This afternoon, the St. Petersburg City Council approved $22.5MM in funding to repair the Tropicana Field roof (link via The Associated Press). That’s less the half the overall estimated $55.7MM necessary to get the Trop back to playable after last fall’s hurricane damage. Other necessary fixes include repairs to the playing surface and lighting. The roof is expected to take 10 months, according to The AP.
“We are pleased to see City Council take this important step toward preparing Tropicana Field for Major League Baseball in time for 2026 Opening Day,” Rays president Brian Auld said in a statement. “We commend in particular city, Rays and MLB staff for their cooperative efforts to get us to this point.”
The City of St. Petersburg owns Tropicana Field, which it leases to the Rays. The city is therefore obligated to cover repair costs. Major League Baseball and the Rays have maintained hope that the field will be ready by Opening Day. They have three years left on their lease. Since the field is not in use this year, the lease is extended by one season. They’re contracted to play at The Trop through 2028, assuming they’re able to return to the stadium next year.
What happens after that is unknown. Colleen Wright of The Tampa Bay Times wrote earlier this week that the project for a new ballpark to be built in St. Petersburg officially died on Tuesday. The Rays had already announced they would not proceed with that plan, citing cost overruns related to delays in the county’s approval of bonds. Unlike the Tropicana Field repairs, the Rays would have been responsible for excess costs on the new stadium. The bonds nevertheless technically remained available until March 31, when the tentative agreement formally lapsed because the Rays had not met necessary construction benchmarks.
The Rays were not permitted to speak with other municipalities until the St. Petersburg deal officially expired. Team president Matt Silverman suggested last month that they could reengage with the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County after March 31. Commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly stated that MLB remains committed to finding a solution in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays could not explore relocation without league approval.
I could barely do my kitchen for $22.5m these days
You live next door to Mark Attanasio?
Great. Now we get to watch games in that dump for the next three years.
Fenway Park is older and technically more of a dump than Tropicana Field. You’ll survive.
They’re both dumps.
Disagree. Fenway is old, and shows it, but it’s still a great place to watch baseball. The Trop? Not so much.
Fenway is still the best MLB experience I’ve had. Sure, it has some bad sightlines, narrow pathways and odd configurations, but the reno they did was impressive and welcome to the alternative of, like Yankee Stadium, creating a newer, shinier hollow replica
Only if the best baseball experience includes being treated rudely by Red Sox Nation, then yes.
welcome to the alternative of, like Yankee Stadium,
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I miss the history of old YS, but that was beyond a dump. The new YS has the aura of the Roman Coliseum.
@Jean Matrac
Fenway doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not which is the reason a manual scoreboard remains in use. One of my fav ballparks. Will be there next Tues. against the Blue Jays for a game (and rooting for both teams to lose).
The aura of Roman Coliseum……lol.
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Maybe by way of the Vegas Strip.
I also save a bit of coin on my Italian vacations by taking the family to Olive Garden. There, we’re family.
YBC, I moved to Boston for school, and stayed longer than I wanted to, because that’s where the jobs were for me. I didn’t particularly like living there, though I can understand why some do, and I moved away as soon as the opportunity arose.
But I loved going to Fenway. It wasn’t unusual for me to go 30+ times a season. When I was there bleacher seats w/o a back were $2, and with a back were $3. I avoided the $2 seats because it could get rowdy and you’ could get soaked in beer. I saw Roger Clemens’ first 20 strikeout game from a $3 seat. I sat in seats all over the park, except for the monster seats. They didn’t exist until after I left. Fenway was a special place for me.
Blasphemy!!
Only one of the 2 is a cathedral to the game of baseball.
Hopefully Rays can get a stadium somewhere in TB/St Pete area. It sucks fans have to suffer for that parasite of an owner who has made an insane fortune off taxpayer $.
Fenway park is a MLB treasure. Not to mention iconic
Don’t watch
More curious to find what it’s like in Tampa later this year. Sacramento is extremely expensive and had many empty seats for 2 of 3 games. I assume they were sold but nobody showed up. And I’m talking 10 rows in front of home plate and 10 rows behind dugout. For fans that don’t want to buy a cable TV package to watch games on TV are they willing to pay $160 a seat or $75 for a lawn spot and $17 for a huge can of beer? This year will prove interesting as MLB has 2 teams in minor league ballparks charging premium prices
The dump? I miss it. I just cannot get into these MiL park games. It feels like spring training.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving franchise. They should move somewhere they would feel more comfortable – like Havana.
