The first game of the three-game MLB American League Wild Card series between the visiting Texas Rangers and the home team Tampa Bay Rays drew the lowest non-COVID playoff attendance since 1919.
The game drew only 19,704 fans to Tropicana Field Tuesday afternoon, with the game starting at 3:07 p.m. EDT, according to statistics from the Elias Sports Bureau.
The crowd was around 5,300 under the stadium’s listed capacity, according to The Associated Press. When tarped-over seats are counted, however, the attendance mark Tuesday fell more than 22,000 people short of capacity.
The Rays routinely rank low for home attendance, averaging 17,781 fans per game for their 81 home games, 27th out of the league’s 30 teams AP said. The Rays announced plans last month to replace the domed stadium with a new 30,000-seat facility located nearby.
The last time an MLB playoff game drew so few fans was Game 7 of the nine-game 1919 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox, a series better known for the “Black Sox” scandal, in which eight White Sox players purposely threw the series in exchange for being paid by bettors.
That game, held in Cincinnati, drew only 13,923 fans, due to the mishandling of ticket availability by the Reds front office.
Fans back then were required to buy tickets in three-game blocks, and Game 7 was the fourth Reds home game in the series. In addition, miscommunication about single-game sales led to long lines at the Reds ticket counter, which kept crowds away, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.
The Rays lost Tuesday’s game 4-0. Game 2 at Tropicana Field is scheduled for 3:08 p.m. EDT Wednesday, with Game 3 being held at the same time and place on Thursday if the Rays win Game 2.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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