Yankees Grant 'Huge Ask' From Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays will play their 2025 home games at the New York Yankees' nearby spring training ballpark amid uncertainty about the future of hurricane-damaged Tropicana Field, Rays executives told the AP. Stuart Sternberg, the Rays' principal owner, said Steinbrenner Field in Tampa is the best fit for the team and its fanbase. At about 11,000 seats, it's also the largest of the spring training sites in Florida.

• "It is singularly the best opportunity for our fans to experience 81 games of major league Rays baseball," Sternberg said. "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."

• The Rays' home since 1998, the domed Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was hit hard by Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9, with most of its fabric roof shredded and water damage inside. The City of St. Petersburg, which owns the Trop, released an assessment of the damage and repair needs that estimated the cost at $55.7 million if it is to be ready for the start of the 2026 season.
• The work would have to be approved by the city council, which earlier this year voted for a new $1.3 billion, 30,000-seat stadium to replace Tropicana Field beginning in 2028. Amid the uncertainty, the Rays know one thing: They will play 2025 in a smallish, outdoor ballpark operated by one of their main American League East Division rivals—a ballpark with a facade mimicking that of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and festooned with plaques of Yankee players whose numbers have been retired.

• Once known as Legends Field, Steinbrenner Field opened in 1996 on Tampa's north side. It is named for longtime Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who ran a shipbuilding company in Tampa and died at his home there in 2010. One of his sons, Yankees executive Hal Steinbrenner, was instrumental in getting the deal done with the Rays, Sternberg said. "This is a huge ask by us and baseball of the Yankees," Sternberg said, adding that Hal Steinbrenner "did not waver for one second. I couldn't have been more grateful."
• Hal Steinbrenner said in a news release that the Yankees are "happy to extend our hand to the Rays" and noted that the team and his family have "deep roots" in the Tampa Bay area. "In times like these, rivalry and competition take a back seat to doing what's right for our community, which is continuing to help families and businesses rebound from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton," he said.

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