Friday afternoon the Tampa Bay Rays will begin their 2025 regular season against the Colorado Rockies in an unusual setting – George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, not their home at Tropicana Field.
The Trop was badly damaged by Hurricane Milton in October, forcing the team to relocate to the Yankees’ spring training facility.
This Opening Day comes with extra drama. Just two weeks ago, owner Stu Sternberg backed out of a deal to build a new $1.3 billion ballpark in St. Petersburg.
“After careful deliberation, we have concluded we cannot move forward with the new ballpark and development project at this moment,” Sternberg said in his statement.
So what happens next? Nobody really knows.
The Rays will play at Steinbrenner Field this year and hope to return to a repaired Tropicana Field in 2026. But the long-term future? That’s up in the air.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred isn’t sitting quietly. This week, he put the ball firmly in Sternberg’s court during a SiriusXM Radio interview.
“I think the most important point now is that the Rays and Mr. Sternberg have to come up with a ‘go forward’ plan, what it is they intend to do,” Manfred said. “I don’t think it’s realistic to play indefinitely in a repaired Tropicana Field. But they’ve got to tell the other clubs and I think they’ve got to tell their fan base that they have a plan for making it work in Tampa Bay.”
Manfred still believes Tampa-St. Petersburg can work as a major-league market.
That’s despite the Rays consistently ranking near the bottom in attendance – even when they’ve been one of baseball’s best teams. A move into Tampa itself would tap into a bigger population center, but previous attempts have gone nowhere.
The plot thickened earlier this month with reports that Manfred and “some other owners” are actually pushing Sternberg to sell the team. And that was before he walked away from the ballpark deal.
A new owner would open up all kinds of possibilities. They could restart the St. Petersburg project, try again for a Tampa stadium, or even relocate the team completely.
On the field, the Rays are coming off an 80-82 season and have slashed their payroll from $98.9 million last year to just $74.9 million this year.
One bright spot? Season ticket sales at Steinbrenner Field, which seats just over 11,000 fans, are reportedly very strong.
