If there's a silver lining in the Rays' uninspiring 2011 attendance numbers so far, it's that the Indians make them look great.
Not only does the Tribe sport a 22-11 record, but its paltry 14,275 attendance average is several thousand behind the Rays for 29th place. Weather has been a factor in Cleveland this year, but remember, fans there once filled Jacobs Field for 455 straight games.
Hard to blame the economy, either, when the NBA's second-worst team, the Cavs, was the third-best draw in the league. They averaged 20,112 fans per game without LeBron James.
Maybe Cleveland fans are protesting Charlie Sheen's ties to the Indians' franchise. Maybe they'd rather watch Anderson Varejao's hair or Baron Davis' beard than a winning team. Maybe the whole city is just a glutton for punishment (insert Cleveland joke here).
Whatever the reason is, don't expect a huge bump in the Indians' attendance numbers this week - the Rays are visiting Tuesday through Thursday.
Hey, this is more of a general comment, but I just wanted to say that you're doing a great job on this blog. I'm a huge Tampa Bay sports fan, and I've recently taken more of an interest in this whole stadium saga, both for the Rays and other locations in the country that are going thru similar issues. I spent a day just going back over all your old posts on here. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, Matt. I'm sure you could get lost in here for days, and I'm sure not everything I predict comes true...but my batting average is pretty darn good so far!
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