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Kevin Cash on Tampa Bay crowd situation: ‘It’s a joke’ 09.29.10 at 9:05 pm ET
By Rob Bradford

Tampa native Kevin Cash said he has no problems with the criticisms levied by Evan Longoria and David Price regarding the lack of fans at Tropicana Field. (AP)

CHICAGO — Kevin Cash – a native of North Tampa — not only agreed with the frustrations recently relayed by Rays’ players Evan Longoria and David Price over the lack of fans in the stands at Tropicana Field, but took his criticism to another level.

“I agree with them 100 percent,” said Cash, referring to comments made by Longoria and Price in regard to the attendance (or lack thereof) at the Rays’ home ballpark despite the team making the postseason for the second time in three years. “It’s a joke. I’m not going to sit here and call out fans. I respect everything about the economy and everything. But at the same time, the Yankees and Red Sox, they’re not complaining.

When asked if the trend in attendance at The Trop could ever be reversed, Cash said, “Not in that location. Never … It’s a crummy stadium. It’s not in a good location.”

Cash knows a little bit about the stadium in St. Petersburg, which was originally named the Suncoast Dome and didn’t host a major league baseball team until the Rays started calling it home in 1998. The catcher was a member of the Tampa All-Star team that went to the Little League World Series in 1989, a group that was part of the stadium’s grand opening festivities. (Singers Kenny Rogers and Bo Diddley also were part of the event’s entertainment, which featured Cash’s team playing Wiffleball.)

He has seen first-hand the impetus for the problems facing the Tampa Bay franchise from the start, and, in Cash’s mind, it begins and ends with where the stadium resides.

“I would say the biggest reason, and the basis is, is the stadium is in a horrendous location,” I grew up as a [Tampa Bay] Bucs fan where nobody went and it was right in the middle of the city in Tampa, and they got good and people showed up.

“Their fans aren’t very good to begin with. The way they’ve performed the last three or four years, they should be getting more fans than what they are. But what kills them the most is their location. That’s a huge ordeal for a family to pack up from the Tampa sub-divisions, go over the bridge, deal with all that mess. The parking, getting out of the stadium, it’s a joke.”

As for the comments made by the Tampa Bay players, Cash has no issues with any of the execution.

“I don’t see anything wrong in them saying that,” he insisted. “I agree 100 percent.”

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  • Hub

    The Red Sox and Yankees have a larger fan base in the Tampa Bay area than the Rays do. This is why the Rays draw the largest home attendance against those 2 teams and suffer at the gate playing the rest of the league.

  • M. Robbins

    I have to disagree with Cash’s remarks. Given the fact that the Trop is air conditioned, in a climate that is always muggy with a high chance of thunderstorms, how could it be a lousy place to watch a baseball game. As a resident of the Tampa Bay area, I can tell you that I get to watch the Sox play 5-10 times a year in seats that would cost over a $1,000 at Fenway park.

    The location of the stadium isn’t as bad as Cash is making it out to be. The Rays gave away 20,000 free seats yesterday, which put the attendance at over 39,000. Obviously it isn’t the location that is the problem.

    My opinion, HD TV has gotten to be so good, that people would rather sit at home and watch in their own living room.

  • richard

    The HDTV observation is an excellent point. I can think of a couple of times in the past few years that I thought about going to the Trop to see the Sox and sit with the Nation behind the Boston dugout…Before my HDTV, there was a dramatic difference watching the game on a fuzzy tube vs. going to the live game. With the new TV’s that difference is shrinking.

  • Mark

    I’m not exactly sure where the Trop is located compared the general population of Tampa. Is this a situation like saying that Fenway was located in the Cape, when the majority of the fans are in Boston? If the stadium is really that bad, they should just relocate.

  • richard

    Its near downtown St. Pete…If you look at the whole Tampa Bay metropolis, it is in the Southwestern corner. Nowhere near the center of the population. I live in North Pinellas County,(ST Pete-Clearwater) and its a half an hour to get there. Hillsborough County is East of me and the journey in rush hour from Tampa to the Trop is often over 60 minutes or more. There is very little South of the ballpark, but water. Sarasota is over an hour away. Much of the citizenry of St. Pete is very, very, very old. …and getting out of a chair, never mind going to a ballgame is a challenge.

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    If there ever was a team that should be contracted,it’s this team.The Marlins, too. Put the players into a dispersal draft with the worst teams picking first.Florida does not care about baseball.It would improve the quality of the remaining teams.Can you imagine Pittsburg selecting David Price and Clevland grabbing H Ramarez, and so on?

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