to three games a year instead of two.
Maybe that's why Flex Pack offers start at three games.