That would be cool.
Just send the owner to Havana or Moscow, Beijing, Antarctica, the middle of the Pacific with a porpoise raft, etc…
hahaha and now we get to the real reason that Tampa Bay can sell out hockey games , but not baseball. Thank you for admitting that.
Hockey is in Tampa, North side of Tampa Bay
Baseball is in St Petersburg, South side of Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is not a city, it is a body of water.
Thanks for geography lesson mate. His wisenhammer comment had more to do with the make up of the team than the location. Comprende?
Waste of money. Just move to Nashville.
Or Portland or Salt Lake
What, do you have a death wish? How’s about Oakland, California? Zero flooding deaths in the past 24 hours.
@Bart And how many times have pro sports franchises left OAK area?
Sucks for A’s fans they are unfortunate victims. But clearly there’s a reason teams across multiple sports have been jumping to leave the area. As far as media markets having SF and OAK do close isn’t ideal by any means.
Sucks for A’s fans they are unfortunate victims.
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Are there any As fans in here that have attended a game in the past 3 years?
I’m a Phillies fan living in the Bay Area, and I attended eleven games at the Coliseum during the 2022-24 seasons.
I fully comprehend the situation. The Warriors returned to San Francisco when the Chase Center was built. The Davis family yanked the Raiders fans around for decades before taking their show permanently out of town. And we’ve all discussed at length what a substandard human being John Fisher is. Oakland fans were loyal when their team owners acted responsibly, but it’s been a while.
@Bart
Thank you for this. Most people see the Warriors, Raiders, and A’s moving and assume that Oakland fans are disloyal and lazy. Oakland fans are some of the best fans I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and it’s tragic how ownership have abused them.
But that wasn’t my question. Are there any As fan in here that have attended any games recently? I went to the Coliseum last time I was in the area, but I went there to see the Red Sox and Pedro.
TBH, I liked the place a lot, but that was a long time ago, and it was old then.
They have no fans. They’ve had one of the best W/L records in baseball this century, and have probably averaged way under 2M.
That said, I trust capitalism. If there is money to be made in Oakland, someone will start a team there. But I just don’t see it.
Again? There are at least 3 ownership groups ready and willing to buy and keep them in Central Florida although Orlando is now part if that. They’re not moving, sorry to disappoint those like you who rant the same thing every time a Rays stadium article posts.
The Rays come out on top, with all the power, while St. Petersburg gets stuck holding the bag.
All the power? The cannot get a new stadium built. Leaving does not to be enough of a threat. Even if they have a lease they can still say we are gone once it is done. So does not look like they have all the power.
@Slappy Dappy Doo
Your point assumes the Rays’ inability to secure a new stadium equates to a lack of power, but this misreads the deeper game theory at play. The Rays don’t need a new stadium to win—they’ve weaponized their existing lease to shift financial burdens onto St. Petersburg while preserving optionality. The $22.5MM repair cost, though only a fraction of the total $55.7MM, locks the city into a sunk-cost fallacy: they must fund repairs to maintain Tropicana Field’s viability, yet the Rays retain the ability to walk away post-2028 with no obligation to repay or commit long-term. The lease extension for 2025’s downtime further tilts the scales—St. Petersburg bears the immediate fiscal hit while the Rays gain a free year of leverage to negotiate elsewhere (e.g., Tampa, Hillsborough) without penalty. Power isn’t about leaving now; it’s about controlling the board state. The Rays hold a dominant position because they’ve externalized risk and maximized flexibility, while the city’s hands are tied by its own infrastructure.
@York The Rays are not repaying and it has nothing to do with power, it was I’m the lease agreement. If anything it’s just going to create further divide and lessen chances of the city and team coming to a deal on a new stadium.
Zero deeper game theory here, this has been playing out publicly all along.
So what if he doesn’t know the difference between a contractual obligation and the sunk cost fallacy, he used big words and used them with absolute certitude.
He’ll fool plenty of people.
He used an AI filter. It’s obvious when he does it.
Yes the city is stuck with the bill regardless. But his notion that it’s some deeper play at hand is absurd. It is a billionaire whose capitalizing on a national disaster.
We shouldn’t be talking about power. Instead, we should be talking about ‘cards’. Who has the ‘cards’?
York – That’s what happens when you’re the landlord, they are the tenant, and the lease stipulates the landlord is responsible for repairs. Today’s vote was a mere technicality.
What I’d like to know is why no mention of insurance covering some of the cost?
