Tampa Bay Rays owner Sternberg left Goldman Sachs with $400 million in 2002

The NY Times article explains Tampa Bay Rays' principal owner Stuart Sternberg grew up a Mets Fan and still has season tickets. Discussing potential Rays' ticket purchasers in the area, the article mentions some Yankee fans live in the Tampa area but haven't converted.

• According to local Tampa radio, there is a huge Red Sox fan base in the area who come out in hideous droves when the Red Sox are in town.

• If the Rays want baseball fans to come to the games, they should not overlook Red Sox fans. I've spent a lot of time in the Tampa area and have already explained on this blog how baseball could improve attendance in Florida at little cost to them. I have looked for Yankee fans here, baseball fans, anything. They don't exist from my surveys.

If I see a Yankee hat and mention the team to its wearer, he looks at me like I'm nuts, ie he has a hat on but is unaware of the Yankee insignia's meaning. In possibly the worst example of this kind, I had the following experience:

• In the parking lot of a mall in Tampa, at a distance I saw a guy wearing a navy t-shirt with the name "RIVERA" on the back. I recognized the shirt and lettering as a Yankee shirt referencing Mariano Rivera. I yelled at the guy who was a good 50 feet away from me,

'Hey, Rivera t-shirt!' The guy kept walking, so I yelled again and finally he turned around looking irritated.

• To make a long story short, the guy never heard of Mariano Rivera, wasn't sure he had ever heard of the Yankees. His own last name was Rivera, he saw the shirt in a mall and bought it. End of story.

Reference, NY Times article, "Sternberg leaves Wall Street, and Rays have Profited," or "Fan Exits Wall Street, and the Rays Profit," by Alan Schwarz, 10/11/08

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