Attendance Review: 2013 Tampa Bay Rays

This is the seventh of a series of attendance reviews we will do on this site. Today we will look at the home attendance of the 2013 Tampa Bay Rays.

Total attendance: 1,510,300

Per Game Average: 18,465.68

Highest attended games: 3 x 34,078 (Opening Day 4/2 vs BAL, 8/4 vs SFG, 8/25 vs NYY.)

Lowest attended game: 9,952 on Mon, May 6 vs TOR.

Lowest point of average attendance: June 25, Game 39 (17,592.21)

Breakdown:

(yellow highlights = below annual average of 18,465.68)

(Up % = Percentage of games where attendance for that variable was higher than the previous game at Tropicana Field. For example, if Monday attendance was 18,000 and Tuesday was 18,001, Tuesday = up. Also, if 10,000 fans attended a Jeremy Hellickson game and 15,000 fans attended a David Price game the next day, Price = up. Opening Day is neither up nor down.)

By Month:

By Day of the Week:

By Opponent:

By Starting Pitcher:

By Promotion:

Day Game / Night Game Splits:

Attendance Review: 2012 Tampa Bay Rays

This is the sixth of a series of attendance reviews we will do on this site. Today we will look at the home attendance of the 2012 Tampa Bay Rays.

Total attendance: 1,559,682

Per Game Average: 19,255.33

Highest attended games: 2 x 34,078 (Opening Day 4/6 vs NYY, 4/7 vs NYY.)

Lowest attended game: 9,458 on Mon, April 30 vs SEA.

Lowest point of average attendance: May 21, Game 22 (19,163.15)

Breakdown:

(yellow highlights = below annual average of 19,255.33)

(Up % = Percentage of games where attendance for that variable was higher than the previous game at Tropicana Field. For example, if Monday attendance was 18,000 and Tuesday was 18,001, Tuesday = up. Also, if 10,000 fans attended a James Shields game and 15,000 fans attended a David Price game the next day, Price = up. Opening Day is neither up nor down.)

By Month:

By Day of the Week:

By Opponent:

By Starting Pitcher:

By Promotion:

Day Game / Night Game Splits:

(Note: Day weekdays include Opening Day, July 4th, and Labor Day games.)

Attendance Review: 2011 Tampa Bay Rays

This is the fifth of a series of attendance reviews we will do on this site. Today we will look at the home attendance of the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays.

Total attendance: 1,529,188

Average: 18,878.86

Highest attended games: Opening Day 4/1 vs BAL (34,078). (Only other game over 30,000: 32,487 on Sat, July 16 vs BOS.)

Lowest attended game: 10,042 on Thurs, April 14 vs MIN.

Low point of average attendance: May 5, Game 19 (16,311.68)

Breakdown:

(yellow highlights = below annual average of 18,878.86)

(Up % = Percentage of games where attendance for that variable was higher than the previous game at Tropicana Field. For example, if Monday attendance was 18,000 and Tuesday was 18,001, Tuesday = up. Also, if 10,000 fans attended a James Shields game and 15,000 fans attended a David Price game the next day, Price = up. Opening Day is neither up nor down.)

By Month:

By Day of the Week:

By Opponent:

By Starting Pitcher:

By Promotion:

Day Game/ Night Game Splits:

Farewell to Ralph Kiner

Way back in the day, many, many, many moons ago, I watched the Mets on WWOR, Channel 9 in New York. The Mets back then were announced by Tim McCarver, who at the time was worth listening to; Steve Zabriskie, who sorta vanished; and the immortal Ralph Kiner, who had been part of the Mets broadcasting team since Day 1 back in 1962.

In the mid-1980s, when I was first getting into baseball, announcing for 25 years was a big deal, but far from a legendary accomplishment. That Kiner remained in the booth for 30 more years put the man in very rare air. Among current broadcasters, only Vin Scully in Los Angeles and formerly of Brooklyn can claim more tenure.

Sadly, on Thursday, Feb 6th, Ralph Kiner passed on to the Great Ballfield in the Sky.

