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Question: Does Tampa Bay deserve to have a baseball team?

COMPETITIVE TEAM ON FIELD WILL PUT MORE FANNIES IN SEATS

Of course Tampa Bay deserves this team.

Okay, maybe not this team. But a team.

Say what you want about sagging attendance at the Trop, but the bay area has shown it will support a team that wins (see: Bucs and Lightning). The Devil Rays don't have to contend for a title every year, they just have to be competitive. They don't need to spend a fortune, they just have to show they're trying.

Is this a bad baseball area?

I don't know how anybody can make that argument. Put this team in any other city and what kind of attendance do you think it would draw? Would Yankee Stadium be filled every night if New Yorkers were forced to watch a franchise struggle to win 70 games? Get real. In Atlanta, the stands are half-empty for a team that challenges for the National League pennant every season. Does that mean Atlanta doesn't deserve a team?

Give Tampa Bay a break.

Better yet, give it a franchise that makes an effort - a real effort. And give it a team that wins. Then you'll see some fans.

- KEITH NIEBUHR

There are stadiums just as bad as the Trop. Check out the ones for the Twins, Marlins, A's and White Sox, and the Rays' home will be much more appreciated. Admittedly, all but the Marlins draw better than the Rays because of a winning product.

However, there are teams just as bad as the Rays. Yet they also draw more fans than the Rays' average of 1.46-million during their seven seasons, including 2.51-million for the inaugural season.

The Brewers have endured 12 consecutive losing seasons but have averaged 1.95-million fans during the past seven seasons, including 2.81-million in 2001, their first season at Miller Park; Pirates: 12 consecutive losing seasons, 1.77-million, including 2.46-million in 2001, their first season at PNC Park; Tigers: 11 consecutive losing seasons, 1.8-million, including 2.44-million in 2000, their first season at Comerica Park; Orioles: seven consecutive seasons, 3.06-million; Royals: 9 of 10 losing seasons, 1.55-million; Rockies: 6 of 7 losing seasons, 3.02-million.

The bottom line: No baseball market is worse than the Rays'. Of the 30 teams, 20 others in the United States share a market with at least two teams from the four major pro sports (baseball, football, basketball and hockey).

According to the 2000 census, only three have metropolitan populations of persons 16 and older fewer than Tampa's 1.978-million (which includes St. Petersburg and Clearwater): Seattle (1.922-million), Pittsburgh (1.832-million) and Denver (1.668-million).

And only one, the Marlins at $39,236, plays in a market with a median household income less than the Rays' $39,286. It is not a coincidence Florida's teams consistently rank near the bottom in attendance.

So if the bay area can't support three teams, who should go: Rays, Bucs or Lightning? As they say in the business world: Last one hired, first one fired.

- AARON GREENFIELD

What would you do if you were sports czar for a day?

Niebuhr (Make pros get a real job) - 369

James (Let kids play in pro stadiums) - 278

Niebuhr - 1,387

James - 1,304