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Rays move fans closer

Team plans to close off upper deck most games, restructures seating to reduce average price.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 25, 2001

Click above for larger image

In an effort to bolster declining attendance, the Rays announced a plan Wednesday to reduce the number of seats available by closing the upper deck except for special events and to cut or maintain prices on most of the remaining tickets.

As a product of the restructuring, the Rays will offer a season ticket in the Beach seating area for $299, $3.69 per game.

By changing some prices and reclassifying some seating areas, the Rays say their average ticket price decreased from $17.86 to $17.79. (After the 2000 season, it increased from $15.82 to $17.86.)

Chief operating officer John McHale Jr. said the decision to hold the line on prices was the right thing to do after a season in which the Rays had 100 losses and about a 17 percent decrease in attendance to an average of 16,029.

"It was the correct response to this market and to our effort to get more people to come to see us while capitalizing on the good things that happened in the second half of the season," McHale said. "Forgetting our costs of doing business or where major-league salaries may be going, I don't think what we were able to show fans as a whole across the entire season could possibly have made a price increase well-received."

McHale said the state of the economy and the team's desire to become a "family-friendly regular entertainment option" were factors.

"I think the principle issue is to try to make people aware of the low-priced tickets that are available here and to sell those as often as we can," McHale said. "It doesn't seem to me that we've gotten into the public's mind that this is a place where you can come every day to see a game for $5, and to make that a weekly or more-often part of their entertainment."

By closing the upper deck, McHale said the team will be able to provide an improved ballpark experience, along with better service and a cleaner stadium.

"The fun and enjoyment of being in a crowd is sometimes lost when you have 17,000 people spread across 44,000 seats," he said.

The reduced unofficial capacity will be about 29,000. Upper-deck tickets will be sold (at $10 each) when most of the other seats are sold in advance and for some special promotions.

Among other changes:

The Beach, which overhangs leftfield with tickets at $10 last season, is the Southwest Airlines Freedom Fanfare section with $2 tickets for seniors and children and $5 for adults. Those tickets will be sold on game day only. When the upper deck is closed, the 1,339 Beach seats will be the only ones in the stadium less than $14.

Parking on one of the Tropicana Field lots has been reduced to $5.

Prime lower box seats were reduced from $30 to $25, but lower reserved seats were reclassified as lower box seats and increased from $23 to $25.

Terrace box seats were reduced from $23 to $19, but terrace reserved seats were reclassified as terrace box seats and increased from $14 to $19.

The Rays, who sold about 10,000 season tickets last season, are offering a break on renewals. By submitting a nonrefundable 25 percent deposit by Nov. 23, season-ticket holders who renewed at 2000 prices before last season can do so again. Any fans who pay for season tickets in full by Nov. 23, including those in the Beach, can get a 5 percent discount.

The team said fans who had season tickets in the upper deck will have the opportunity to relocate to the lower deck at the same price. Fans who purchased the upper general admission season tickets will have first shot at season tickets in the Beach.

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