A World Series home game should be a celebration for the home crowd, but at Tropicana Field, the visiting fans stole the show. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.” FOX host Kevin Burkhardt admitted as Milwaukee Brewers fans turned the Tampa Bay Rays’ home turf into what looked like an extension of American Family Field. The sight of Brewers supporters celebrating a dominant 10-1 victory in Game 3 was unusual enough. But with Milwaukee now one win away from its first World Series title, the imbalance in the stands has become impossible to ignore.

As Brewers fans descend on Tropicana Field for a potential championship celebration in Game 4, many have assumed it was the Rays’ fans’ issue. But MLB analyst Erik Kratz believes the answer goes beyond fan loyalty. The franchise itself created the conditions for its fans to be outnumbered at baseball’s biggest moment.

“You can’t have that many away fans in your stadium for the first World Series game since 2008. How do you prevent it? You, as an organization actually like advertise in your city, promote your team. It’s not a fan base issue.

The fan base isn’t catered to. When you go to an away game in the World Series, you can see the pockets of fans. And other than that, that is it. It shouldn’t be this way as a fan base. I blame the organization. Not advertising, not promoting their team as much in the city, whether you got to go over a bridge or a causeway, whatever it is, it just can’t be this way,” Kratz said via Foul Territory.

The issue of the Rays not being advertised enough may not be attributed to the franchise alone.

The specific complaint regarding a lack of visibility on the causeway bridges comes down to strict local zoning laws.

The causeway bridges themselves do not have physical digital billboard structures along the water. Furthermore, the billboard spaces immediately leading onto the Howard Frankland Bridge from both the Tampa and St. Pete sides are owned by national aggregate media companies. These spaces require booking months, sometimes a full year, in advance.

The Rays’ postseason was entirely unpredictable. They could not risk buying out millions in highway billboard inventory weeks in advance for a World Series they weren’t guaranteed to make.

Moreover, there is a long-standing marketing rift between Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Because Tropicana Field is located in Pinellas County (St. Pete), the city of St. Petersburg handles major local operational partnerships.

“They don’t really advertise this team in Tampa because it’s not in Tampa. It’s in St. Pete. Yes, it is in Tampa Bay, but it’s not in Tampa. They don’t really advertise it in Tampa. Because people don’t want to drive over the causeway slash bridge,” AJ Pierzynski added.

Tropicana Field is located in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is geographically isolated from the region’s main population density centers in Tampa and higher-income suburbs. Hence, commuting across the bridges during rush-hour weeknight traffic is a notorious deterrent for local fans trying to make an 8:00 PM first pitch.

Adding to the Rays’ woes, thousands of passionate fans made the trip from Wisconsin.

They packed flights out of Milwaukee to watch the franchise chase its first-ever World Series title. In Game 3, the Rays fans were seen leaving the Trop early as their team was trailing 10-1. The Brewers fans are taking that space.

According to TickPick, 45% of Game 4 tickets are bought by fans from Wisconsin or Illinois, compared to just 31% from Florida. That’s surely not only due to the Rays’ lack of advertising, but also their 3-0 trail in the series.

Yet, a better promotional plan and on-field performance would have prevented Tropicana Field from becoming an extension of American Family Field.