Tropicana Field was damaged by Hurricane Milton last week, most notably with the majority of the roof being torn off. Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, there’s still a lot of uncertainty around the full nature of the damage and what comes next, but it seems unlikely the Trop will be ready to host games by Opening Day of 2025.
The Rays are scheduled to be at home to start the next season, hosting the Rockies and then the Pirates for a six-game homestand that is supposed to start on March 27. But it seems there’s a decent chance the Trop won’t be playable by then. The facility doesn’t have any drainage, which means the lack of a roof is a significant problem until a solution is found. That’s on top of other potential damage that is still being assessed, laid out by Topkin in his piece.
The Rays had planned to build a new stadium adjacent to the Trop’s current location, with the hope being that it would be ready by 2028. It’s currently unclear if that timeline will be impacted by the hurricane damage. Even if that ends up being delayed, the club may have to make some tough decisions about the Trop, since it was planned for demolition to make room for the new stadium.
From a financial point of view, the club won’t want to devote significant resources into a facility that is on its last legs, which is perhaps why they are in this situation in the first place. Last week, Sam Blum of The Athletic spoke to David Campbell of Geiger Engineers, the group that installed the Trop’s roof back in 1990. He said the roof came with a timeline of roughly 25 years, meaning it probably should have been replaced a few years ago. But Campbell suggests that the plans for the new stadium probably pushed the club to forego the cost, which left the aging roof more vulnerable to the damage it ultimately sustained.
Campbell estimated that the roof could be fixed in five to six months “if the primary structure is serviceable.” That roughly lines up with the time until Opening Day 2025 but it’s possible that further inspection could find more damage and push that estimate, which is why the odds seem to be against the Trop being viable by March.
The Rays will now need to have some discussions about next steps and it seems there’s a wide range outcomes. “The Rays have to get a sense on whether they are looking for a temporary home for a few months, for a full season or for all three years,” Topkin writes. “Plus, Major League Baseball will have a say, and the players union is sure to be involved.”
Topkin goes on to mention a number of possible backup plans, which are all imperfect in various ways. A nearby minor league stadium would be convenient in some ways, as the location wouldn’t be drastically different, but each would likely require investment of some kind to get it closer to major league standards.
The minor league stadiums also don’t have roofs, which means frequent weather delays and postponements could become an ongoing problem. That’s on top of the logistical hurdles of sharing with the team that normally plays its home games there or moving that club elsewhere. Each venue would also come with concerns in terms of capacity, amenities, accessibility and so on.
There are also more extreme suggestions put forth, such as playing in a city like Durham or Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Montreal, Quebec; or even San Juan, Puerto Rico. Those all seem to be speculative on the part of Topkin but perhaps those situations will get more serious consideration going forward. If such an extreme scenario does come to pass, it will make for an odd alignment with the Athletics. The A’s are planning to move to Las Vegas but their stadium is also not planned to open until 2028. Their lease in Oakland ran out and a new deal wasn’t reached, so the A’s are planning to play in Sacramento until then, in the Triple-A park of the Giants’ affiliate. It seems there’s at least some chance that two clubs are nomadic for the 2025-27 seasons, which would be an odd and unwelcome development for the league.
The full extent of the damage and related costs are still being worked out, which is why there is still a wide range of outcomes here, but it will be a notable storyline to follow in the coming weeks and months.
Underrated park. One of the most relaxing games I’ve been to. Wish I got to see the Colloseum too. Something about those stadiums I love.
Absolutely horrific news about the Trop, home of my Rays. This piece upset me so much that I had to hit my son over the head with the tv remote. Thanks Sternberg, now my son and I are both crying because of your cheapness.
Off topic, but I thought the location within the city was part of the Rays problem. Why build a new oark right next to it?
From my understanding, a lot of it has to do with St Pete is willing to foot a lot of the bill where as if they built it at the Florida State Fairgrounds or Ybor, theyd the owner would pay a lot more out of pocket. These types of decisions, paired with zero spending on players I think its pretty indicative that the owner is more interested in profit by cutting costs than profit by providing a great product.
Bingo. Pinellas county and the city of St Pete are willing to fork over in excess of $600 million in taxpayer dollars and sell Sternberg 65 acres of land at pennies on the dollar.
