(image credit: Tampa Bay Rays and MLB.com)
The Rays are finally back at Tropicana Field for the 2026 season and for at least the next 3 years, following an eventful 2025 season at which all of their home games were played at a minor league stadium of the rival Yankees, with a unique schedule that was frontloaded to avoid the rainy Florida summer months. This was all necessary due to a year-plus long repair and remodeling project precipitated by a pair of hurricanes in October 2024. The major component of this $60M project was of course the replacement of the roof that was almost entirely ripped off, with a fiberglass material designed to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds. Other parts of the remodel also included complete replacement of the playing surface that was also destroyed by the hurricane, as well as some upgrades to suites and clubhouses. Although the majority of this project was funded though insurance claims and out of obligation of the City of St. Petersburg as the building owner, it was nice to see the Rays kick in a little money to make the best of a bad situation and spruce up the dump a little bit. With how long this new ballpark saga has been going on, who knows if and when the new park will even happen, so some fan and player upgrades were surely much appreciated.
This brings us to where we are today, which is not much different than where the team was 19 years ago when I started writing about them - in a never-ending quest for a new home. The team did finalize a sale to a group led by a Jacksonville-based developer towards the end of last season, so getting Stu Sternberg out of there was not an insignificant step. This move brought about a rejuvenated approach with an influx of capital that is causing the team to explore sites in Tampa once more. For now, the team is settled on a site near the campus of Hillsborough Community College, which is ironically a stone's throw from where they played last year at Steinbrenner Field. The location is great, with close proximity to the airport, interstate, and the bay, and should not possess the same access concerns as their current home. But the sticking point, as it has always been for the last two decades, is going to be financing. The initial budget for their latest proposal is a staggering $2.3B, and that budget is surely going up with each passing day of the Iran War. The team is asking for over $1B of that sum in public money, and their goal is to gain all necessary approvals by June 1st of this year. Preliminary indications are that that's not going to happen, which already puts in jeopardy the proposed 2029 opening. The Rays want to build a "Battery" type village as is in vogue now, which they would finance and is not even included with the $2.3B price tag. It's a far cry from their original Al Lang Stadium proposal that would have cost less than $500M in 2007 dollars, and it goes to show how much money the team and government is wasting with each passing year that they do not act on this.
I've written about the Rays more than just about any other team on this site aside from the Brewers, and frankly I'm getting tired of it. Erik and I don't even really want to go to Florida and just want this to be over, but it's also kind of like watching a car crash on the freeway - you get mad at the gawker delays, but you can't help but be fascinated by the wreck yourself. The Rays, the city, and the county all deserve to be in this tempestuous bed they've made together, and I'm watching with one eye open to see how this plays out, and the other eye closed out of exhaustion over the whole ordeal. Meanwhile, new proposed ballparks from other teams are starting to pass the Rays by, which I'll get to in future posts this season.
2026 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 1
Peter - 4
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.