NAIMOLI UNSURE WHAT TO MAKE OF RAYS' SPRING TRAINING CROWDS

          Through the Devil Rays' first six home games against
     MLB opponents, before Saturday's first sellout, the team had
     drawn an average of 4,393 to Al Lang Stadium, about three-
     fourths of the 6,100-seat capacity and seventh among 20 FL-
     based MLB clubs, according to Marc Topkin of the ST. PETE
     TIMES.  However, because the Rays conduct spring training in
     their hometown, Managing General Partner Vince Naimoli said,
     "I'm not sure what to make of it."  One line of thinking is
     that the Rays "are overexposed in the Tampa Bay market, that
     they are tapping out the same audience by selling regular-
     season tickets, tons of new merchandise and spring training
     tickets."  Naimoli: "I'm sure there's something to what
     you're saying.  If we trained somewhere else, we could
     probably sell more tickets.  But there are a lot of
     intangible advantages to training here.  I think there are
     far more pluses than negatives" (ST. PETE TIMES, 3/8).