The city of Tampa, where the Ybor City neighborhood is located, and Hillsborough county had nixed doing anything like that. Although they did say they would pay for infrastructure improvements including public transportation that would cost a couple hundred million.
You are right. You would think that the owners would understand this very pivotal piece of logic. Wish I could get a preview of 2032 when Rays attendance is still dead last in the league, and the owners are trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe they will add a giant home run sculpture or an aquarium!
This
The colloseum isn’t great, but not as bad as bad people say. Had some great tailgates outside that stadium
Worst part was Mount Davis. Before that it was a decent baseball ballpark. Not great, but good.
Definitely not an underrated park. Take it from a native in the area, it’s in a terrible location, thats why attendance is abysmal no matter how good the Rays do. Baseballs getting caught in the rafters is also a huge negative, its not even a charming field hazard like the flagpole hill thing the astros used to have. The only thing its got going for it is that its old, so it has some charm there, but thats a majority of its issues too, its pretty dated and condensed. I have a way better experience watching minor league games or spring training games at George M Steinbrenner for example.
You think attendance is abysmal now just wait till the rays start tanking every year, actually it’s already started. Ahahaha!
Itll be the exact same as all the other times theyve tanked unless they move across the bridge
I don’t get the bad location argument. I go to several games there every year and never have an issue getting there. Now, if the new stadium was built on the Tampa side of the bay I wouldn’t complain.
A new and better stadium, even if it were in Tampa, still won’t solve the biggest problem of playing in the Snowbird State.
I’ve been to 19 of the 30 MLB stadiums and there’s no competition for the Oakland Coliseum being the worst. Just an outdated concrete mass way past its time.
Agreed… nice to sit on the beach in Sarasota all day and get a nice seat for a low price sitting in the AC watching a ball game
I agree. I loved my experience at the trop each time I went.
If my personal recollection of attending Raiders games at the Coliseum doesn’t play tricks on me, the place is a dump full of societal riffraff, marinating in the California sun.
Admittedly, after the conclusion of the contests I always made my way back to the car as quickly as possible and didn’t wait for the outcome of the shootings and knife fights in the parking lot.
Whether the convicts to respectable citizens ratio during A’s games is equally poor, I can’t tell..
I think there is nobody happier than the owners of the Tampa Bay Rays who want a new stadium so bad
johnny – The new stadium was already approved, so how does this make Rays ownership happier?
If anything the damage in the surrounding area could delay the opening of the new stadium.
It could also lower team revenues for 2 or 3 years.
Montreal. They are starving for baseball.
probably should’ve thought of that before the Expos left.
To be honest.. ‘Spos had two horrid stadiums.. jerry park and old Olympic stadium, which many players blamed for ruined knees with what some rated as the hardest surface in the game. neither stadium was worthy of anything above AAA and as the name implies.. Olympic stadium was some rigged up ’76 Olympics left over, morphed into a baseball field. Montreal never did have a real stadium for the game, much like the trash dome in St pete/Tampa,, but don’t count on State $$ to replace it. Florida isn’t California and Desantis just couple years backed kicked Sternberg to the curb when he wanted tax $$ for HIS ST facility. He wants a stadium? Pay for it, or con local government to help, which in Florida is political suicide.
Olympic Stadium was horrible. I enjoyed the environment that the Expos provided, but you could barely see the other of the park. And fitting 20,000 people into a park built for 80,000, looked horrible.
True, John. Ever see the planned build for Labatt Park? That would have been something. But … vive les Expos!
Joe – the lower bowl went on forever. Sitting at the top of the lower bowl required binoculars. Still, saw my first MLB game at the Big O in 1981. Fond memories.
CA hasn’t pays for a stadium in decades. Hence the Chargers and A’s moving.
Our money goes to a choo choo train that will never be completed.
30parks- one of my biggest things missed from time was at San diego decades ago was always wanted to attend a UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. Had heard, even then most of the seats were so called “nose bleeders” and u had to take binoculars to see anything, but my dad and I when was little used to watch the rose bowl game, like religiously every NY day and that time stationed at SD was best chance, but never did get around to it..
