MLB Tropicana Field loses roof to hurricane
- Thread starter LadyStanley
- Start date
Voight
#winning
It's one of the few (somewhat) local fields with MLB quality amenities so makes sense.
Big McLargehuge
Fragile Traveler
Tampa is local and Steinbrenner Field is significantly better than either option in Pinellas County.Local politics will forever be a shitshow. Yes, yes, why wouldn't the Rays be jumping at the bit to play 30 miles from Tampa with 3,000 fewer seats.
Steinbrenner was also recently renovated and almost certainly has facilities closer to a MLB standard. It's a shit situation, but all things considered it's the best available option. Moving the team thousands of miles away on short notice is how you get an empty stadium for damn near every game (yeah, yeah, yeah har har har funny joke incoming I'm sure) with all of the negatives that go with this option. At least this will be an intimate setting where even the Rays should be able to fill it pretty much all season. Surely weather will keep fans out on certain dates and Rays fans will get endless shit for it, but I don't see any other option that'd be a better solution for the Tampa Bay Rays. Play almost exclusively night games and the weather issues will be manageable.
Now what they do come 2026-28 will be interesting. I fully think fixing that roof would just be a gigantic waste of money and resources if the replacement is being built and, well, it's not being built yet, groundbreaking is still a year away, it's both near enough and far enough away to make this a tricky question. You can only speed up the process so much.
The Yankees are getting paid handsomely for this and will likely end up with even nicer facilities for their troubles, but one has to imagine they're not going to want their youngsters getting second priority for four seasons.
If you're a Pinellas County politician I'd assume they'd prefer Clearwater, with Dunedin being second choice.
BayCare Ballpark (Clearwater) holds 8,500 and was built in 2004. It's a further 18 miles north of Tropicana Field on the St. Pete side of the bay.
TD Ballpark (Dunedin) was recently renovated and has a listed capacity of 8,500...but only 6,500 of those are seated. It's roughly 24 miles further north of Tropicana Field.
For the bulk of the Rays actual fan base, though, this is the local option.
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KevFu
Registered User
I really don't understand how they built the original roof in like 4-5 months, but now it's gonna take double that to just string up the fabric covers.
LadyStanley
Registered User
What do you all think of this?
www.tampabay.com
Rays say county’s stalling has likely killed the new stadium deal
John Romano | Delays on bond votes have halted stadium groundbreaking plans and jeopardized baseball’s future in Tampa Bay.
www.tampabay.com
