Tampa Bay Rays in 2025

[Benjamin Grimm]

Their stadium was heavily damaged by Hurricane Milton, so the Rays don't know where they'll be playing their home games in 2025.



https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2024/10/15/where-rays-will-play-2025-one-many-questions-after-trop-damage/Where Rays will play in 2025 one of many questions after Trop damage



The article mentions that the Rays expect to start play in a new stadium, adjacent to the site of the current stadium, in 2028. I must have missed that. I thought the Rays' long-term future in the Tampa-St. Pete area was still in doubt. If the Rays are settled, and the A's are bound for Las Vegas, I think that means that expansion talk will soon heat up.



https://www.tampabay.com/resizer/v2/an-aerial-drone-view-of-tropicana-field-QWB7N6FRIJFPBDRTATNVJ7Y6J4.jpg?auth=d5f687f0d24655c78cafc79fac2278740909158b69a7a4a4ecaa817ef5fe7a0e&height=506&width=900&smart=true>



https://www.tampabay.com/resizer/v2/here-you-can-see-the-damage-inside-JPZOYEVJBRDLNO2W5SXAJC3AVU.jpg?auth=33aae4f8c8c6131d01143e1f3c3ddc6ebb9eb5dea332e518df91cda2e22d5895&width=620>

[kcmets]

That link is a pop-up nightmare on my end bombed out twice.



The Oakland Rays has a nice ring to it for 2025.

[metirish]

That's an interesting read ,and intriguing to see what options might be explored, Miami would seem to make the most sense , but as stated there are many conflicting games on the schedule

[Fman99]

Wow, the Trop finally looks on the outside the way all of its fans have felt on the inside since it was opened.

[Edgy MD]

Well, since they averaged 16,515 fans per game, I'm sure they can do fine close to the bay area at a college field, spring training facility, or minor league park until the roof is repaired.



Heck, they should take over Steinbrenner Field. It's got the biggest capacity of all spring training parks and it's kind of inexplicable that they leave their home city to the Yankees in the spring while they take off down the coast for Port Charlotte.



Is there that much structural damage apart from the fabric roof being blown off?

[metirish]

Access to the building has been extremely limited due to safety concerns, including the integrity of the struts that held the Teflon-coated fiberglass roof.



There are indications of extensive damage elsewhere at the stadium. For example, some team offices on the fourth floor, which had drop ceilings under the overall roof, are now open to the elements.



It would seem there could well be a lot of damage

[kcmets]

Why don't they just put up a force field instead of a new

Teflon roof? It's going to 2025 in a few months not 1975!!

[MFS62]

I guess they'll be raising the price of orange juice to pay for that.



Later

[Frayed Knot]

Suxx for the Rays but, let's face it, ripping the roof off that joint is an act of neighborhood beautification.

[Chad ochoseis]

Nobody has played a regular season baseball game at Olympic Stadium since 2005, and it's still sitting there empty.

[Edgy MD]

It seems like the real issue isn't whether the park can be repaired, or whether it can be repaired by opening day, but whether anyone wants to bother repairing it, with a new Rays' home due to open in a few years, which is a sad state of affairs.

The largest stadium in the United States without a major-league team is Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, the 24,000-seat home of the College World Series.

Excuse me, but my name is Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, and I'm standing right here.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: Excuse me, but my name is Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, and I'm standing right here.

Same Rays, different Bay.

Works for me.

Later

[Edgy MD]

It looks like the Blue Jays Spring Training complex in nearby Dunedin is currently the leading candidate to be a temporary home for the Rays. Like The Trop, it's on the St. Pete side of the bay, as is the Phillies' Clearwater park. The Yankees train on the Tampa side, plus, they're the Yankees.



Still, it'd be kind of embarrassing to play all or part of the season as a guest of a division rival.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy MD wrote: It looks like the Blue Jays Spring Training complex in nearby Dunedin is currently the leading candidate to be a temporary home for the Rays. Like The Trop, it's on the St. Pete side of the bay, as is the Phillies' Clearwater park. The Yankees train on the Tampa side, plus, they're the Yankees. Still, it'd be kind of embarrassing to play all or part of the season as a guest of a division rival.

Why can't they use The Hard Rock Stadium in the greater Miami area?

[Edgy MD]

I imagine that they can, but it's probably not the best fit relative to the organization's preferences and priorities.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy MD wrote: Still, it'd be kind of embarrassing to play all or part of the season as a guest of a division rival.

Then again, much of their “fanbase” is made up of transplanted members of those divisional rivals' fanbases

[Edgy MD]

I can't speak to that. I don't really know much about the culture of the team or its fans, or really much about the Tampa/St. Pete area at all.



I do know how I'd feel if it was my team, or a team I cared about.

[Gwreck]

Edgy MD wrote: I imagine that they can, but it's probably not the best fit relative to the organization's preferences and priorities.

I actually wouldn't be so sure it's a viable option. It hasn't been a dual-purpose facility in quite some time now.

[Edgy MD]

It's still not particularly clear to me what damage has been done that is so irreparable. The Metrodome had its cloth roof ripped apart, like, five or six times, with multiple lesser ruptures along the way.



It reads like both the team and the insurer feeling like they don't want to put even a modest renovation payout toward a building that is going to be abandoned within a few years anyhow.

[metirish]

[Benjamin Grimm]

I guess the question is, do they think the $55 million (or more) is a worthy investment for a doomed (and domed) stadium?

[MFS62]

That's probably more than the entire team's payroll.



OE: not quite. Team payroll is $88 million.

Later

[metirish]

Marc Topkin who covers the Rays says they will play at Steinbrenner Field



https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2024/11/14/interim-stadium-steinbrenner-field-yankees-tarpons-pinellas-st-petersburg/https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2024/11/14/interim-stadium-steinbrenner-field-yankees-tarpons-pinellas-st-petersburg/

[G-Fafif]

The worst-named facility in Spring Training history provides us a new winner for worst-named facility in MLB history.

[metirish]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wow. If I had known about that, I would have offered to let them play in my back yard for half as much.

[bmfc1]

Enjoy the day games!

[MFS62]

If they wanted to play on a minor league field, why not YS III?

Later

[Edgy MD]

Glad to see the Tampa side of the bay get some baseball.



Also glad to see a Yankee facility turned against the Yankees.

[metirish]

Doesn't look good