Halos- the mistake? california, as in the government was involved. Florida has 1, 1st part, from Orlando to Miami has been finished for couple years and 100% privately financed. THAT is how things get done on time and on budget, not having useless bureaucracy added at every stage along the way, much for meaningless garbage.
FWIW.. my son has ridden it before and 125m trip ain’t cheap for time saved.. Like almost 200.
As a guy who hates flying, those trains sound awesome.
Pinellas county and the city of St Pete already agreed to fund over $600 million as well as sell Sternberg and Hines a $700 million 65 acre piece of land for $105 million. Guess they don’t consider it political suicide there.
Amtrak’s Acela, which runs between Boston and DC is the United States’ only true high-speed rail service, reaching speeds of 150+ mph in stretches.
Brightline West is a privately operated route that is currently under construction between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga. It will only reach 125 mph, so is not considered high speed rail even though they are pushing it as such.
The Brightline from Orlando to Miami is also a privately operated line and it tops out at 125 mph. It opened in 2023 after 11 years and there was public funding for the project. mast.house.gov/2018/4/brightline-admits-it-they-re… .
Padsfans- Local politicians who haven’t yet come up on the ballot (fully). We’ll have to see how many survive. It was County/city eventually forking over half and passing off much of it (rightfully) on toruists, tho my 2c is any additional taxe is wrong, especially for nonsense like luxury items..sports stadiums being exactly that.
Notice not 1c of state tax $$? I imagine 1-2 of the 5 county commisioners who approved that boondoggle will be soon out of office.
Cheers for that. mast will dig, he’s not our rep (our area is a spineless weasel), but rick mast is known in this state for digging.
Florida is bankrupt. Can’t spend what you don’t have unless you raise taxes one way or another. A $10 billion deficit over the next 3 fiscal years.
Pads, lol no way in hell Fla is bankrupt. We have a huge budget surplus and spend what Desantis wants and needs.
John – that’s a great memory to share with your father. Those are the important details.
What I just posted came from the state of Florida website. Even DeSantis admits the state is bankrupt. It gets worse after 2027.
30 Parks
Still, saw my first MLB game at the Big O in 1981. Fond memories.
=========================
My brother is an Expo fan. We use to fly to Burlington on People’s Express (?) for like $39 and drive across the border. I remember Pascual Perez existing the stadium wearing nothing but pink clothing (shirt, pants, shoes) and a ton of gold jewelry, and surrounded by like 100 kids.
Later saw the El Gato on the subway with his family, and was extremely gracious.
And unfortunately, also saw Keith Hernandez and Lenny Dyskstra on the subway, and both were smoking/
HalosHeavenJJ
As a guy who hates flying, those trains sound awesome.
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Off-topic, but Amtrak has a train from CA to Chicago that stops at Denver & somewhere close to KC and StL. And a train from Chicago to FL that stops at CL, PT, DC, and both Florida teams.
If you want to be part of the 30 Stadium guys, you can knock off 10 teams with two train tickets (plus hotels, tickets, etc.). I have that on my bucket list.
Joe – when I was around seven years old I ran into Tim Raines in an elevator in Montreal. Doors opened and there stood Tim Raines. He was gracious & kind. In 2019 I met Tim Raines, again, at Fanfest at the All-Star Game. I told him about our elevator encounter years before, needless to say he didn’t recall nor did I expect him to, but we had a good laugh about same. Good guy. Fond memories.
Fond memories.
====================
It’s too bad they couldn’t make a go of it. They needed something more like Camden Yards, but teams weren’t building those. The models back then were 50,000+ in the hopes that you were going to sell out a lot, but the reality was that you were never going to sell out, and it only resulted in another 25% in depreciation costs.
But last one, I remember they had a jazz band in the mezzanine when I visited. I’d sit down after the game for 20 minutes and relax with a beer while the crowd emptied out.
Joe – cultmtl.com/2021/04/this-was-the-montreal-expos-pr…
That would have been a good setup. Again, great memories. I’m out east in Nova Scotia, but we always made a summer trip to catch a few Expos games. Always loved listening to Dave Van Horne, too – the way he’d say “MONtreal Expos baseball.” Classic.
