Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg and President Brian Auld yesterday insinuated that if fans "don't attend and corporations don't scoop up suites and blocks of season tickets, the team can't afford to stay in the region," according to Charlie Frago of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. Sternberg: "The only thing to do, and I'm loath to do, is to threaten, but you can't really threaten." He added of the team's corporate support, "There's nothing really at this point." Auld "did not say better corporate support is a 'condition' for building a new stadium, but he came close." Auld: "We've got to make a big leap and make that leap before any of us can feel really good about what's going to be a very large public-private partnership." St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said, "If you're a corporation and you don't have a suite and you don't have tickets, do it. If we're going to tell the team that we want them here in the Tampa Bay region, we have to show it." Sternberg said it is "too early to tell if corporations will respond." Sternberg: "Certainly come fall, I need to have a better answer." Sternberg said that by Thanksgiving, he would "like to have a small list of stadium sites to ponder." He added that the Rays already have "looked at 10 to 20 sites" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 4/27).
