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Rays find new 2025 home at rival team's spring training complex

ByMason Stacy|
Mar 25, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; a general view of the stadium before a game between the New York Mets and New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Mar 25, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; a general view of the stadium before a game between the New York Mets and New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, the Rays will play their 2025 home regular season games at George Steinbrenner Field, the present-day Spring Training complex of the New York Yankees, in Tampa, FL. This rare scenario will warrant many responses, both good and bad. We will do our best to bring up some different perspectives of this unusual circumstance.

The Rays will remain close to home

First of all, the Tampa Bay Rays will be playing their home games in well... Tampa Bay! This is great news as players and fans will have little change in their commute to and from the stadium. The Rays current home base, Tropicana Field, is actually located in St. Petersburg, about 20 miles southwest of Tampa Bay. The majority of fans live in the greater Tampa area, so this change may be beneficial for the Rays faithful.

The Rays will play next to their NFL counterpart, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Another positive factor to this move is the fact that the Rays will be walking distance from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In more developed cities, the various sports' teams are situated very close to each other, so this will be a familiar site.

For example, the distance between the MLB and NFL stadiums in Philadelphia, Citizens Bank Park (Phillies) and Lincoln Financial Field (Eagles), are located within a mile of each other. Likewise, T-Mobile Park, home of the Mariners and Lumen Field, home of the Seahawks are only a short walk away. The proximity of the Rays and Buccaneers home fields could possibly help with boosting ticket sales and overall city morale.

The stadium only seats 11,026 fans

To add an obvious con to this plan, the Rays will be very limited in their stadium occupancy. Last season, Tropicana Field averaged 16,515 fans per home game. This was the 3rd lowest total of any MLB team, ahead of only the Miami Marlins and Oakland Athletics.

Unfortunately, it would appear that the attendance issue will not be resolved in the 2025 season, regardless of the move to the Tampa Bay area. George Steinbrenner Field can only hold 11,026 fans, which would drop the Rays average attendance by roughly 5,000 people. This will clearly result in a drop in team income, further hurting an organization with one of the lowest payrolls.

In conclusion, the switch to a new home stadium in 2025 was completely out of the front office's hands as Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof of Tropicana Field. However, the Rays are exceptional at making the most of difficult situations and there's plenty of positives as we move towards another year of baseball.

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