The Rays are in a precarious scenario relating to each their long- and short-term future within the Tampa Bay space. Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof of Tropicana Subject, leaving the membership’s house ballpark unusable for no less than the 2025 season. They’ve solved that impediment by shifting to close by Steinbrenner Subject, the Spring Coaching stadium of the Yankees, however that transfer helped to spur native officers to postpone the approval of bonds that may finance the event plan the Rays and Pinellas County had beforehand agreed upon that may assemble a brand new stadium close to the Trop in time for the 2028 season.
With the bond approval now postponed, the Rays’ long-term future in Tampa appears to be up within the air, with membership proprietor Stu Sternberg having gone as far as to place the opportunity of relocation again on the desk. Along with that renewed long-term instability, it now appears as if the membership’s short-term future is much more up within the air than it was beforehand. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Instances reported just lately that whereas the town council of St. Pete initially voted to approve spending $24MM on repairs to the Trop, they reversed course shortly thereafter. The reversal from native officers in St. Pete is available in half because of the uncertainty surrounding across the beforehand agreed-upon stadium deal, with metropolis councilwoman Brandi Gabbard telling Topkin that she wasn’t ready to place tens of hundreds of thousands towards funding a mission for “an entity we could by no means have a cope with once more.”
That change in plans appears to have created uncertainty relating to whether or not the Rays would ever play on the Trop once more, as Topkin provides that membership president Brian Auld advised that the Rays could also be higher off negotiating a settlement with the town of St. Pete relating to the ultimate years of their lease than having the town restore the stadium due to uncertainty relating to whether or not the Trop could be repaired in time for Opening Day 2026. Per Auld, making a contingency plan for the 2026 season that may solely be used within the occasion that the Trop isn’t prepared would trigger extra bother for the Rays than merely ruling out a return to their house ballpark completely.
Whether or not repairs for Tropicana Subject will in the end be accredited and set into movement or if the edges will as a substitute pursue a settlement stays to be seen, however the newest setback casts additional doubt on the town’s capability to restore the Trop in time for the 2026 season. As Auld alludes to, reaching a settlement with the town may in the end behoove the Rays in additional methods than one. Along with avoiding the prices related to balancing contingency plans primarily based on the Trop’s 2026 availability, Topkin notes that Auld added that receiving a settlement examine from the town would “clearly” present the membership a monetary enhance amid the lack of income related to the membership’s non permanent displacement.
Whereas the town deciding to desert the Trop may include some benefits for the Rays, Topkin notes it may additional jeopardize the group’s long- and short-term future within the higher Tampa space. The membership’s present cope with the Yankees permitting them to make use of Steinbrenner Subject in 2025 is anticipated to final for less than the upcoming season, and Topkin means that if the membership has to discover a new house for the 2026 marketing campaign as nicely that vacation spot will “virtually definitely” be exterior of Florida as MLB seems to keep away from scheduling issues brought on by rainouts. A brief transfer exterior of Florida for the 2026 and ’27 seasons would seemingly make the specter of relocation all of the extra actual because the membership’s lease in St. Pete expires forward of the 2028 season, although Auld advised that the membership’s “choice” would nonetheless be to stay within the higher Tampa space in a brand new stadium slightly than discover relocation even when they have been to quickly transfer out of market.