Fever pitch guy – the city significantly reduced the insurance policy before last season started. They changed the coverage so they could save about 300k for the premium that year
Came back to hurt them big time because a decision to save 300k is now costing them well over 20 million in out of pocket costs, for a garbage stadium that may not be used beyond 2028
Fever pitch guy – never mind it seems you already knew and I misunderstood the question
Two – No worries. I knew about the coverage reduction, but the insurance still should have covered something… right?
I’ve read there may not be coverage because the age of the roof was well past it’s useful life … if so, then why was an insurance premium paid at all? Seems like there’s important information that reporters failed to report.
@Fever Pitch Guy
You’re correct that the landlord-tenant dynamic obligates St. Petersburg to fund repairs, but this isn’t a neutral “technicality”—it’s a deliberate asymmetry the Rays exploit. The lease’s repair clause isn’t a standard boilerplate; it’s a fulcrum that lets the Rays offload hurricane-related costs while they pivot to extract concessions elsewhere. Consider this: the absence of insurance in public discourse isn’t an oversight—it’s a signal. If insurance were a significant factor, the city would trumpet it to offset political blowback from the $22.5MM outlay. Silence suggests either insufficient coverage or a strategic choice to absorb the cost to keep the Rays placated. Meanwhile, the Rays dodged a bullet on the new stadium’s cost overruns, which they’d have shouldered. They’ve engineered a scenario where St. Petersburg pays to maintain a depreciating asset (Tropicana) while the Rays preserve capital and dictate the timeline for their next move. That’s not tenancy—it’s mastery of economic leverage.
Libbys drop that kind of coin on T&A in one weekend. Depends whose island you go to.
@slidepiece
The Rays’ refusal to proceed with the new ballpark wasn’t just about cost overruns—it was a calculated rejection of liability. By letting the bond deadline lapse, they shifted the burden of maintaining MLB viability back to the city, forcing St. Petersburg to prop up a decaying status quo. This isn’t about who spends more; it’s about who controls the dependency. The Rays have turned the city into a caretaker of their short-term needs while they plot a long-term exit or renegotiation, all without risking a dime.
@York The Rays haven’t turned the city into anything. The team has carried the liability of repairs ever since the lease was signed.
Yes Steinberg is playing games. That is not a shock to anyone. He has been a parasite leaching off the government since his Wall St days. He pocketed billion$ in bailout $ while at Goldman Sachs.
Waste of taxpayer money.
Fred – They were legally obligated. But yes, the apparent lack of insurance coverage created a huge amount of taxpayer money being wasted.
Wild that they can put a whole roof on the stadium for the price of 2 years of Christian Vazquez.
ben – It’s easier to cover Tropicana Field than it is Vazquez’s stomach.
The Twins might kick in to cover the roof if the Rays are willing to take Vizquel in return
They couldn’t call Jake from State Farm?
They did not bundle their home and auto so he is not happy with them.
Slappy – The way Raymond drives, Jake shouldn’t want to bundle their home and auto.
Bundlerayski
Why exactly does that stadium need a roof? How unbearable is the weather? Has anyone been to Arlington?
The field isn’t meant to handle being rained on. There’s no built=in drainage system so it would flood over the course of a season.
The issue is thunderstorms.
Lars – Agreed, that’s the difference. Tropical Season in Tampa/St Pete is far worse than summer in Arlington. Severe lightning, torrential downpours, strong storms, very high humidity … there’s a reason why both Florida MLB teams are/were playing under a roof.
And to answer the last question of texasgus, I just came from Arlington …. they have a roof that they kept closed even though it was sunny and only 85 on Sunday. Not sure what he’s getting at there, does he think they play in an open-air stadium?
There’s no drainage system in the Trop that can handle rain…
I still believe MLB made a huge mistake by not making the Rays and A’s “test market” franchises for potential expansion or relocation cities. The NBA did a great job of that after Hurricane Katrina forced the New Orleans Hornet to play in Oklahoma City for a year. It laid the groundwork for the Seattle Sonics to move there.
Let’s say you have 8 cities you are considering for the next round expansion. You could have had the Rays and A’s each test out those cities over the next two years each getting two cities per year (one first half, one second half) as their “home.” The data taken from that experiment would be invaluable when deciding if a city is really viable as a big league market. At the very least, you could build a fan base in those cities even if they don’t get an expansion or relocated team.
A’s are kind of doing that with Sacramento.
Not really. They aren’t even really acknowledging Sacramento as their home city. Plus, I don’t think Sacramento would ever be considered by MLB for a permanent franchise unless they went to 48 teams or something. There are just far bigger markets to work with before them.