Pad, THIS is from State of Florida website status
…
How is Florida doing financially
What is Florida’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? In 2024, Florida’s GDP reached $1.4tn, representing an increase of 4.7% from 2023. Florida’s GDP has grown at an annualized rate of 6.4% over the five years to 2024. Moreover, Florida’s trailing five-year GDP growth ranks it 1st out of all 50 US states.
Nonsense Pads fans. Nikki fried and her leftist ilk, who despise everything about the state were thrown out of state office years ago and go on and on about how dire the situation is, yet FL is a state with -0- state income tax and takes in thousands of ‘refugees” from states putting taxation burdens on those, simply wanting to keep what they have earned every year.
Now, as a lifelong floridian, it’s not been nice seeing our wide open spaces turned into sprawling housing, but i can understand why people, by the 1k’s run away.. As fast as they can from many places across the country and to a place like Florida, where having thoughts isn’t criminalised. keeping more of what one earns etc..
Just because several of the ‘big city” rags within the state are no better than the NYT for spouting off 100% hogwash and publish such, doesn’t make florida broke..
30parks- They see so many, ur right and then again? that was from a time before players were really “attacked” by fans i think all the time, but still memory wasn’t the best thing for players, who were probably being met by dozens of fans daily during the season.
this brings me to another of my little stories from RS ST and decades ago and moreso, probably my biggest surprise as to memory, now that u mention that and being kind of shocked at it from a player.
bruce Hurst, who i considered a good friend his year playing for Winter haven and of course would see him each ST when Boston came to town for ST with it’s farm teams having ST there (until went in USN). Well, had let Bruce borrow some book 1 yr, forget what it was even during ST and he gave it back before leaving ST. The next year, when greeted him like 1st thing he asked was if still had the book so he could finish it.. That was, like solid memory from a player to me. Him, Rac Slider, Danny Weppner, Pete Ladd and Joe Morgan were the ones i always could pretty much count onremembering things from a “peon” like me, who just had permission to hang around and wasn’t affiliated with the team in any way.
WTF does that mean? The state website says that over the next 3 fiscal years the state will be $10 billion in debt. It gets worse after that. Again, that is from the State of Florida’s website. Not the NYT or whatever the bleep you are trying to say. That doesn’t even take into account the damages from two major hurricanes in one year.
I was unaware that 125mph is not a high speed
A budget deficit does not mean that you are bankrupt. That just means that they plan on spending more than they take in. No idea what their rainy day fund looks like, but they could be running a budget deficit, and still sitting on $100 billion.
Read the state website. They have no rainy day fund.
Montreal’s stadium roof is under repair too. Wont be ready until 2028.or so.
Oh the irony
The Big O will become the Black Hole.
I hope mlb games can be played at the big O again, even though it is a horrible playing environment it is getting a new roof and it is hands down the coolest stadium baseball has ever seen despite it being bad
I wonder if maybe the Yankees spring training stadium is an option if they can work out the schedule? With how little attendance the Rays actually get they can’t really cry about it being too small from an attendance prospective. If the A’s can play at a minor league stadium why can’t the Rays? Seems better than wasting money on The Trop.
On paper, that seems like the best option. I’m not sure of the distance apart but I’m guessing Rays’ players would still be able to live at home and visitors might not even have to change hotels.
21 miles apart.
The Yankee$ spring park doesn’t have a roof. They should just let them play in Orlando at Wide World of Sports if they don’t care about not having a roof. It is more central, will attract tourists, and they won’t have to fight the Yankee$ for ‘territorial rights’.
And War Eagle!!!
Why can’t they just remove the roof and play in the Trop?
Bucsfan: The Trop has no drainage on the field surface because they never expected to have it open to the elements. Side note: it’s a horrible ballpark. Feels like you’re sitting in an ashtray with a lid. Bleck.
No roof. Too many rainouts. The schedule would be a disaster.
That minor league stadium the a’s are playing at is beautiful, and right in the middle of the state capital. Also no roof so it would cause even more pain with postponements
As someone who’s watched many a game at Raley Field, it’s still a VERY small venue, with facilities that aren’t even close to being considered big league quality. I look forward to see how they’ll accomplish this for a full three years, not to mention the scheduling headache with the incumbent River Cats.
