ST. PETERSBURG - Eager buyer seeks new home: Wants zero bedrooms, 400 bathrooms, lots of parking. Willing to look across Tampa Bay region.

That's the core message from owners of the Tampa Bay Rays, who announced plans to seek a new home for the team well beyond their current Tropicana Field home in St. Petersburg.

Despite turning a laughingstock team into a World Series contender, lowering ticket prices, offering free parking and better food, the fans still aren't filling the stands. And that has created an untenable business situation, owners said.

"The future of Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay depends on finding the optimal site for a new ballpark," said owner Stuart Sternberg on Monday. That proclamation has simultaneously encouraged a raft of developers hoping to lure a Major League Baseball team, and triggered a potential cross-Bay political fight amid a terrible economy.

Sternberg said regional cooperation is imperative for the Rays' future in the Tampa Bay area.

"If I don't get the sense there's real cooperation, I'd sell the team," he told the Tampa Tribune editorial board Monday afternoon.

Sternberg and other team officials said they are hoping a regional task force will be created to find a site for a new ballpark. Sternberg said he didn't have a deadline in mind for when the task force should form or when site selection should occur.

"I have been patient, if nothing else," he said. "I'm not banging on a table saying I need a new stadium tomorrow."

Yet, Monday's announcement was enough to create friction. St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster fired the first return volley, deriding Sternberg's pledge to stay in the region. "He's committed to the family but he might want to break up with us and start dating my sister," he said. "That doesn't bode well with me."

The problem

The core problem, team owners say, is their rehabilitation of the team into a Cinderella story has not translated into a stadium full of fans as many expected.

Sternberg said he's committed to doing all he can to make baseball succeed in Tampa Bay.

But many weeks, attendance barely reaches above 10,000, among the worst turnout in the MLB. After-game rock concerts often provide a fan draw well larger than the game itself.

Sternberg wouldn't say exactly how much money he has lost investing in the Rays but put the number "between $10 million and $100 million."

"Our ability to compete and, quite frankly, to survive rests on our ability to attract people and businesses to our ballpark," Sternberg said. "And like any other business, we need to be in a location that is convenient for our fans to reach us."

That means looking outside St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.

Developer rush

Monday's developments gave a jolt to the community of developers in the region.

Before today, potential stadium site developers saw nothing but hurdles in the way, said former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, who himself is advising developers who want to build a stadium at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

Government officials outside St. Petersburg were hesitant to court the Rays too aggressively, Greco said, as the team remained in such a tight relationship with St. Petersburg's government. Basic courtesy prevented too overt an overture to the team, he said.

Now those hurdles are gone, Greco said. "Everyone needs to come together and work on what sites could suit their needs, with the right location and amenities. … This is going to start a race of people trying to do just that."

Already developers have proposed sites at the Carillon area near the water in north Pinellas, the West Shore district in Tampa, downtown Tampa and the Florida State Fairgrounds.

Monday's announcement should further energize developers, said Geoffrey Rapp, a sports law expert at the University of Toledo who tracks sports team movements.

"Now, knowing one [team] is willing to move could be shark bait in the water for people to put together packages to attract that team."

In his comments Monday, Sternberg remained vague on what he wants now from a new site, and kept the geography broad.

"We will consider any potential ballpark site in Tampa Bay," he said "But only as part of a process that considers every ballpark site in Tampa Bay."

Politics

Sternberg's new site-shopping spree may be triggering some early political hair-raising.

Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Ken Hagan called Sternberg's comments a logical step toward a "comprehensive process that involves the entire region," but, that dialogue needs to start, he said, with St. Petersburg politicians acknowledging "the fact that if we do not have a regional dialogue, we may well be looking at the Charlotte Rays or the Las Vegas Rays."

ABC Coalition member Alan Bomstein said Sternberg's announcement was significant because the contract the team has with the City of St. Petersburg prohibits Rays officials from talking with parties about a new ballpark. "Stu came out and said he's going to ignore that," Bomstein said.

Sternberg said he wants regional discussions to take place before he would challenge the provisions in the lease agreement.

Legal fight

Foster said he fully expects the Rays to honor their contract, playing in downtown St. Petersburg until 2027.

"Like it or not, we are married and joined at the hip until 2027," he said. "The city of St. Petersburg, quite frankly, won't be brushed aside.''

Foster said the city would raise a legal fight if the Rays start entertaining sites outside St. Petersburg.

At the same time, Foster signaled willingness to negotiate, "if the price is right.''

That flexibility reflects the less-than-firm footing many cities find themselves in negotiating with MLB teams. Unfortunately for cities, many have raised taxes and spent heavily to build new stadiums, Rapp said, then find they have limited options against a team that wants to leave.

Teams can threaten to move, forcing a city to call their bluff and pay for a lengthy and ugly fight in front of voters already angry at politicians who let their favorite team get away. Teams can also threaten to file bankruptcy, which can dissolve contracts.

No money

Despite all the expectations, one factor may trump everyone's hopes: The dismal economy.

In one sense, "they're testing the waters to see how receptive the various government bodies will be to financing or facilitating a new facility," said Michael McCann, Vermont Law School professor and contributor to Sports Illustrated.

"But the Rays may not have the same leverage in making overtures to other cities," McCann said.

Las Vegas is regularly trotted out as a tempter of MLB teams, especially by owners looking to leverage more money from cities trying to keep those teams. Same with Charlotte, N.C.

But Nevada now has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and Charlotte has been stung badly by struggles in the banking industry.

There are no plans to move the team to another city, Sternberg said. The Rays have not talked to, or been approached by, representatives from other cities - like Portland and Charlotte - who've expressed interest in landing a Major League Baseball team, Sternberg said.

Still, paying for a stadium will be the ultimate hurdle. The newest stadiums have been enormously expensive developments, often tied to an elaborate shopping and entertainment district.

McCann summed up: "This isn't a good time to be making requests of taxpayer."

Reporters Michael Sasso, Ray Reyes, Neil Johnson and Yolanda Fernandez contributed to this report. Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919.