ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Doubt made its first appearance on April 1, 1998. That was the day the Devil Rays saw their attendance dip 33% for the second game in franchise history at Tropicana Field.
Since that evening, we have been told there were problems with a stadium on the edge of downtown St. Petersburg. It was too far from the market’s population center, there was no corporate base surrounding the ballpark, it was in a downtrodden part of the city.
It was — we heard from team executives, baseball commissioners and smartass commentators for a quarter-century — at the root of all of Tampa Bay’s attendance problems.