It is a sad day for Mets fans. While the team had its good years, its bad years, its years of celebration, and its years of embarrassment (both on or off the field), Kiner was always there. There was never a Mets year without Ralph Kiner. A brief Youtube search brings up this clip of equally legendary Howard Cosell introducing the first ever Mets broadcast in Spring Training 1962. Notice Cosell "throws it" to Kiner, along with his long-time partners Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy.



Possibly even before the first spring game, Kiner was amidst the Mets at their former training facility in St Petersburg, Florida. Here he is discussing the upcoming inaugural season with veteran pitcher Roger Craig.



You have to love Craig's optimism about a team that would lose 120 games. But that's baseball. And Ralph Kiner definitely was baseball. Hard to imagine 1962 was 51 years ago.

Here is one more video. Following the news of his death, SNY contacted Vin Scully to discuss his memories of Ralph Kiner. Scully talks almost as much about Kiner's 10 year big league career in the 1950s as he does about Kiner's broadcasting career. But when he does comment on Kiner's booth ability, he has nothing but high praise.



Finally, I want to share a few links from two of the Mets sites I frequent.

Over at MetsBlog, Matthew Cerrone writes:

He made me feel like, as a young fan, I was part of a legacy. He talked about hitting, technique, race, life on the road, personalities, aging, success and failure, and everything in between. He shaped a lot of how I look at the game on field. I’m not alone. He had this impact on others, and in that way he’ll live on forever…

Over at Fear and Faith in Flushing (perhaps my favorite baseball blog on the Internet), Greg Prince writes about Kiner and his impact on Mets fans.

Ralph Kiner will not be dropping by the booth in 2014. I want to say he’s unavailable and leave it at that. It’s too tough to believe, even after he lived 91 years, that the Mets go on without him. There’s never been the Mets without Ralph Kiner calling their games or, per his more recent part-time role, interrupting them. The Ralph of whom we were treated to select innings in the SNY era was the dandiest of intermittent presences. He was a baseball sage who could address any element his partners steered his way, and in doing so, he transported his audience to bundle after bundle of games, years and personalities that nobody else was telling us about anymore. It was a gift he kept on giving, and knowing that the gifts wouldn’t always pile up under the baseball tree made them that much more precious when we were lucky enough to receive them.

Although I haven't lived in New York in quite some time, and will probably never move back, the Mets are like home to me. Like classic rock, the Mets are something I can always go back to, sing along with, and feel comfort in. My history rooting for the Mets goes back further than the Rays, further than the Seminoles, further than the Knicks, and further than my time in the military or my interest in music. As a kid, the Mets were it. My first real interest. They were the team of my Dad, of my Grandparents, and most of my friends. They were my team.

And part of that was because of Ralph Kiner.

Welcome and what to expect

Thank you for checking out Tampa Bay Baseball Market.com. In the week we have been posting, we've seen some definite interest in our work.

I wanted to take a moment to let everyone know what we are doing and what to expect from this site. I might rehash some of what is mentioned in the introduction, but the message here will be much different.

As you might have noticed, we have begun laying the groundwork on Tampa Bay Rays attendance data. We have already looked at 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. Next week, we will look at 2011, 2012, and 2013. Then in the week following, we will put it all together. We will look at all of our categories (By Day, By Month, By Opponent, By Starting Pitcher, and By Promotion) across all seven years of reviews. We will be able to tell what pitcher has averaged the highest or lowest attendance per day. We will tell you how much of an effect weekends have on attendance for any specific team. And we will tell you what effect, if any, winning streaks and concerts have on Rays home attendance.

After that, we should be in a position to mathematically predict the Rays 2014 attendance based on past results.

That will bring us into March and the middle of Spring Training. We won't be covering Spring Training attendance this year. Instead, we will lay the same groundwork we did with the Rays with the Tampa Yankees, Clearwater Threshers, Dunedin Blue Jays, and Bradenton Marauders. We will look at those teams' average attendance from 2007 to 2013 by Day, by Month, by Opponent, by Starting Pitcher, and by Promotion.

By the end of March, we hope to put all these charts and tables together and tell you what, if any, effect the Minor League teams have on Rays attendance.

