Attendance for Rays games are still bad. But in a sporting universe where television ratings are king, the Rays are still doing better than most and it is just another reminder of why Major League Baseball will never give up on the Tampa Bay market.

According to Fox, viewership for Rays games on Sun Sports has an average household rating of 4.17, up 4% from the same point last year.

That translates to an average audience of 80,000 homes which would have easily ranked among the top 12 of the 27 Major League Baseball teams with data last year.

That also means, that despite the terrible attendance, if current market conditions hold, the Rays are still looking at a new local television contract in two years that could be worth $80-100 million per year, a huge jump from the approximately $20 million per year they are receiving now.