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After Hurricane Milton decimated Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida last month, many wondered how that would affect the fate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Will the dome be fixed in time for the 2025 Major League Baseball season? If not, where will they play? And does this hasten their departure from the Tampa Bay area?
On Tuesday, some of those questions were beginning to be answered.
According to Front Office Sports, Tropicana Field can and will be repaired. The cost to do so will, perhaps surprisingly, “only” cost approximately $55.7 million.
“Overall, the stadium appears structurally sound and would be a viable candidate to continue to serve the city (should they so decide) in providing continued service following hurricane damage repairs,” a 412-page assessment received by the St. Petersburg city council states.
However, the repairs to the 34-year-old Tampa Bay Rays stadium will take the better part of a year, which means the Tampa Bay Rays will officially have to find a new home for the 2025 MLB season.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wasn’t much help when he was asked last month where the Rays would play in 2025, saying, “We don’t know.”
There are, of course, plenty of minor league venues available in the area, plus there was that plan to have the Rays play half of their home games in Montreal that was floated in 2021.
There is also the question of whether or not the city, which owns the facility, even wants to spend the almost $60 million it will take to fix the dome. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the insurance policy on Tropicana Field carries $25 million of coverage after a $22 million deductible.
The Tampa Bay Rays also had an agreement to build a $1.3 billion baseball park in St. Petersburg – an agreement that could be thrown into jeopardy following this month’s election.
“Whatever was agreed to before needs to be looked at differently now, because we are dealing with a county where, you know, tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed, and our infrastructure that was inadequate to begin with has suffered a lot of damage,” newly-elected Pinellas County Commissioner Chris Scherer told The Tampa Bay Times.