It was a virtual certainty that we'd have another round of attendance criticisms as the Rays wrap up another successful season on-the-field, and sure enough, two new front-page stories in the Tampa Bay papers today. Oh, and an ESPN.com story too. Maybe they were warranted.
"When I came in here in '05 and '06, I saw the stars," Rays Principal Owner Stu Sternberg said with regards to his 29th-best average attendance of 18,878. "I was told by you guys and others that all we needed was a winning team...well, we won. We won. We won. And we won. And it didn't do it."
You've got to sympathize with Stu in that he's done everything a business owner can do for a community and it hasn't reaped huge rewards for his business. But the question is, how much of his business miscalculation becomes the community's burden? If a new stadium is the answer, how much of the responsibility for building it belongs to the region?
Then again, I may be misinterpreting Sternberg's comments. Maybe he's resigning to the fact that the area will never draw 25,000 fans per game?
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