The recent success of the Tampa Bay Rays stems from their solid young core and strong leadership that guides the team towards victory. The tightly knit core not only involves players and management, but the unreal support of the fanbase. The ownership of the Rays provides the fans with constant updates on the team, and in return the fans pour out their heart and soul into the team. With 303K Instagram followers, 688K Facebook followers, and 574K Twitter followers, the Rays use social media to inspire fans from all over the world to support the team and introduce people world-wide to the passion the Rays organization has.
The constant communication between the organization and fans promotes face to face interactions with players, team members, and fans themselves. Opportunities for fans to spend time with players and staff members occur often. The Big Brothers Big Sisters program takes staff volunteers from the Rays and pairs each with an elementary student at a nearby school. Each member provides the students with life advice, tutoring on school work as well as outside work, and strives to have a memorable time with the child. The program also takes all the students to a Rays game, giving them special access to walk onto the field and meet Rays players. Furthermore, Meals on Wheels is a program where, once a week, Rays employees deliver meals to senior citizens in a housing community. While the meals are enjoyed by all the people, the majority of the time is spent engaging in conversation and sharing life stories. Overall, the goal of providing fans with an outstanding in game and out of game experience is enhanced through the teams usage of social media.
While larger websites such as MLB.com provide watchers with the mainstream stories about the team, smaller websites thrive under the constant support of fans as they are able to share their different opinions and contrary beliefs to the popular ones. Small sites such as Chatsports speak freely about their ideas with extreme support from die-heart Rays fans. If you are interested in meeting other fans of the Tampa Bay Rays and baseball fanatics all together, visit the FanWide website to find watch parties in your area.