In the first week of April, we will switch gears from the past to the present. Once the regular season starts, we will publish daily attendance posts with much of the criteria we used in the annual reviews. We'll keep running logs of attendance by criteria.

Once the season starts going and we get into a rhythm, between those daily posts we will try to bring you a post or two a week on the demographics and economics of Tampa Bay and detail some of venues competing with baseball for dollars.

And we will always try to have a video up for every statistical measurement we make.

So to those who have checked us out so far, thank you. Please spread the word. It will be a fun summer.

Attendance Review: 2010 Tampa Bay Rays

This is the fourth of a series of attendance reviews we will do on this site. Today we will look at the home attendance of the 2010 Tampa Bay Rays.

For a look at the 2009 Rays attendance, click here. For a look at the 2008 Rays attendance, click here. For a look at the 2007 Devil Rays attendance, click here.

(Up % = Percentage of games where attendance for that variable was higher than the previous game at Tropicana Field. For example, if Monday attendance was 18,000 and Tuesday was 18,001, Tuesday = up. Also, if 10,000 fans attended a James Shields game and 15,000 fans attended a David Price game the next day, Price = up. Opening Day is neither up nor down.)

Total attendance: 1,865,002

Average: 23,024.72

Highest attended games: 6 x 36,973 (Opening Day 4/6 vs BAL, 7/30 vs NYY, 7/31 vs NYY, 8/1 vs NYY, 8/28 vs BOS, 8/29 vs BAL)

Lowest attended game: 10,691 on April 28 vs OAK.

Low point of average attendance: July 28, Game 49 (21,780)

Breakdown:

(yellow highlights = below annual average of 23,024.72)

By Month:

By Day:

By Opponent:

By Starting Pitcher:

By Promotion:

Day Game/Night Game Splits:

Attendance Review: 2009 Tampa Bay Rays

This is the third of a series of attendance reviews we will do on this site. Today we look at the home attendance of the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays.

For a look at the 2008 Rays attendance, click here. For a look at the 2007 Devil Rays attendance, click here.

(Up % = Percentage of games where attendance for that variable was higher than the previous game at Tropicana Field. For example, if Monday attendance was 18,000 and Tuesday was 18,001, Tuesday = up. Also, if 10,000 fans attended a James Shields game and 15,000 fans attended a David Price game the next day, Price = up. Opening Day is neither up nor down.)

Total attendance: 1,874,962

Average: 23,147.68

Highest attended games: 4 x 36,973 (Opening Day 4/13 vs NYY, 4/14 vs NYY, 8/1 vs KC, 9/5 vs DET)

Lowest attended game: 10,349 on Sept vs BAL.

Low point of average attendance: June 12, Game 31 (22,446)

Breakdown:

(yellow highlights = below annual average of 23,148)

By Month:

By Day of the Week:

By Opponent:

By Starting Pitcher:

By Promotion:

Day Game/Night Game Splits:

Attendance data from Baseball-Reference.com.

Attendance Review: 2008 Tampa Bay Rays

This is the second of a series of attendance reviews we will do on this site. Today we look at the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays season, the year the Rays dropped the "Devil", won 97 games, and made the World Series.

Background:

For a look at the 2007 Devil Rays attendance, click here.

(These numbers exclude “home” games played at the Disney Wide World of Sports from April 22-24, 2008.)

(Up % = Percentage of games where attendance for that variable was higher than the previous game at Tropicana Field. For example, if Monday attendance was 18,000 and Tuesday was 18,001, Tuesday = up. Also, if 10,000 fans attended a James Shields game and 15,000 fans attended a Scott Kazmir game the next day, Kazmir = up. Opening Day is neither up nor down.)

Total attendance: 1,785,458

Average: 22,890.49

Highest attended games: 8 x 36,048 (Opening Day 4/8 vs Seattle, 4/26 vs Boston, 5/31 vs Chicago AL, 7/2 vs Boston, 8/2 vs Detroit, 9/17 vs Boston, 9/20 vs Minnesota, 9/21 vs Minnesota)

Lowest attended game: 10,511 on May 27 vs Texas.

