Empty baseball seats

The Attendance Crisis in Paradise: Understanding Why Two Florida MLB Teams Struggle to Fill Seats

jensen.hendriks

Introduction: Baseball in the Sunshine State’s Tourism Capitals

Florida hosts two Major League Baseball teams that play in markets with extraordinary tourism infrastructure. Miami-Dade County welcomed over 28 million visitors in 2024, generating approximately $22 billion in direct visitor spending.1 The Tampa Bay area saw 26.7 million visitors in fiscal year 2023, achieving its best year ever with nearly $1.1 billion in taxable hotel revenue.2

Yet despite operating in these thriving tourism markets, the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays consistently rank among Major League Baseball’s lowest attendance figures. In 2024, the Marlins drew only 1,087,455 total fans—ranking last in the National League at 15th out of 15 teams.3 The Rays fared marginally better with 1.34 million fans, averaging 16,515 per game,4 but still represented one of MLB’s smallest draws relative to market size.

This paradox presents an unprecedented opportunity for digital strategy intervention. Both organizations operate in markets where millions of potential customers visit annually, yet struggle to convert tourism traffic into ticket sales. The gap between tourism volume and stadium attendance reveals a fundamental disconnect that digital content strategy, community engagement, and tourism market integration can address.

The Numbers Behind the Crisis

Miami Marlins: Empty Seats in a Full City

The Miami Marlins’ attendance challenges are particularly stark when examined against their market’s tourism success. In 2024, the team averaged 13,425 fans per game5 in a stadium with a capacity of 37,442.6 This represents approximately 36% stadium capacity—meaning nearly two-thirds of loanDepot park sits empty for an average game.

To contextualize this figure: Miami welcomed 28 million visitors in 2024,1 yet the Marlins attracted only 1.09 million fans across 81 home games. For every 26 tourists visiting Miami-Dade County, the Marlins sold one ticket. The team has ranked last in National League attendance for 11 consecutive full seasons since 2012.7

The 2024 season saw attendance decline by an average of 960 fans per game compared to 2023,7 continuing a troubling trend despite the team’s 2023 playoff appearance. Even promotional initiatives like heritage celebrations, theme nights, and all-you-can-eat seating packages failed to generate sustained attendance growth.7

Tampa Bay Rays: Geography Meets Digital Deficiency

The Tampa Bay Rays face a different but equally challenging attendance scenario. Despite operating one of baseball’s most competitive franchises—regularly contending for playoff positions with one of the league’s lowest payrolls—the Rays drew only 16,515 fans per game in 2024.4

Tropicana Field’s effective capacity for baseball sits at approximately 25,000 seats,8 making it the smallest stadium in Major League Baseball by actual capacity. Even with this reduced capacity, the Rays filled only about 66% of available seats per game in 2024. The organization’s attendance challenges are compounded by stadium location issues, as Tropicana Field sits in St. Petersburg—approximately 20-25 miles from Tampa’s major employment centers and tourist hubs.9

The Hurricane Milton damage to Tropicana Field in October 2024 forced the Rays to play their entire 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, with a capacity of only 11,026.10 This temporary relocation creates both challenges and opportunities for digital strategy implementation, as the team navigates an unprecedented situation while attempting to maintain fan engagement.

The Digital Strategy Gap: Why Traditional Marketing Falls Short

Both organizations’ attendance challenges stem partially from inadequate digital strategy execution in several critical areas:

Search Engine Visibility for Tourism Markets

Neither team has effectively optimized digital content to capture tourism-related search traffic. When tourists plan Miami or Tampa Bay vacations, baseball game attendance should appear as a natural activity option. However, searches like “things to do in Miami,” “Miami vacation planning,” or “Tampa Bay activities” rarely surface Marlins or Rays content in top search results.

This represents a fundamental SEO and content strategy failure. Both teams should rank prominently for tourism-intent keywords, yet they’re essentially invisible in the vacation planning process for millions of annual visitors.

