I think it's about time you looked in the mirror as a community and said to yourself, it's time to put up or shut up. You currently have three professional franchises within your metro area and you ardently support exactly zero of these franchises.
The greatest injustice of all is of course the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are now going on their 3rd consecutive winning season. They have a roster full of 20-somethings who are incredibly athletic and entertaining to watch. They are about to clinch a playoff birth for the second time in franchise history and quite likely will beat out the Yankees for the division and finish with the best record in the American League and yet you show up to the ballpark on the final week of the season with just over 12,000 people. 12,000 people is barely better than what the solid Triple A clubs get on an average basis. Currently the Rays stand 22nd in all of baseball in home attendance despite sitting a 1/2 from having the best record in all of baseball. Toss in the fact that how many thousands of those people are truly Yankee or Red Sox fans fluttering down to the Trop to turn the stadium into Yankee Stadium FLA or Fenway South.
On top of the continual lack of Ray support, you guys aren't even going to Bucs games anymore. With the Steelers in town you wind up 10K short of a sellout? I understand the economy is tough and you think the Bucs are going to be terrible this year but... they were 2-0 and half your stadium was filled with Gold and Black Steeler fans. The attendance was so bad the games were even blacked out locally.
So Tampa, please just say you don't want the teams and let them move to a city that might even fake interest.
Thanks,
Cities in the US without Major Sports Teams
PS. I won't blame you on the Lightning... I have no idea why Hockey teams are in Florida either.
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