Our budget is up eightfold. Mike Veeck has brought his creative thinking to the challenge. We have 104 billboards across central Florida. Lots of ads. We're still fighting to get our SportsChannel games into Sarasota and Orlando.
Surveys show definitively that viewers want it.
No baseball team has ever increased attendance in its second season. We did 2.5-million in 1998, but that is Veeck's avowed target, to put at least as many in Tropicana Field seats in 1999. We're not in it to lose a lot of money, but we're also not in it to make money. Our start-up costs were huge. But, yes, we are operating in the black.