Wednesday afternoon, Orlando Magic co-founder Pat Williams announced that he intends to bring an MLB franchise to Orlando and that they will be called the Orlando Dreamers. Williams, who brought the Orlando Magic to the NBA in 1989, believes that Orlando can be a Major League Baseball town. He said in his news conference, “Soccer fans have embraced the Orlando City Lions, and now it’s time to step up to the plate and make baseball happen, too.”
During the press conference, Williams was asked why he won’t try to bring the Rays to Orlando, saying, “Rays have 8 years left on their lease. They’ve said they’re exploring a radical plan to play in two cities… our job with this package is to make it so attractive, so luscious people say we’ve got to get there.”
There is just one problem, Florida has not been kind to Major League Baseball. The Miami Marlins, then the Florida Marlins began to play as an expansion team in 1993. The other team, the Tampa Bay Rays, started play in 1998 also an expansion team. Neither team has drawn a crowd since their inceptions respectfully.
The Marlins first season in 1993 averaged 37,838 fans for a total of over 3,064,847 fans for the season. After that, the only time the Marlins had over 30,000 fans at a game was when there was a shortened MLB season in 1994, and at that they only got 32,838 fans. The Marlins second-closest best attendance record came in 1997, the year they won their first World Series title, they averaged 29,190 fans for a total of 2,364,387 for the year.
Since then, they haven’t seen a crowd near the 30,000 mark at a game and have finished near or last in league attendance since 1999. To make things worse for the Marlins, when they won their second World Series title in 2003, the average attendance during the season was only 16,089 per game for a total of 1,303,215 fans for the year ranked one spot out of last place in attendance. Even winning championships couldn’t get fans to come to the games.
The Marlins thought that by getting a new stadium, fans would show up. The public gave the Marlins what they wanted and paid to build a new baseball stadium called Marlins Park on the site of the old Orange Bowl Stadium with the thought that people would go to the games. News flash, they haven’t.
On the other side of Florida, the Tampa Bay Rays played its first season in 1998 averaged 30,942 fans for a total of 2,506,293 for the year. Since then, the Rays have averaged under 20,000 fans a season with the exception from 2008-10 when they were over 20,000. Tropicana Field, the home of the Rays seating capacity is 42,735. It’s a shame because the Rays are a really good baseball team. If they could just get the support from fans, they would be able to keep some of the players instead of trading them.
Now, the Rays are looking for a new home. They have explored an option to play in both Tampa Bay and Montreal. The Rays haven’t reached 3 million fans in a season in their 21-year history and are hoping that a move will change all of that.
With both teams struggling to get fan support, What makes Williams think that an expansion baseball team will thrive in Orlando? He should not try to bring an expansion team to Orlando, but instead, try to get the Tampa Bay Rays to consider moving to Orlando.
The Rays are an excellent team and have competed with the best teams in baseball. They have made the playoffs four times and still couldn’t draw a crowd. Personally, I think the Rays should leave the state of Florida and go elsewhere, but we all know that Major League Baseball wants to keep this team in Florida.
Williams should at least try to talk to the Rays owners about relocating to Orlando. He has to sell the fact that Orlando is a great sports town. Even the name Orlando Rays have a nice ring to it. I’m sure the Rays owners would listen to Williams on relocating to Orlando. Heck, I think Major League Baseball would convince the Rays to relocate to Orlando and not Montreal.
Williams should scrap the idea of bringing an expansion team to Orlando and instead pursue the Tampa Bay Rays.