I don’t think whether they acknowledge the city has any effect on how they see the results from testing the market. And the Kings owner Ranadive said that he considered the temporary home to be an audition for a permanent team.
I would think it would affect the results. If a team is playing in my city, but not acknowledging my city at all, I wouldn’t pay to go see them.
I guess it would be the same thing, but the optics would feel different to me. One way I would feel like an audition for potentially getting a full time gig. The other way, I would feel like a gas station where you stop and grab a sandwich and a bag of chips on the way to the real destination.
Not many markets that are bigger than Sacramento. Its bigger than Charlotte, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas. The only market being talked about that its not bigger than is Orlando and that belongs to the Rays,. ustvdb.com/seasons/2024-25/markets/
It may be “technically” a bigger market, but it is too close to the Giants for a team to really succeed there. All 4 of the cities you mentioned may be slightly smaller, but they would also be the only game in town in each of those states. So it is not just solely about population, it is about competition as well.
Tampa is #11 on that list and they have not been able to really build a fan base in 30 years mainly because Tampa is a Yankees town.
The A’s are kind of doing that with Las Vegas, as in relocating to that once potential expansion city when their new stadium is finished. 🙂
The idea of auditioning 8 cities ignores a lot of pragmatic issues. The A’s aren’t playing in just a AAA ballpark. It’s AAA sized, but over $7M in renovations still took place for it to meet MLB standards.
A lot of research was done to determine if Sutter-Health Park was a viable home for an MLB team. Not every AAA park will be. Any expansion team will be playing in a completely different park, in a different location, built for the new team.
Agreements for a new park takes time, with construction that takes years. And, it could be misleading, when the decision is based on attendance at a park that’s only 1/3, or 1/4 the size of a ML park.
My company was part of that construction. It was closer to $21 million.
The problem is that you can sell out for thee years, and then the novelty wears off.
Most major cities have some type of multipurpose arena that can house an NBA team for 40 games per season. What they don’t have is an MLB caliber stadium that can house a team for 81 games which is why the A’s and Rays are playing in minor league stadiums as close to locally as they can get.
I laugh at you all talking about expansion when more than half the teams in baseball are sputtering along due to the RSN fiasco and the Rays and A’s are playing in minor league parks because MLB can’t even get those situations right.
Where would the teams play in those cities if no major league park. Most cities if awarded a team would need to build a stadium. I guess they could use a minor league park but that would usually hold smaller crowd. And easy to show fan acceptance.
Portland is very interested in team and has group for financing, land and stadium plan but no mlb park yet.
Sounds like they’re kinda taking the cheap route? So you know those app ads that show you that when you only get half of the coins you need to make something right for some mom and her daughter who are down in the dumps, and then since they don’t get 100% of the coins, everything just falls apart, and they’re still left in bad shape?
That’s what this feels like. If that roof gets blown off again, man, it might so funny that I lose the ability to laugh ever again. The better be making an unbreakable titanium shield dome thingy.
What greatly added to the stadium having 50m+ of damage was a serious design mistake. They had absolutely no built in drainage. Most likely will be less seating and areas probably never reopened.
What a waste of money. Spending 50+ million on a roof you’re going to demolish within a few years. Totally makes sense.
Nothing is being demolished. The stadium deal is dead. The city can still use the venue for other events.
The stadium will be fixed just in time for them to leave town
I wish the Rhonda Santis child labor squad a safe roof repair.
Yes, 14-year old children are now legally permitted to work overnight shifts in Florida! 🇺🇸USA! USA! USAI🇺🇸
Not like they have a choice. City is responsible for the facility and have a lease they have to uphold. If they don’t fulfill the lease, the lawsuit over the losses the Rays suffer could bankrupt the city.
They’re still going to be playing there 20 years from now.
Another black eye for Robby the robot and MLB, just like the A’s situation.
Another black eye for Robby the robot
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A hurricane blew the roof off, and they’ll be back next year. Nothing here to blame anyone for.
They had to approve it? Would have been funny if they said “nah we are just going to leave it as is.”
Can you say the Nashville Rays!?
Nashville is Braves country. Atlanta ain’t giving that up.
It’s about damn time the council voted on this . They’ve only had 5 months to approve funding. I don’t know how people can blame the team when the council drags it’s feet on every approval?
Why not just have a series of lasers along the roof line? If it starts to rain or is real humid, the lasers could burn off the larger molecules of moisture and what’s left will just steam up and float away.
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, MLB!