Social Media as Tourism Touchpoint

Social media platforms serve as primary research tools for vacation planning, yet neither organization has built robust social media strategies that position baseball games as must-do tourism experiences. Instagram content focused on game-day atmosphere, stadium amenities, and integration with broader tourism activities remains sparse or inconsistently executed.

The digital content these organizations produce targets existing baseball fans rather than converting tourism audiences into first-time attendees. This narrow approach ignores the massive addressable market of vacationers already committed to visiting the area.

Website Conversion Architecture

Both teams’ websites function primarily as transactional ticketing platforms rather than persuasive tourism conversion engines. The digital experience doesn’t address common tourist concerns: How do I get from my Miami Beach hotel to loanDepot park? Can I attend a game as part of a family day that includes other attractions? What makes attending a Marlins game a unique Miami experience?

These questions remain unanswered in the current digital ecosystem, creating friction in the conversion funnel for tourism audiences.

Email Marketing Integration with Tourism Cycles

Neither organization has developed sophisticated email marketing strategies that align with tourism planning cycles. Tourists typically plan vacations 30-90 days in advance, yet teams’ email communications don’t target this audience segment with appropriate timing, messaging, or offers.

Integration with tourism industry email databases, hotel partner communications, and destination marketing organization channels remains largely unexplored territory for both franchises.

The Tourism Market Opportunity: Quantifying the Addressable Audience

Miami’s Diverse Visitor Demographics

Miami’s 28 million annual visitors represent an enormous untapped market for the Marlins. Breaking down the demographics reveals specific opportunities:

Domestic Visitors: Miami welcomed 12.97 million domestic visitors in 2024,11 with top source markets including New York City (1.86 million), Chicago (685,000), and Atlanta (556,000).11 Many of these visitors come from cities with strong baseball cultures and existing MLB fandom, making them pre-qualified prospects for game attendance.

International Tourism: The market attracted 6.44 million international visitors in 2024,11 with Colombia (434,000), Brazil (382,000), and Canada (283,000) leading source countries.11 These international visitors often seek authentic American cultural experiences, positioning baseball as an ideal activity.

Average Length of Stay: Domestic visitors stayed an average of 4.2 days in 2024,11 providing multiple opportunities for game attendance within a single trip. The extended stay duration means tourists aren’t choosing between beach time and baseball—they have capacity for both.

Visitor Spending Patterns: Each visitor spent an average of $785 during their Miami stay,12 demonstrating willingness to allocate budget toward experiences and entertainment—categories that include sporting events.

Tampa Bay’s Convention and Family Tourism

Tampa Bay’s tourism profile differs significantly from Miami’s, creating distinct opportunities:

Convention and Business Travel: Tampa Bay experienced record convention and business travel in 2023,2 with Hillsborough County achieving over 78% hotel occupancy—4% higher than the state average and 20% higher than the national average.13 Business travelers represent an ideal audience for weeknight games, as they seek evening entertainment options.

Family Tourism Demographics: Between 2019 and 2023, the share of households with children visiting downtown Tampa grew from 25.9% to 27.1%,14 indicating increasing family tourism. Median household income of visitors increased from $85,100 to $91,800 during the same period,14 demonstrating growing affluence in the tourist base.

Beach Destination Visitors: Pinellas County collected a record $14.6 million in tourism development taxes in March 2024 alone,13 reflecting robust beach tourism that could be converted into cross-selling opportunities for Rays games.

Airport Traffic: Tampa International Airport welcomed 23.9 million passengers in 2023—a 32% increase from 2021.15 This growing air connectivity expands the addressable tourism market significantly.

Digital Strategy as the Bridge Between Tourism and Tickets

The solution to both teams’ attendance challenges lies in comprehensive digital strategy that positions baseball games as integral components of the vacation experience rather than standalone sporting events.

This requires fundamental shifts in several areas:

Content Strategy: Moving from team-centric content to experience-centric content that addresses tourist needs, concerns, and desires.

