The Tampa Bay Rays opened the 2022 regular season at home against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night. And for the 16th straight year (excluding 2020 when games were played without fans), they sold out Tropicana Field.
In a PR release, the Rays touted that sellout.
“The Tampa Bay Rays have announced that the 2022 home opener on Friday, April 8 against the Baltimore Orioles is old out,” the celebratory statement read.
But there is one caveat, however. An asterisk, if you will.
Although the Rays did technically sell out Tropicana Field for their home opener, they did so due to very specific limitations. And by limitations, we mean that they only sold out the tickets that were made available. The entire 300-level was closed to fans.
UPDATE: The #Rays advertised a home opener sell out, but did not open the 300-level https://t.co/bgVLXvWILp pic.twitter.com/Zu8l2IRRlq
— Danny Russell (@d_russ) April 8, 2022
How very misleading. And it’s not the first time.
Back in 2019, the Rays also touted an opening day sellout but similarly, it came with the 300-level closed. Only 25,025 fans showed up for that game, but it was deemed a sellout nonetheless.
Tampa Bay works hard to put a positive spin on things but the reality is they struggle to generate and maintain fan interest. Even when the team is playing well, they struggle to fill seats. They won the AL East with a record of 100-62 a season ago and yet at one point, managed to sell just over 5,400 tickets for a game, setting a franchise record for the lowest-ever turnout.