Lived in Sacramento when the ballpark opened and caught a game this summer.
It is very much a nice spring training stadium, including seating on a grass berm in the outfield.
I live a night out there but am also curious.
The stadium is plenty big enough to accommodate the 5k fans the a’s bring in.
Sacramento is a good sports town. The AAA RiverCats routinely packed the ballpark, the Kings sell out, and fight cards do well.
The A’s will have more fans in the stands next year than they’ve had in years.
The Rays averaged 16,515 with the max being 25k
Actually, the Rays can play at Disneys ESPN zone. It’s an open air ballpark that was used for minor league baseball for years.
Montreal or San Juan make a lot of sense, but not so much for local fans
San Juan isn’t great. The economy in PR is not great. And PR really is pretty far East.
They can’t just play in it without the roof? I know Floridians hate the reality of where they live lol.
It is a concrete bowl with no drainage. As such, it is not suitable as an open-air stadium.
To be fair, who could have foreseen a hurricane going through Florida?
Then put in drains… bet that takes less time and money than rebuilding a roof
I doubt it. The roof is basically a glorified tarp. Drains require different engineering
Except for all the electrical and other stuff under the floor, plus all the details we have no idea about. Including everything else around the ballpark that isn’t weather proofed.
Haha, no
far – Thank you. It appears nobody reads articles around here before commenting.
Speaking of reading articles …… LOL …..
“From a financial point of view, the club won’t want to devote significant resources into a facility that is on its last legs,”
And from the very same Tampa Bay Times article linked:here:
“Who pays for repairs?
The city of St. Petersburg is responsible and has insurance to cover the costs. That doesn’t mean it will be a simple process to get the stadium fixed, however, as anyone dealing with their own claims knows.
“It’s a little bit complicated how the fund works for Tropicana Field, but there is insurance on the property,” city administrator Rob Gerdes said. “So that’s the first thing we’ll be looking at is the property insurance to help make repairs.”
Floridians hate the reality of where they live? Glad that you feel that way. We’ve grown enough the past several years. Please stay where you are.
Blanco – Who would have figured a state whose sports teams are named the Hurricanes, Heat, Lightning and Gators would have a lot of hurricanes, heat, lightning and gators?
Sewald – The stadium sits on a concrete base, not gonna happen.
Insurance definitely isn’t slow to pay or anything haha
Been 100 years since a major hurricane hit Tampa Bay area head on.
Insurance likely won’t pay for repairs to a roof that was beyond it’s useful life. At least not full cost. Likely depends on the policy. Having insurance and having coverage aren’t the same thing.
That place is and was a dump. Big bag full of air.
dewey – If for some reason the roof wasn’t covered by the insurance policy, I would think the City Administrator would know that? Hard to imagine it wasn’t covered, as roofs are always the most critical and susceptible part of any structure.
BTW – Until recently it was common for homeowners with old roofs to wait for a big storm to cause damage before replacing their roof, and letting the insurance company pay for it. But insurance companies in Florida finally caught on, and are now requiring older roofs to be replaced before any insurance policy is issued.
Far East? The travel is basically no different except for Seattle. Who cares. Also, economy or not, that is a baseball island and they would pack the park. They would generate more revenue than the trop would
‘Tang it: no, you are wrong, Puerto Rico’s distance is indeed a major factor when considering putting a team there, so is the economy.
Hiram Bithorn Stadium seats 18k and those games would be packed all season.
Its a 4 hour flight from Kennedy to San Juan. 2 hrs 40 minutes to Tampa.
Seattle is in a different division, so teams in the AL East only travel there once per season.
I would be far more concerned with the travel. Even AL East teams would be a slog
In air miles, Toronto is roughly the same distance from San Juan (1,911) as Seattle is from Houston (`1,874).
I bet the rays are going to hard rock stadium and making it play baseball for the first time in 15 years
That’s two nomadic teams for 2025.
