Struggling Rays Freeze Season Ticket Prices

The Rays announced Thursday they are freezing 2017 and 2018 season ticket prices for current season-ticket holders to renew at their 2016 prices.

While one-year renewal freezes are not uncommon – the Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames are professional North American sports franchises who have done it in the past five years – a two-year renewal freeze is unprecedented.

The move comes with the Rays last in the majors in attendance by an average of more than 3,000 fans per game. The Rays have drawn just over a million fans for 62 home dates, an average of 16,150 fans per game. The Athletics are 29th in attendance at about 1.2 million, an average of 19,390 fans per game.

Tampa Bay has finished last in attendance every year since 2012.

The Rays do not release how many season-ticket holders they have. However, in 2013 owner Stuart Sternberg said the Rays had only 300 season-ticket accounts totaling “just shy of” 1,000 season tickets in their home market of St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Rays have the third-lowest average ticket cost in 2016 at $21.04, according to Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index, a nearly four percent drop from their average ticket cost in 2015. The average MLB ticket this season costs $31 and the Red Sox have the most expensive average ticket at $54.79, according to the report.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, when asked about expansion possibilities at the All-Star Game in July, mentioned the Rays’ situation as one that would prevent expansion for now.

“The Tampa Bay and Oakland situations need to be resolved,” Manfred said. “Both of those clubs need new, major-league facilities and until that is resolved, I think expansion has got to be on the back burner for us.”

Manfred went on to say he was committed to Oakland as a major league site, but made no such statements regarding Tampa Bay.

The Rays were 14th in attendance in their inaugural season in 1998 but have finished in the bottom third in the majors in attendance every year since, including from 2008-2011 when they made the playoffs three times in four seasons.

The Rays drew fewer than 11,000 fans each of their past three home games this week before announcing the two-year freeze.

The freeze comes with other benefits offered as well. Those who renew are offered a seat on a charter flight to see the Rays play the Marlins in Miami, hitting lessons with Logan Forsythe, a dinner cruise with Kevin Kiermaier, or a complimentary catered suite for a 2017 regular season game, among other options.