Rays' Tropicana Field can be fixed for 2026 season

A damage assessment report on Tropicana Field was presented to St. Petersburg City Council members Tuesday, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. 

Per that report, the stadium could be fixed in time for the 2026 season at an estimated cost of $55.7M. It’s still unclear whether the city will want to pay that cost for essentially just two years of use since the facility is slated for demolition before the 2028 season when the club is hoping to unveil a new stadium.

About a month ago, the Trop was significantly damaged by Hurricane Milton, with the roof appearing to be the part most affected. The takeaway from Tuesday’s report is that the building is structurally sound and could return to an operational state after some repairs, primarily to the roof. Fixing the roof is necessary because the field doesn’t have drainage. Given the frequency of rain in the area, playing without a roof would be logistically difficult, which is why it was built in the first place.

The city of St. Petersburg owns the stadium and has already filed an insurance claim. Per Topkin, the policy has a $22M deductible and $25M of coverage, though it had $100M coverage as of March when the city opted to save $275K in annual premium payments by reducing its coverage.

It’s a bit of an awkward spot. As mentioned, the plan has long been to build a new stadium on essentially the same plot of land that currently houses the Trop. As part of that plan, the Trop would be demolished, and the new stadium opened in time for the 2028 season. With the extensive damage of the storm, a decision has to be made about whether it’s worth investing resources into a doomed facility. Presumably, the city has plenty of other repair projects that could use that money.

That leaves 2026 and 2027 sort of undecided for now. In the short term, it seems all but guaranteed that the Rays won’t be playing in the Trop in 2025. Though it’s not stated outright, that seems to be the implication of Tuesday’s assessment report. That’s not necessarily a surprise, as it already seemed unlikely the roof could be fixed so quickly, but it does seem to confirm that the Rays will be nomads next year.

That means the Rays will need to find somewhere to play their home games for at least one year and possibly longer. There’s little clarity on where that will be, though Topkin notes that both MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Pinellas County politicians have encouraged the Rays to stay in the area. That could perhaps be somewhere like BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, home of the Threshers, the Single-A affiliate of the Phillies.

That scenario or any similar proposal would have the domino effect of needing to find a new home for the displaced club or altering the schedule enough for the two clubs to share one park. 

Such logistical challenges and others will need to be smoothed out over time. For now, it seems a lock that Major League Baseball will have two nomadic clubs at the same time, at least for one year. The Athletics are leaving Oakland, but their new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t slated to be ready until 2028, so they are planning to play the next three seasons in West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, home of the Giants’ Triple-A club.