Maybe the Rays should play in Oakland . I mean it’s available
From Oakland A’s to Oakland Rays 🙂
The Re-A’s
Mind blown fam
Is it plausible and/or cost effective to retrofit a drainage/pumping system and forgo the roof for 3 years? They’d need to figure out some way to pump out any rainwater in the interim anyway.
Not if they just tear it down
While no one can stop a hurricane, it’s fitting in it’s absurdity that you’ll likely have 2 nomadic teams in MLB next season.
If that’s not a symptom of the uselessness of the current commissioner, nothing is.
I too blame Manfred for the hurricane.
All of them!
As you said, you can’t stop a hurricane, and as bad of an owner as Fisher has been, he still hasn’t done anything that would allow Manfred and/or the other owners to force him to sell the team.
What exactly could Manfred have done differently, especially since the other owners voted to approve the relocation of the A’s? I suppose he could’ve protested against the stupid decision of waiving the relocation fee, but that wouldn’t have stopped the move.
This is a great opportunity to tare it down an build a better one. Just play your home games at one of the spring training facilities in the area. No one goes to their games anyway.
The stadium roof is missing. The rays may or may not have the roof fixed. I’ve learned nothing new.
Now they can change their name to the Sun Rays
Gwynn – Too bad the old Blue Jays stadium isn’t still around.
Then the Rays could play there and be called the Ex Rays.
Toronpa Bay Ex-Rays Almost Jays
Rolls off the tongue lol
The Ex-Rays? I can’t see that!
Sounds like we need a technician up in here…!
There’s a stadium in Texas next to the Rangers. Possible they play there.
Non – Choctaw Stadium has been retrofitted for football and soccer. It’s heavily used, so probably not an option.
I remember a women’s softball tournament there but looks like it was before they re did it.
Why can’t they just play in the Tampa Bay Bucs stadium?
They would need to turn one sideline into retractable seating, unless you want it to be 200 feet down the LF line
Reminds me of when the ReD Sox played in the LA Coliseum. GIANT nets everywhere “simulated” distance.
@deepseamonster32
“200 feet down the LF line”
Could help the Rays with their offensive power outage… although their pitchers wouldn’t be very enthused.
It would be a huge home-field advantage if LF was 200 feet and RF was 375. An all-righty team
I read of a butcher boy play in the minors there once…batter hit a home run!
The “no roof” thing seems to be the stickler for the Florida summers
Maybe all the Jewish Space Lasers could be turned in the opposite direction and they could have a nice mild summer. Works here in the Northwest
You guys have some good weed up in the PNW, I can tell.
This would have been the opportunity Nashville!! You should have built a stadium before getting a team locked in. Something is telling me there’s a baseball movie quote relevant here…
“There’s no crying in baseball”?
That sure helped Tampa Bay. The Trop was built to lure the White Sox out of Chicago.
You mean like St. Louis did to draw in the Rams (after they lost out to Charlotte and Jacksonville for NFL expansion teams)?
…
and now that stadium has no NFL team again. At least the Battlehawks of the UFL are using it during the spring.
But seriously, what happens if you build the stadium in advance but fail to get a team either through expansion or relocation?
Tropicana Hotel gets demolished on the same day Tropicana Field loses its roof, and now 2 teams are stuck in minor league stadiums for the next 3 years.
Maybe the Illuminati should be more discreet
deep – I bet OJ Simpson is turning over in his grave.
The Jays played in Dunedin during the pandemic. The Rays should entertain the idea of playing there.
April and May might be OK. But not during the rainy season, when even if it’s not raining it’s miserable
The extra two months may buy them enough time to be ready.
Skenes – That’s what I’m thinking, even if they need to be relocated thru June it should be doable.
But after June, all bets are off.
There are a ton of reasons why this is not practical. The top three::
1) 7,500 seating capacity in the FL heat. It was fine during the pandemic when 750 people were allowed into the park and it was just April and May. Greatly reduced revenue. Worse for day games, when you might get 100 people in the stands who can get some shade. Even during spring training, Dunedin Fire and Rescue deals with fans with heat exhaustion. Every game.
2) No parking lots near stadium. The closest lot is half a mile away and holds 200 cars at most. Would be relying on residents using their property for parking like is done for spring training. No revenue for team as the city lot is free to residents and the people renting out lawns, driveways, and business lots keep that money.
