Consider the stakes raised on Rays' stadium issue

We were near the end of an hourlong meeting with Rays owner Stu Sternberg on Monday afternoon at the News Center when he was asked directly how long he'd commit to keeping the team without a new stadium.

He didn't hesitate.

"If I don't get a sense that there's real cooperation and movement here, I'd sell the team," he said.

And then he quietly added, almost as an afterthought, "And there'd be no reason for anyone else to keep it here."

The Rays have been talking about a new ballpark for more than two years now with only minimal movement, so I was wondering when Sternberg would raise the stakes.

Consider them raised.

Truth is, he had to. If it seems like every owner of a sports team uses that page from "Strongarm Tactics 101" when trying to get a new stadium, it's probably because being nice never works.

This was not nice. Languishing consistently at the bottom of attendance while fielding one of the best teams in the game is not nice, either, when you're the one writing checks to subsidize the whole thing.

There is the other side, of course.

Tampa Bay area unemployment runs near 12 percent, but even if times were flush people have no obligation to spend their money on tickets. I don't blame people in Hillsborough County who don't make the drive on weeknights to Tropicana Field.

People do watch the games on TV in record numbers, though. The listening audience for radio is similarly high, as are T-shirt sales and the like. Apparently there is more than a little love out there for this team, and if that's the case then it's time everyone lined up for some bad medicine: There will have to be a new stadium built here, somewhere.

I don't necessarily buy the threats that someone else would move the Rays out of the market. Only one team has moved in more than 30 years; Montreal basically kicked the Expos out of town. Even then, it still took several years playing as Le Lame Ducks before they wound up in Washington.

I take the sale threat much more seriously, though. Bad owners like Hugh Culverhouse and the clowns who just sold the Lightning can wreck a franchise, and we've all seen how Sternberg transformed the Rays from clucks to chic. They've become a championship-caliber franchise in every place but the box office.

You can question the nerve it takes for Sternberg to bring this issue up now, while so many people have to choose between gas in the car or food on the table for their kids. In my mind, though, this is precisely the time to bring it up.

If everything worked perfectly, which it won't, it would still be three years or more before any sort of real stadium plan could be in place. They might as well sort all this out now so they'll be ready to go when things improve.

The first step is to make downtown St. Pete understand what the deal is. Breaking up really isn't that hard to do, and the Rays just took the first step.

Sternberg met with St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster earlier Monday, basically looked deeply into his watering eyes as he said as gently as possible, "You know, this just isn't working out. It would be best for us both to see other people. We can still be friends, right?"

Well, probably not. Foster responded predictably, pointing out that the Rays are bound by lease to the Trop for 17 more years.

"Like it or not, we are married and joined at the hip until 2027," he said.

Way to start the dialogue, Mr. Mayor.

I honestly believe there are people in high places in St. Pete who would rather see the Rays move to Las Vegas than to Tampa. And we have proven to be a tenuous market at best. Sternberg made the point in his meeting here that if baseball was looking to add one team, Tampa Bay wouldn't be in the top five for consideration.

That's what Tropicana Field has done to baseball here. As Sternberg wryly noted, "We have learned it's not just about winning."

Sternberg is asking a lot.

He wants leaders to actually lead. As he put it, he wants them to "put boundaries aside" and think of the Rays as something that belongs to everyone who calls this place home. I was about to say pigs will fly when that happens, but the Rays actually made it to the World Series just two years ago, so anything is possible.

So we watch as this plays out over the next months and years, knowing it will get uglier before it gets better. Just remember the truth when it comes to stadiums.

Nice never works.