A injury evaluation report on Tropicana Discipline was offered to St. Petersburg Metropolis Council members at the moment, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Occasions. Per that report, the stadium could possibly be fastened in time for the 2026 season at an estimated value of $55.7MM. It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not the town will really wish to pay that value for basically simply two years of use, for the reason that facility is slated for demolition previous to the 2028 season, when the membership is hoping to unveil a brand new stadium.
A couple of month in the past, the Trop was considerably broken by Hurricane Milton, with the roof showing to be the half most affected. The takeaway from at the moment’s report is that the constructing is structurally sound and will return to an operational state after some repairs, primarily to the roof. Fixing the roof is important as a result of the sector doesn’t have drainage. Given the frequency of rain within the space, taking part in and not using a roof can be logistically tough, which is why it was constructed within the first place.
Town of St. Petersburg owns the stadium and has already filed an insurance coverage declare. Per Topkin, the coverage has a $22MM deductible and $25MM of protection, although it had $100MM protection as of March, when the town opted to save lots of $275K in annual premium funds by decreasing their protection.
It’s a little bit of an ungainly spot. As talked about, the plan has lengthy been to construct a brand new stadium on basically the identical plot of land that presently homes the Trop. As a part of that plan, the Trop can be demolished and the brand new stadium opened in time for the 2028 season. With the intensive injury of the storm, a choice needs to be made about whether or not it’s price investing sources right into a doomed facility. Presumably, the town has loads of different restore initiatives that might use that cash.
That leaves 2026 and 2027 kind of undecided for now. Within the brief time period, it appears all however assured that the Rays received’t be taking part in within the Trop in 2025. Although it’s not acknowledged outright, that appears to be the implication of at the moment’s evaluation report. That’s not essentially a shock, because it already appeared unlikely the roof could possibly be fastened so rapidly, however it does appear to verify that the Rays shall be nomads subsequent yr.
Which means the Rays might want to discover someplace to play their residence video games for a minimum of one yr and presumably longer. There’s little readability on the place that shall be, although Topkin notes that each MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Pinellas County politicians have inspired the Rays to remain within the space. That would maybe be someplace like BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, residence of the Threshers, the Single-A affiliate of the Phillies.
That situation or any related proposal would have the domino results of needing to discover a new residence for the displaced membership or altering the schedule sufficient for the 2 golf equipment to share one park. Such logistical challenges and others will have to be smoothed out over time. For now, it appears a lock that Main League Baseball may have two nomadic golf equipment on the identical time, a minimum of for one yr. The Athletics are leaving Oakland however their new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t slated to be prepared till 2028, so they’re planning to play the following three seasons in West Sacramento’s Sutter Well being Park, residence of the Giants’ Triple-A membership.
