ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - They are getting closer to the playoffs and are one of baseball's best stories this year. The Tampa Bay Rays' bandwagon, however, rattles along with plenty of empty seats.

With dynamic young stars, new uniforms and the "Devil'' freshly exorcised from the team name this year, this has been one remarkable turnaround.

But the team is still playing to small crowds at Tropicana Field, a situation that's starting to give fans a bit of national black eye. The lack of buzz has some commentators questioning whether the Tampa Bay area even deserves to have the team.

Mark Lunghi sat in seats between home and first base Thursday night with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, all clad in new Rays gear. They were among an announced crowd of 17,296 for a game against another contender, the Minnesota Twins. Lunghi said the criticism is deserved.

"We're talking playoffs here. We're talking a team that's in contention for the wild card here,'' said Lunghi, a 49-year-old poker dealer at the St. Petersburg greyhound track. "They're playing at a level that deserves fan support. There should be 25,000 or 30,000 people here.''

The good news is that attendance is up more than 30 percent from last year. The bad news: The average home crowd of about 22,000 is still one of the lowest in the majors this season. Only Florida, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Oakland are worse draws. Tropicana Field's capacity is 36,048.

The Rays managed to sell out just one of the three games against Boston as the teams battled for the AL East lead earlier this week. Vocal Red Sox fans made up a good chunk of those crowds.

"Seriously, if the plucky, exciting Tampa Bay Rays make the playoffs, shouldn't their games be moved to a place where fans actually care about the product?'' Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley wrote this week after the Rays drew fewer than 30,000 for the opening game against the Red Sox.

The excuses for the malaise are familiar to anyone who's been around for the first 10 seasons of the expansion team when the club finished out of the AL East basement just once:

-Home for the foreseeable future is an uninspiring dome that's as good as it's ever going to get.

-The stadium is in St. Petersburg, clear across the bay from the population center in Tampa.

-Most in the area are from somewhere else, meaning the Rays are still creating homegrown fans in their 11th season.

"It's the same reason that attendance has been bad for 11 years here,'' said John Romano, a sports columnist for the St. Petersburg Times who grew up in the area. "This is not a great sports market for a lot of different reasons.''

"A lot of it is this place,'' added 34-year-old Denise Ankenbauer of Clearwater, who was using her parents' season tickets for Thursday night's game. "A lot of people want the outdoor stadium. This is Florida, and (the dome) is nice when its 80 degrees outside at 7 o'clock at night. But an outside stadium, that's baseball.''

Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg remains upbeat. Sternberg, who bought the team three years ago and cleaned house, thinks fan support will follow the team's success.

"I think the proof will be next year,'' he said. "Once people have gotten used to the fact that we're actually a winning organization and an organization they're proud of, to see from Day 1 how we hit the ground. If we're having these conversions next year at this time, I might have a different answer for you.''

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Players say larger home crowds would be nice but obviously are not necessary to win. The Rays have the best home record in baseball.

"I tell (the other players), 'We may not have 30,000, but play for the ones who are here every day,''' veteran pitcher Troy Percival said. "Play for ourselves, and I think that's what we've done more than anything.''

Outfielder Jonny Gomes, who's been in the Rays organization since 2001, doesn't blame the fans for being slow to come around.

"You gotta crawl before you can walk,'' he said. "We ran together 10 straight (terrible) years in front of this city, in front of this fan base. We had a good half and everyone was begging for fans to come. I can understand where they're coming from.

"I think the best thing that can happen for this area is to bring the division title, to bring the playoffs and hopefully bring a World Series here,'' he said. "Will it make it easier if it's a sold-out house? I don't know. But it won't hurt.''