Low point of average attendance: April 20, Game 11 (17,749.09)

Breakdown:

(yellow highlights = below annual average of 22,890.49)

By Month:

(This post will not explore attendance during the 2008 post-season. That will be examined in a future post.)

By Day:

By Opponent:

By Starting Pitcher:

By Promotion:

Day Game/Night Game Splits:

(Note: All Sunday games (13) were day games. Two Saturday games were day games.)

Total Win/Loss "Up %":

Attendance Review: 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays

This is the first of a series of attendance reviews we will do on this site. We are going to start with 2007, the last year of the Devil Rays era, the second year of new Rays (then-Devil Rays) ownership, the second year of Joe Maddon’s managerial tenure, and the last year the Devil Rays lost over 90 games.

Background:

From 1998-2006, the Devil Rays drew 12,617,125 fans to Tropicana Field. This excludes the 110,000 fans the Devil Rays and Yankees drew to the two “home” games played in the Tokyo Dome in 2004. During this nine-year span, the Devil Rays averaged 1,401,903 fans per season at Tropicana Field. The highest attended year was the inaugural year of 1998 (2,506,903) and the lowest was 2003 (1,058,695). The dismal 2003 attendance was 24.5% less than the 1998-2006 average and 42% of the 1998 total.

I feel safe starting this series of attendance reviews in 2007 for two primary reasons:

1) In 2007, 1,360,676 fans attended games at Tropicana Field. This excludes three games played at Disney’s Wide World of Sports (26,927 fans). The 2007 Tropicana Field attendance is 97.1% of the 1998-2006 average. Close enough to not have to go back any further. Besides the inaugural attendance number, there are no outliers in attendance.

2) The Devil Rays record in 2007 was 66-96, nearly identical to their average 1998-2006 record of 65-97. Again, close enough to not have to back any further. There are no outliers in the win-loss record. The only other exploration I could do would be how attendance varies among 90-100 loss teams. I don’t believe that’s worth exploring at the present moment.

Now that we have laid the Namoli-era foundation, we can explore attendance during the Stu Sternberg and Matt Silverman era. We begin in 2007.

(Again, these numbers exclude “home” games played at the Disney Wide World of Sports from May 15-17, 2007.)

(Up % = Percentage of games where attendance for that variable was higher than the previous game at Tropicana Field. For example, if Monday attendance was 18,000 and Tuesday was 18,001, Tuesday = up. Also, if 10,000 fans attended a Casey Fossum game and 15,000 fans attended a Scott Kazmir game the next day, Kazmir = up. Opening Day is neither up nor down.)

Total attendance: 1,386,229

Average: 17,465.24

Highest attended game: Opening Day (38,437). 3 x 36,048 (July 14, 15 vs New York; July 28 vs Boston)

Lowest attended game: 8,440 on May 23 vs Seattle.

Low point of average attendance: June 13, Game 35 (14,439.66)

Breakdown:

(yellow highlights = below annual average of 17,465.24)

By Month:

By Day:

By Opponent:

By Starting Pitcher:

By Promotion:

Day Game/Night Game Splits:

(Note: All 2007 Sunday games were day games. All 2007 Saturday games were night games.)

Total Win/Loss "Up %":

Dunedin Blue Jays probably not moving to West Palm Beach

While I am still setting up shop here and researching for future posts, here is another bit of news that caught my eye.

According to the Palm Beach Post (h/t MetsBlog), the Palm Beach Gardens City Council ordered the end of construction on a new spring training stadium. The proposed stadium would have be a new spring home for the Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros and possibly new home for the Dunedin Blue Jays.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The motion by council member Joe Russo in a city hall auditorium packed with 250 people, passed 4-1 with council member David Levy in the minority. Opponents of the stadium location, wearing red shirts, gave Russo a standing ovation.

Had the move happened, it would have spread out both the Grapefruit League and the Florida State League, which are both very Tampa-centric, to the dismay of teams on the east coast who have long travel times. Dunedin is also near the bottom of Florida State attendance, both in total attendees and per game average. A change in location might change that.