SEO Implementation: Targeting tourism-intent keywords alongside traditional baseball search terms to capture vacation planners at earlier stages of the decision-making process.

Social Media Positioning: Creating visual and narrative content that showcases the baseball experience as vacation memory creation rather than just sports entertainment.

Partnership Integration: Coordinating digital strategies with hotels, convention centers, tourism boards, and attractions to create seamless cross-promotion and bundling opportunities.

Email Marketing Segmentation: Developing distinct communication streams for tourism audiences with appropriate timing relative to travel planning cycles.

Website Experience: Redesigning digital properties to address tourist-specific questions, concerns, and conversion barriers.

The subsequent blogs in this series will explore each of these components in detail, providing actionable frameworks for implementing tourism-focused digital strategies. The opportunity is clear: millions of potential customers already visit these markets annually. The challenge is converting tourism traffic into ticket sales through strategic digital intervention.

Citations

Footnotes

  1. Hotelagio. “How Many Tourists Visit Miami Each Year? [30+ Miami Tourism Statistics].” Accessed January 2025. https://hotelagio.com/miami-tourism-statistics/ ⚾️ ⚾️2
  2. Visit Tampa Bay. “Tampa Bay Tourism Soars to its Best Year Ever!” October 31, 2023. https://www.visittampabay.com/media/news/post/tampa-bay-tourism-soars-to-its-best-year-ever/ ⚾️ ⚾️2
  3. Baseball-Reference.com. “2024 Miami Marlins Statistics.” Accessed January 2025. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIA/2024.shtml ⚾️
  4. Statista. “Tampa Bay Rays average attendance 2024.” October 1, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/246830/average-per-game-attendance-of-the-tampa-bay-rays/ ⚾️ ⚾️2
  5. Statista. “Miami Marlins average attendance 2024.” October 1, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/246828/average-per-game-attendance-of-the-miami-marlins/ ⚾️
  6. Wikipedia. “LoanDepot Park.” Accessed January 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoanDepot_Park ⚾️
  7. Fish On First. “Marlins rank last in National League in attendance for 11th straight full season.” September 23, 2024. https://fishonfirst.com/news-rumors/miami-marlins/attendance-loandepot-park-2024/ ⚾️ ⚾️2 ⚾️3
  8. Wikipedia. “Tropicana Field.” Accessed January 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicana_Field ⚾️
  9. DRaysBay. “Is it time to discuss Rays attendance?” October 6, 2023. https://www.draysbay.com/2023/10/6/23905743/is-it-time-to-discuss-rays-attendance ⚾️
  10. St Pete Catalyst. “Will the Rays fill a minor league stadium in Tampa?” March 20, 2025. https://stpetecatalyst.com/will-the-rays-fill-a-minor-league-stadium-in-tampa/ ⚾️
  11. Road Genius. “Miami Tourism Statistics – How Many Tourists Visit per Year?” Accessed January 2025. https://roadgenius.com/statistics/tourism/usa/miami/ ⚾️ ⚾️2 ⚾️3 ⚾️4 ⚾️5
  12. Tripplo. “40+ Miami Tourism Statistics, Numbers and Trends.” Accessed January 2025. https://www.tripplo.co.uk/blog/miami-tourism-statistics-and-trends ⚾️
  13. WUSF. “Tampa Bay area tourism soars as the state also reaches record numbers.” May 23, 2024. https://www.wusf.org/local-state/2024-05-23/tampa-bay-area-tourism-soars-as-the-state-also-reaches-record-numbers ⚾️ ⚾️2
  14. Placer.ai. “Tampa Tourism Trends.” Accessed January 2025. https://www.placer.ai/anchor/articles/tampa-tourism-trends ⚾️ ⚾️2
  15. Avison Young. “Trends in Tampa tourism and visitation.” Accessed January 2025. https://www.avisonyoung.us/w/trends-in-tampa-tourism-and-visitation ⚾️

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