ramenth said

I understand the small market team. My Bills are in an even smaller market than the Tampa area. (Rabid fans, by the way, the Bills are western/upstate NY). That being said, a city of 8M people which can support two baseball teams, two football teams, two hockey teams, an NBA team, some of them sharing the playing time does have the big market kind of cornered.
I know the idea of a Rays/Royals matchup in the middle of the week might now excite people, but then it does come down to the fans. It's the chicken or the egg question for a lot of teams: put a winning team on the field and we will come and the team is saying put your butts in the seats so we can hire a winning team and we will. At that point which has to come first? Getting to the City to support my team isn't something easily done. Hell, getting to Orchard Park isn't easy either, with a three hour drive. But I do what I can. Sometimes revenue is the key, sometimes it's not. If the fans want to support the team and get a winning product then they need to actually support the team: hats, shirts, bobbleheads, whatever it takes. If the ownership is ambivelant towards the fans then the fans can do something about it. Take away the revenue and force an ownership change.
But in the case of the Rays, like you said, it's a young team, with an ownership which is starting to make the right moves: a good minor league system, wrapping young talent up to long term contracts early, a good scouting system. You're doing your part. You go to games, you by the shirts. But is central Florida, in a dome, really a good venue for the team? To sign a long term lease on the Trop, seems to me, to be self-defeating. I know it can get hot, but damn, most people want the outdoors! Or is it that the Tampa area, with Legends Field, and the Yanks training there for so long, have the idea that a new dog is trying to piss on an old dog's marked territory?

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