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The Tampa Bay Rays will need to find a temporary home after Tropicana Field bore the brunt of Hurricane Milton, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has shed some light on the league’s plans for the team ahead of the upcoming season.
Florida barely had time to exhale in the wake of Hurricane Helene before Milton made a beeline for the state toward the start of October, and officials in the Tampa Bay area were hoping to use Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg as a base camp for thousands of emergency personnel tasked with first-responding and clean-up duties.
However, that plan hit a major hitch when the roof of the stadium that’s home to the Tampa Bay Rays was torn to shreds by the powerful winds that accompanied the storm, and while there thankfully weren’t any injuries, the team assessed the damage and quickly determined it wouldn’t be able to complete the necessary repairs by the time the 2025 MLB season kicks off.
At this point, there are plenty of unanswered questions concerning the timeline (and cost) of those repairs as well as the contingency plan that will be put into place to ensure the Rays will at least be able to play baseball when the season gets underway—although we now have a bit more insight into that second front courtesy of Rob Manfred.
The MLB commissioner recently appeared on The Varsity podcast for an interview with John Ourand and admitted “We don’t know” where the Rays will be setting up shop before hinting at the vision, saying:
“We’re hopeful that we can figure out something in Tampa for them and that the repairs can be done in a way that allows them to resume playing. The easiest thing is always to stay in the market where the clubs are anchored, if we can manage it.”
There’s no shortage of stadiums in the area thanks to MLB teams who conduct spring training and have a minor league affiliate in the region, although none of them come close to boasting the 42,735 capacity of Tropicana Field (although it is worth noting the Rays averaged a home attendance of 16,515 fans per game last season).
As the Tampa Bay Times notes, there are minor league venues in Clearwater, Dunedin, Lakeland, and Tampa that could potentially fit the bill, and it’s worth noting Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota (where the Orioles play their Grapefruit League games) isn’t currently home to an MiLB affiliate and could subsequently be less of a logistical nightmare.
There’s also a hypothetical scenario where the Rays kick off the season on a lengthy road trip until the roof issue is addressed, although it doesn’t seem like that’s currently being taken into consideration based on what Manfred had to say.