baseball attendance

I think baseball has a bigger problem than a bad stadium in any given market. There were only 12k fans in the stands in Oakland on Sunday for the "Perfect Game". Here in the Tampa Bay area there is a push to replace the baseball stadium currently known as Tropicana Field. The "baseball" stadium was built approved by the City of St. Petersburg in 1986 as the Pinellas Sportsplex, broke ground over a toxic waste dump in 1987 (hence, the unoffficial name, "Toxidome"), finished it 1989, opened in 1990 as the St. Petersburg Suncoast Dome, was home to the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 1992-1995 season as the Thumderdome, was host to the Basketball "Sweet 16", indoor fireworks displays, Concerts, Motivational Seminars with the likes of Rudy Guiliani, Bush 41, Barbara Bush, General Norman Schwartzkoff, etc., Home Shows, tractorpulls. Finally, after being used for 12 years by other teams, such as the Twins, White Sox, Mariners, and Giants, as a bargaining chip for new stadiums, there was a $30M face lift to the purpose for which it was originally built with the awarding of the "Devil Rays" franchise. I like the Trop. I like the catwalks interfering with the play. I saw that when they built it there would be an issue. To condemn the stadium because of that would be akin to replacing Fenway because the "Green Monster" is too high. It is always a guaranteed game, 72 degrees, low humidity, and no wind. Winning night home games have a lighted Orange Roof and can be seen for miles. It is sandwiched in between 3 Interstates. Only traffic is within about 3 block radius of the game.
Until attendance on TV and other ball parks increase, I can't see replacing this or any other park, the marketing of baseball is on the downside of the cycle at this point in time. The Rays are in too small of a market to make a difference and the Yankees are ho-hum when they win the World Series. We need more "sports geeks" positive to the game. Not more of them who can't figure out that there is fun playing and watching the game and critisizing every one of the players with unfounded accusations of hearsay, half-truths, and rumours. The Rays are not going anywhere soon - and they are fun to watch. Now, if they could only do something about making the field look better. Go Rays!!! Stay Rays!!!