TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays open their 2025 regular season not at Tropicana Field but at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The team was forced to move across the bridge from St. Petersburg because The Trop was badly damaged by Hurricane Milton in October.
Just two weeks ago, Rays owner Stu Sternberg backed out of a deal to build a $1.3 billion ballpark in St. Pete. Sternberg addressed the stadium saga before Opening Day.
“Obviously, it wasn’t our first attempt. It wasn’t our second or third. We’ve been trying,” Sternberg said. “We have the third-best record in baseball since 2008. Nine playoff appearances since I’ve been here. We try to carry ourselves in the best way as possible. We want to do what’s best for the organization and for the team.”
The Rays’ future is still unclear. This season will be played at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees, and the hope is to play at a repaired Tropicana Field in 2026.
This week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told Sirius XM that he sees “the Tampa Bay region, Tampa-St. Pete, as a Major League market. And, we’re going to figure out a way to make it work in that market.”
“We (Manfred) speak multiple times a week, monthly,” Sternberg said. “We’ve been in constant dialogue about everything. Rob recognizes we’ve been put in a difficult situation here with the double hurricanes. We are both in agreement to do what’s best interest in Major League Baseball.”
This season, anyway, will be a unique one. For the first time ever, Tampa will have outdoor Major League Baseball.
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