00:00It's American League Championship Series.
00:02In fact, we saw that last night in Tampa.
00:06And I got to ask you a question here, Craig, because a lot being made on social media.
00:12And listen, I get it.
00:14You have a new ownership group there in Tampa Bay.
00:18They're committed to building this monster stadium over by, you know, Raymond James there
00:24in that corner in Tampa.
00:25Should be.
00:26It's good times, right?
00:27But Craig, they can't sell out more than 30,000 tickets to an American League Championship
00:35game where they're a couple of wins away from going to the World Series.
00:39Like, I just, I can't wrap my head around the fact they're like, because Tampa Bay Rays
00:45fans, if you've ever been to St. Pete, you've ever been to Tampa, Rays fans love their team.
00:50They do have great, I love St. Pete.
00:53I love the stadium there.
00:55But I am not sure that moving to Tampa and a new stadium would fill that stadium in,
01:02let's say, four years, Craig.
01:03And they're battling the Guardians again for a chance at a World Series.
01:07I don't know what it is.
01:08I really don't.
01:10It's, look, nobody knows the answer, Joe.
01:12It's the same thing that goes on here in South Florida.
01:15It's the same thing that goes on with the Miami Heat.
01:17It's the same thing that goes on with the Panthers.
01:20It's the same thing that goes on with the Magic.
01:22For whatever reason, our sports in the state of Florida don't, outside of, really, when
01:29you think about it, the Dolphins, outside of the Dolphins, and even they don't pack it
01:34in sometimes.
01:35The answer seems to be the only one that makes any sense.
01:41Look, we get a lot of this in Miami, too.
01:43So I hear it all the time, talking about it all the time.
01:45And, you know, some people say, oh, it's because the Marlins tore their teams up or
01:49there's other things to do in Florida.
01:52You hear that a lot, too.
01:53By the way, I went to Tampa Bay, Miami, a game in St. Pete a few months ago on a
02:00weekend,
02:01and they had 20,000 there.
02:02And it was a weekend.
02:03Right.
02:03So it is weird.
02:04It is weird.
02:05Yes.
02:05So the only two things that I can come up with is, the first one regarding this series
02:13is that, yes, you would expect fans to go.
02:17St. Pete is not really the best city in the world, most affluent city to spend the kind
02:23of money that you have to spend on ALCS tickets.
02:27That's number one.
02:28That's the first thing.
02:29The tickets are very expensive.
02:31It's not like buying a regular raised ticket.
02:35It's not a good enough excuse for you and for anyone, by the way.
02:38And I understand that the only thing that I buy at this point with all of this stuff
02:43that goes on in Miami, that goes on in St. Pete and everywhere else is we are not ever
02:49going to be the Cubs or the Dodgers or the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Phillies or the
02:54or the Pirates.
02:55We only have fans from the last 30 or 40 years.
02:58And that's it.
02:59And that's it.
03:00And it's an uphill battle when your grandparents are telling you to root for the San Francisco
03:08Giants.
03:09Like, you're not going to win.
03:12You're growing up a fan of the Yankees in South Florida because your parents grew up in
03:18New York.
03:19And how do you change that?
03:22I don't know how you change that because everyone from Florida is from somewhere else originally.
03:27Now, in 10, 20 years, maybe that changes.
03:32But even you have to ask yourself at this point, the Rays are in the ALCS and they've
03:38done so much winning and it still didn't get them a sold out stadium there.
03:43So that's the only thing that I buy, Joe, when we have these arguments and we have these
03:48conversations.
03:49Everybody that packs the house in St.
03:51Pete, 30,000, they're all fans of it.
03:55But the population-
03:56They've been there all year.
03:58The population in our state, the population in our state are all from somewhere else.
04:03You're from somewhere else.
04:05I'm from somewhere else.
04:07And it requires me to have my son immediately from birth be a Marlins fan.
04:15Now, yes, he is.
04:18He is.
04:18And he is one of them because his dad is involved with the Marlins and has followed the
04:23Marlins forever.
04:24But my neighbor, as an example, great example.
04:28So my neighbor grew up a Mets fan.
04:32His whole entire line.
04:33I'm like, he still will go to the Marlins to see the Marlins, but he grew up a Mets fan.
04:38He gave up on the Mets.
04:39He started rooting for the Astros.
04:42I'm like, wait a second.
04:42Why are you rooting for the Astros?
04:44Well, they're winning a lot, and the Marlins haven't been winning.
04:47But I wonder if the Marlins had been winning, would you have pivoted over to the Marlins?
04:51Maybe.
04:51So what the Marlins are trying to do and what the Rays have done is prove that this sustained
04:56winning for 5, 10, 15 years, no matter what, whatever the names are in the back of the
05:01jersey doesn't matter, that people are going to show up to the games.
05:05So I think it's a very fair question.
05:07And it is, to me, even with all these excuses that I'm making for the Marlins and the Rays,
05:12it is alarming, Joe.
05:13I'm not going to lie.
05:14It is alarming that they're playing a game in the ALCS and the place is not sold out.
05:19I can't sit here and tell you.
05:22I would think, I don't know, Joe, how you feel about it.
05:24I would think, no disrespect to St. Pete, I would think if the Marlins were in the NLCS,
05:28that place would be sold out.
05:29I've seen the World Baseball Classic.
05:31I've seen the World Series being played here.
05:33And that was my point, Greg.
05:36I promise you, if the Marlins had been playing the Guardians, or let's just say,
05:42pick anybody in the Arizona, you're not getting a ticket.
