On Thursday, the Rays, the Yankees, and Major League Baseball announced that Steinbrenner Field will host the Rays for the 2024 regular season. This situates them across the street from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who play in Raymond James Stadium.
“While this has obviously been a challenging time for our friends at the Rays organization as they deal with the damage to Tropicana Field, it has been uplifting to see our entire region come together to find a viable solution for one of our fellow professional sports teams,” the Buccaneers wrote in a release. “We welcome the Rays as our new neighbors at their temporary home of Steinbrenner Field for the 2025 season. It is this kind of collaboration among our community leaders that defines the spirit of Team Tampa Bay.”
The Rays and their fans are happy the team is staying in the area at Steinbrenner Field, which has a capacity of 11,000 seats and serves as the spring training ground for the Yankees and the Class-A Tampa Tarpons, to be nearly ready to meet MLB standards with minimal adjustments needed for the 2025 season.
As decisions are being made about Tropicana Field’s repairs following Hurricane Milton, a survey revealed that while the stadium is structurally sound, the repairs would cost $55.7 million and would not be completed until 2026. The Trop, as it is commonly known, was scheduled for demolition in 2027 to allow the team to move to a new stadium in 2028. This raises the question: Should the building be repaired if the Rays are only going to play one season there, or should they consider playing in Tampa for the next two or three seasons?
There are several tasks that need to be completed for the new stadium for the Rays, whether it’s renovating the Trop or playing in Tampa until the new park is finished in the Gaslight District as part of the $6.6 billion complex.
