Yankees president rips two teams for attendance issues

New York Yankees team president Randy Levine called out two rival teams by name on Wednesday over their attendance issues despite receiving revenue sharing money from the league.

Speaking at Sportico’s Invest in Sports conference, Levine said the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays need to “take some responsibility” for failing to boost attendance despite receiving millions in revenue sharing money annually. Levine argued that it is unreasonable to allow certain teams to lean on revenue sharing while drawing mediocre attendance figures.

“A lot more focus has to be on individual teams to do better and not just rely on revenue sharing,” Levine said, via Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. “You can’t have two Florida teams averaging 15,000 fans. You can’t have it. You don’t go into an NFL stadium or an NBA arena and see that. And I think that there’s been a dependency issue that’s got to get better. … The commissioner has done an incredible job, but now it’s on individual teams. Instead of complaining and whining, ‘We need more money,’ you got to take some responsibility.”

Levine’s thoughts are probably shared by other big-market executives who think these teams are leaning too hard on revenue sharing to stay relevant. Notably, both the Marlins and Rays made the playoffs despite low payrolls, but Tampa Bay in particular was harshly criticized for a pathetic turnout to its two AL wild-card games at Tropicana Field.

It is not clear what the Florida clubs can do to bolster attendance, since the Rays routinely field a competitive team. At some point, expect the commissioner to hear about it from some of these large-market franchises.