Last week, Tampa Bay Times sports columnist Tom Jones wrote a piece on Tampa Bay baseball fans. In his article, "Area Needs to Step Up Rays Support", Jones discusses his thoughts on why the Rays struggle at the gate. Jones calls out Hillsborough County residents and accuses them of not making the drive to Tropicana Field as often as their Pinellas County counterparts.
The whole article is hogwash. It's bologna and nothing more than finger pointing and sports talk radio fodder. It's clickbait for the ignorant.
Jones uses one number in his entire column: 17,857, the Rays average attendance last season. Yes, that's not particularly good as far as average attendances go.
But Jones claims this is because Hillsborough County residents are not going to games. Yet, he offers no proof, no interviews, and no numbers. He doesn't take any polls nor do any surveys. He doesn't even ask the Rays for any ticket sales data.
He just trumpets his assumptions that people are not crossing the bridges and going to Tropicana Field. Perhaps they aren't. But perhaps they are. Where are the numbers?
Then he continues with the assumptions, claiming Pinellas residents are crossing the bridges to attend Lightning games. Again, perhaps they are. Again, perhaps they are not. Again, where are the numbers?
By comparison, Amalie Arena is smaller than Tropicana Field by about 11,000 seats. Perhaps the same number of fans are crossing the bridge both ways to attend both events. It would take more Hillsborough fans to cross to fill the Trop than Pinellas fans to cross to fill Amalie Arena. And we won't even get into the average travel tendencies of sport fans.
Without surveys or ticket purchase data, Jones can't possibly know where the fans are coming from. Perhaps the Lightning have a fanbase in Lakeland or Orlando who are making the drive to Tampa, but are not making the drive to see the Rays.
I don't have this data, and I doubt Jones does either. But instead of making an honest effort and adding to the conversation, Jones whips up a hack editorial probably written 30 minutes before deadline regurgitating the same tired sports cud.