Tampa Bay Rays to play 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field

Tampa Bay Rays to play 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field

As a result of Hurricane Milton destroying the roof of Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays will play the 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., Rays insider Marc Topkin of Tampa Bay Times first reported Thursday.

Our @TB_Times story, with @Colleen_Wright, on #Rays planning to play 2025 season at #Yankees Steinbrenner Field.https://t.co/nNmCInKjCO

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) November 14, 2024

Steinbrenner Field is currently home to the New York Yankees during spring training, as well as their Class-A affiliate Tampa Tarpons. It can hold just over 11,000 people; the Rays averaged 16,515 fans last year, the third-worst in baseball, so it’s not a big discrepancy when they could never fill out seats anyway.

You could also argue that Steinbrenner Field is more MLB-ready than Tropicana Field, widely regarded as the worst stadium in baseball, was before Hurricane Milton unfortunately destroyed the rooftop.

“It is singularly the best opportunity for our fans to experience 81 games of major league Rays baseball,” Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said, according to ESPN. “As difficult as it is to get any of these stadiums up to major league standards, it was the least difficult. You’re going to see Major League Baseball in a small environment.”

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There’s no timetable for when it will be open again, but it was previously reported that it would likely come after opening day, meaning there needed to be a backup plan in place for at least the 2025 season. They already have a deal in place to build a new stadium by 2028, which was approved in July, so it may not make the most sense financially to pour in a ton of resources to repair the Trop just for 1-2 seasons.

They will be the second team to play in a minor league ballpark for the 2025 season, with the Athletics playing in Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., for the next three seasons.

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