3). Not set up for lighting night games to MLB standard and needs a remote truck in the stadium lot, taking more of those few spots. Rogers brings a truck down for spring training and parks it outside the stadium on the third-base side. This was done in 2021 with the truck and temp lighting. Lots of rain delays in May through September. Almost a whole week’s worth of minor league games was rained out this summer.
Maybe the Rays can play in Guaranteed Rate Field. I’ve heard they’re looking for a major league team to play there.
The Trop was built to get Jerry to move to tampa/stpete. That’s some weirdness right there.
Come up to Durham next year. I’ll buy season tickets right now.
Could Camping World (Citrus) hold baseball? Dimensions probably disastrous and it is a no. No more Tinker Field next door.
Steinbrenner Field could be the best option. Stadium is in Tampa, larger capacity than the rest of the Florida State league fields.
How Bout moving to the Superdome in NOLA?
They’ve never had hurricane issues there, right? Jk
This got me. Lol
Why couldn’t something be coordinated at Loan Depot while the Marlins are on the road? The Marlins themselves have had to play as home team in other stadiums due to hurricanes. It might work as a temporary fix until they can play at the Trop again.
I had thought the same myself. It would require some logistical hop scotch, but it should be doable.
There would be some issue with how revenue would work though.
Canuck – MLB would have to move 49 games, the equivalent of 60% of a team’s home schedule. Not doable.
Article says 49 conflicting dates on schedule.
Right but it’s October right now. They can change the schedule.
That’s not possible with season ticket sales etc
You can due the tour of central Florida. Tampa, Bradenton, Clearwater, Lakeland, Dunedin, Orlando.
Don’t forget Sarasota.
Did forget and probably forgot others.
Steinbrenner Field seats 11,000. Rays averaged 16,000. And the weather. That sounds like a viable temporary solution but would be tough to run the table until 2028. Maybe they work on the time line.
Montreal’s Olympic Stadium seems like a nightmare. The roof is badly damaged, occasionally slabs of concrete weighing tens of thousands of pounds falling haphazardly and maintenance isn’t noticeable. There are plenty of Florida spring training facilities that with adequate money( seriously the Rays?) and political will could be upgraded to some sort of River Cats standard. There remains the issue of hurricane season starting on June 1 to late November. Since there isn’t that much revenue from attendance maybe even Charles Schwab Stadium in Omaha has at least a 24,000 seating capacity. There would be other issues but Creighton only plays 12 games a year there. The team could rebrand temporarily as the Nebraska Ray bans.
Oakland Rays… sounds right
Just about
New Orleans, play in the super dome!
I believe renovations in 2011 eliminated the possibility of the Superdome hosting any more baseball games. The last MLB exhibition game was in 1999 (Twins/Cubs) and the last college game may have been in 2002 (LSU/Tulane).
First the Tropicana gets destroyed, then the Tropicana gets destroyed. All in one week.
Same day.
The average attendance for the Rays is about 17,000. They could play Steinbrenner Field on historically 11,000 or less attendance days (Monday through Thursday), share with Miami when they need at least 17,000, and maybe split the rest in other prospective test market baseball cities Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Nashville, etc.
Lots and lots of tarps, and bungee cords. Problem solved!!
Could always play at the Alamodome in SanAntonio. Some spring training games were played there a few years back
maybe the alamodome in san antonio? yeah, the configuration can be goofy (“green monster” or crawford boxes-type setup down the left or right field lines) but isn’t the austin/san antonio area clamoring for football and/or baseball expansion? maybe consider borrowing the rays a test-run?
The best way to fix the Trop is to tear it down and build the new one in Nashville
They can share T Mobile Park in Seattle when the Ms are on the road. At least that way Seattle baseball fans would see a team that’s more than 54 percent interested in winning.
Just play at a local high school, they’ll finally be able to claim they sold out a game or 2
The Rays can play in the Braves old stadium in downtown Atlanta
I believe Turner Field has been at least partially rebuilt as a football stadium for Georgia State.
The Tampa Bay Times had a crane smash through its building. I wonder where Marc Topkin is working from?
