(The Center Square) – For a day, just baseball. Opening Day in Tampa.
What a journey it’s been, and this time it’s not just the usual offseason acquisitions and spring training competition for roster spots. The Tampa Rays host the Chicago Cubs on Monday back in Tropicana Field, its home ballpark since 1998 and subject of intense deliberation tied to taxpayer money well before Hurricane Milton tore the roof open in October 2024.
Monday’s game in The Trop, as it is affectionately known, is possible because of an estimated $60 million repair project. FEMA supplied $16.5 million. The team is contractually obligated to play in the stadium overseen by the City Council of St. Petersburg through the 2028 season.
“This is a truly heroic effort,” Rays CEO Ken Babby said in February. “It was not long ago that we looked at this building and wondered, ‘Could baseball ever be played here again?’ Not only is this building going to be special on April 6, but our fans are going to walk in and see Tropicana Field in a whole new way.”
Included in the true wonder also has been posturing on stadium ideas, from the Rays to the local governments in the area.
Patrick Zalupski, managing partner of the new ownership group succeeding Stu Sternberg, said last fall he intends for the team to remain in Tampa and to secure a new fixed-roof, domed stadium home for the 2029 season. Ideal, he said, would be a site of 100 acres supporting retail shops, bars, restaurants and other amenities.
In January, the Hillsborough College District Board of Trustees approved a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with the baseball club that would redevelop the 113-acre Dale Mabry campus in Tampa. A stadium and mixed-use development is planned, pending a 180-day exclusive negotiation period.
The location is across Dale Mabry Highway from Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL Buccaneers, and near Tampa International Airport. The Super Bowl was held in the football stadium, and its predecessor, Tampa Stadium, on adjacent land, after the 1983, 1990, 2000, 2009, and 2020 seasons.
In September 2023, the Rays were lining up a $1.2 billion domed stadium project in the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District. The following August, Pinellas County commissioners approved the redevelopment project.
Then came Milton on Oct. 9, 2024, one of three hurricanes in 66 days to slam Florida.
A month later, Pinellas commissioners voted to postpone a $312.5 million bond issue. The Rays then suspended work on the project, saying also they would “work with any willing partners” on a new stadium deal.
The whirlwind month concluded with St. Petersburg’s council reversing an earlier vote, saying it would not repair The Trop. As Monday’s game evidenced, that also would later change.
Tampa played the 2025 season in the spring training home of the New York Yankees, paying them $15 million to do so. The Rays and Yankees are each members of the East Division in the American League.
