The home of Yankees Spring Training will host the Rays next year.
Since Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida was seriously damaged last month by Hurricane Milton, the Tampa Bay Rays have been looking for a home for future games.
Today, they have one, at least for 2025:
The Rays are planning to play the 2025 season at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, spring training home of the rival New York Yankees.
The Rays have been looking for an interim home since Hurricane Milton caused extensive damage to Tropicana Field last month. Under a repair plan revealed Tuesday, the Trop won’t be playable until the 2026 season.
The Rays apparently chose Steinbrenner Field over Clearwater’s BayCare Ballpark, spring home of the Philadelphia Phillies, in consultation with Major League Baseball.
An announcement will be made later today.
Steinbrenner Field seats 11,026, which is the most of any of the spring parks in the Tampa Bay area, and, per the Tampa Bay Times link above, has major-league type facilities including “suites, club areas, social spaces and cabana seating, plus other upgrades from a $40 million renovation prior to the 2017 season.”
According to Danny Russell, managing editor of our SB Nation Rays site DRays Bay, the home clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field is at least comparable to the one at Tropicana Field — and maybe a bit better.
However, the choice to play in Tampa could create another problem for the Rays going forward:
The decision is not likely to go over well with some Pinellas County commissioners, who wanted the team to remain in the county by playing in Clearwater or Dunedin (spring home of the Blue Jays). They have the leverage of voting against the bonds needed to finance the Rays’ planned $1.3 billion stadium, which could kill the deal.
Said commissioner Chris Latvala Thursday at a county workshop, “I’m not going to say you play in Dunedin or you play in Clearwater and I’m a yes. But if they play in Hillsborough, I’m a no. So, you know, they can do the math how they want to do the math.”
So that’ll be interesting, as Steinbrenner Field is definitely in Hillsborough County.
Playing outdoors will also create challenges for the Rays, who will now be playing in hot and humid conditions most of the summer, as well as likely having to dodge some rainstorms. According to the Tampa Bay Times article, the average number of rain delays per team in the Florida State League (which hosts a Yankees affiliate at Steinbrenner Field) is 6.4. So it’ll be interesting. At least for the players, fulltime Rays employees and gameday staff, the games are going to be played in their home area, so no one should have to move. In addition:
Playing in Tampa also would provide the Rays an entrée to a segment of their market they seemingly have had trouble connecting with, bringing the game closer to fans who at times have cited the travel time to downtown St. Petersburg as prohibitive.
Some schedule adjustments are likely for the FSL team.
The Rays averaged 16,515 per date in 2024 at the Trop, so a capacity of 11,026 at Steinbrenner Field represents a drop of about one-third from that total. Perhaps they can add a bit of temporary seating, though there isn’t much room for that.
And then there’s what happens after 2025. But that’s a story for another day. The Cubs won’t travel there in 2025, as the Rays are scheduled to be at Wrigley Field in September.