The Tampa Bay Rays will continue to play at St. Pete's Tropicana Field until 2027. Credit: City of St. Pete via Flickr/CC2

The Tampa Bay Rays will continue to play at St. Pete’s Tropicana Field until 2027. Credit: City of St. Pete via Flickr/CC2

Tommy Pham has called out the Tampa Bay Rays' fan base. On Thursday, Dec. 28, the Rays outfielder expressed his frustration with local fans not showing up to support the St. Petersburg-based team.

"Do I think something has to happen, whether it be a new ballpark, maybe a new city? I think so," Pham told MLB Network Radio. "Because if you have a team that's going to be winning 90-plus games, competing in [the American League East], and you don't have any fan support, that's a huge problem."


Pham previously played for the St. Louis Cardinals before joining the Rays back in July.

"It sucks going from playing in front of a great fan base to a team with really no fan base at all," he said. "St. Louis, they're one of the few teams to where day in and day out they have 40,000 fans at every game.

"That's something that I miss, because even here in the Dominican they have a strong fan base for the team I'm playing for. Their fans are very supportive, they're loud. And the Rays? They just don't have that."

But, of course, Pham isn't the first Ray to criticize the team's fans, or lack thereof.

In September 2010, former third baseman Evan Longoria and his then-teammate, pitcher David Price, both called the attendance of one home game "embarrassing."

The Rays will continue to play at St. Pete's Tropicana Field until 2027.

This article appears in Dec 27, 2018 – Jan 3, 2019.