Tampa Bay Rays president makes the case for splitting home games with Montreal
Matt Silverman, president of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, said his team has a history of challenging the orthodoxy of Major League Baseball.
One example is pioneering the use of the opener, a pitcher who starts a game who might ordinarily be a closer or a reliever.
But nothing the Rays organization has ever done would challenge baseball orthodoxy as much as the proposal to have the team split their home games between Tampa Bay and Montreal, he said during a Manatee Chamber of Commerce Headliners Luncheon Wednesday.
Essentially, the Rays want to build two open air stadiums, seating about 25,000 each — one in Tampa, and the other in Montreal. The first few months of each season would be played in Tampa, theoretically before the hottest weather arrives, and then move to Montreal after winter has given way to warmer weather.
Despite fielding a competitive team — in the 2019 season the Rays won 96 regular season games and advanced to the divisional round of the American League playoffs — the team chronically under-performs at the gate with the lowest attendance of any team in the majors.
“The normal way isn’t working, so how do we make it work?” Silverman asked.
The typical Rays fan attends only one or two games a year, even though tickets as cheap as $10 are available.
Exploration of the two-city model is now in only the first-inning of a nine-inning game, he said.
The future is bright for the Rays, and the two-city model would be the way to guarantee professional baseball survives in the Tampa Bay area, he said.
“It’s a little radical. For us it’s a way to save baseball here. We think this is a pretty ingenious way to do it,” Silverman said.
If polled, the Chamber of Commerce audience would probably have opted for the Rays to play all 81 home games in Tampa Bay, but no one offered a better idea for improving attendance.
Hans Heide attended Wednesday’s luncheon with his father-in-law, Jim Heslin. Both are above-average Rays fans. Heide attended six games last season, while Heslin attended 10.
“Both Jim and I are huge fans of baseball and the Rays. He has fully converted to being a Rays fan whereas I split my allegiance between the Yankees and Rays. I wanted to say that I am skeptical of the Rays plan to field a team part time in Tampa Bay and Montreal as I do not know how they maintain a devoted fan base in either market,” Heide said.
“If the option becomes no team in Tampa Bay or a part-time team, then I and many others would have to accept that proposition. However, as Matt said, although splitting time between the two markets is management and the ownership’s current preference, I believe that we, in greater Tampa Bay, have seven more years to show our love for the Rays and bring up attendance to their annual goal of 2 million-plus per year,” Heide said.
“Also, the team might want to host more family friendly ticket specials/concession promotions whereas they generate less dollars per ticket but increase their attendance to make up for the discounts,” Heide said.
Heslin took note of the anemic fan attendance in the regular season, and then the huge turnout during the playoffs.
“Where have all of you fans been this summer?” Heslin said. “It drives me nuts that we can’t draw more people.”