The article by Topkin and several other people with much more knowledge than I about this subject have chimed in and the consensus has been that:
– the Trop was insured, but there is no telling how long it will be before an insurance company and city engineering assessments can be made, if the insurance company and city’s engineers will agree on the condition, and how long a claim being filed will take, let alone how long before the claim is paid and construction could start.
– it will cost more than $100 million, and quite possibly more than twice that, The Superdome cost $250 million, took a year, and the roof was not punctured or torn completely off as the case with the Trop.
– the Rays will have to play somewhere else for all of 2025 and possibly longer. Maybe as long as 3 seasons.
My questions are:
– if the building is condemned, what then? The new park is scheduled to open in 2028, but that might be in question with the issues related to the hurricane. They may have to change the plans in order to get insured since it was designed only to withstand the same level of winds that tore the roof off the Trop.
– what will happen to the season ticket holders at the Trop? I know, I know, there aren’t many, but there are more than 3k according to the team.
– will other team owners allow MLB to draw from the general fund to provide financial assistance to the Rays?
This is going to be a mess and a mess for a while.
Pensacola, Wahoos stdm
Share with Miami.
The best answer is to play the season in Iowa at the Field of Dreams stadium. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper to let ghosts play than paying living players. They just can’t play road games.
Or can they?!?
So where are the Rays going to play next season?
This is going to be interesting.
Bragan Field in Jacksonville is the biggest MILB park in Florida, but it only holds 11,000 fans. Other than playing in Miami at the Marlins Park, there really isn’t a great Florida based option.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being Nashville. They have a decent park, and it would be a good “test drive” to gauge how an MLB team would fare in the City. Not all to dissimilar to the Hornets move to OKC, which eventually lead to the Sonics relocating there full time.
“… the group that installed the Trop’s roof back in 1990… said the roof came with a timeline of roughly 25 years…”
C’mon what’s a mere 36 percent usage past the expiration date!
Who hasn’t driven his car another 20,000 miles past the due oil change, wondering about that explosion in the engine compartment. Remember when you ate that expired yogurt, which had started moving inside your fridge in miraculous ways, giving you this hot fuzzy intestinal feeling and a rather violent blowout at the exit hole?
One can’t expect these poor billionaires to heed quadranscentennial service intervals as long as the money doesn’t come out of the taxpayers’ pockets.
I wonder about Dunedin. It’s close by and was retrofitted for MLB games by the Jays for the 2021 season. There would be logistics to work out for sure as I doubt the jays would want to give up their high performance centre down there for a season. I don’t think it has a roof but they made it work in 2021.
Come on up to North Carolina. It’s beyond time. Guarantee higher attendance anywhere in NC than the Trop.
Make them play in Oakland and watch them sell out
The Baseball gods exacting revenge for Manfred killing the Rays/Montreal split-season plan back in ’22. Now they may have to spend the early part of next season there.
Moving those first 6 games to Miami is probably out as the Marlins play their first 6 games at home as well. However, logistically all they would really have to do is shift start times and sell the games as double-headers, though the Marlins would have to be amicable to that
I was wondering when this Montreal deal would come up….thought I was having a Mandela effect
“The minor league stadiums also don’t have roofs.” They DO have drainage systems.
the rays could conceivably use the jays Yankees or Phillies single Affiliate stadiums in Dunedin Tampa or Clearwater respectively.. but let’s be honest.. those stadiums hold like 4k people .. the rays wouldn’t even be able to sell that out lol.. they have a mister softee stand which is a New York City ice cream staple for 50+ years .. no one in Florida knows what it is.. I’ve asked… I was like “wow you have mister softee here” and they were like “what’s that?” lol I’d say .. “ya know the ice cream truck?” .. and they would respond “oh idk never heard of it before here”
So why is it there lol the entire franchise outside of drafting and player development has no idea what it’s doing
I certainly hope all 20 season ticket holders get their money back. Time to move to Nashville, Charlotte or Portland.
Wait so if the Trop is slated to be demolished to make room for the new park, how would that work? How’s the new park going to be ready by 2028 then. I haven’t heard any mention of them playing somewhere esle after the Trop is torn down while waiting on the new one?