To say the Rays are in a state of flux with the 2025 season would be putting it lightly. The Rays saw their home, Tropicana Field, damaged after Hurricane Milton ripped through the Tampa-St. Petersburg area in early October of 2024. The roof was completely destroyed, rendering the stadium unsuitable for the Rays to play in 2025. Tampa Bay has been playing at George Steinbrenner Field down the street, which is across the street from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, home of the NFL’s Buccaneers.
Steinbrenner Field is the home for the New York Yankees Class-A affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons.
ESPN reported on Wednesday that team presidents Matt Silverman and Brian Auld were stepping down from their current roles at the end of the season, in the midst of the ongoing sale of the franchise.
Stu Sternberg has owned the Rays since 2005, and has seen his club make two World Series since 2020. Silverman has been with the Rays’ organization for 22 years, with the past 17 being as team president. Silverman stepped out of the role for a few seasons to become the Director of Player Personnel, but returned to the role soon thereafter.
Silverman took over as team president when he was just 29 years old, giving Rays fans hope he could be much like what Theo Epstein was with the Boston Red Sox when “The Curse” was broken in 2004.
The sale of the Rays is expected to close within the next two weeks to a group headed by Patrick Zapulski, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a Florida-based company. At 44 years old, Zapulski has a current net worth of $1.7 billion. Dream Finders Homes went public in 2021, after being founded in 2008.
The first item on Zapulski’s docket when he assumes ownership in early October will be the same thing that Sternberg has been dealing with for the past two decades…finding a more suitable facility for the franchise.
The repairs to the roof of Tropicana Field began in July, and are expected to be completed by April of 2026. This would likely mean the Rays may have to play at Steinbrenner Field for at worst the first few weeks of the 2026 regular season.
Sternberg and the Rays announced in September 2023 that they were exploring plans to build a new 30,000 seat stadium adjacent to Tropicana Field. The project was estimated to cost $1.3 billion, and would have opened in time for the 2029 season. In March, Sternberg announced the Rays would no longer be pursuing the project. Building a new stadium next to the current is nothing new in sports. The Buffalo Bills are currently in the final stages of their new Highmark Stadium being completed next door to their current Highmark Stadium. The Cleveland Browns built their current stadium in the parking lot next to old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, then leveled the old stadium to make the parking lot for the new one.
However, these are football stadiums placed away from the heart of a metropolitan city, like what the Rays are experiencing right now.
The Rays have hit the skids in recent weeks, with their last series win being a three-game sweep of the now AL West first-place Seattle Mariners from September 1-3. This was right on the heels of a three-game sweep of the NL East last-place Washington Nationals. The Rays have gone 3-9 since that six-game winning streak, and are waiting to see that little “e” next to their name on the standings page to signal elimination anytime before the Buccaneers suit up at Raymond James Sunday afternoon to play the New York Jets.
No matter how much they try, New York and Tampa sports teams cannot get away from each other this calendar year.
For every Steve Ballmer finally getting the Los Angeles Clippers a home away from the Lakers, you have Alex Meruelo failing several times to build a new home for the Arizona Coyotes. Meruelo sold the franchise to Ryan Smith, upon announcement that the Coyotes would relocate immediately to Salt Lake City, Utah. The commitment of Zapulski to keep the Rays in Tampa is evident, but there have been some rumblings the team may be looking for a slight relocation to Orlando, approximately 85 miles away. There is also a possibility of renovating Tropicana Field, and removing the roof entirely. This would take the catwalks out of the equation, which has been a complaint between fans and players alike for the past two decades. Tropicana Field is currently the only non-retractable domed/roofed stadium in MLB.
Unfortunately, removing the roof is not an option. Since the start of 2010, the Tampa area has been hit with 12 tornados, three tropical storms, and nine hurricanes according to the National Weather Service. The last MLB team to be in an entirely indoor facility were the Minnesota Twins in the MetroDome, before moving to Target Field in 2010. This is something that the new ownership group has to take into account before they can really address the on-field product. The Rays have consistently been amongst the bottom of overall MLB attendance for the past decade, despite five straight playoff seasons. If the product is good, then fans will show up in a warehouse, which some have compared the Trop to over the years.
One of these new stadium proposals are going to happen, and the Rays will have a new ownership group get them a new stadium. For now, they will need to focus on the transition of ownership off the field, while the team prepares to return to their repaired building on it next spring.
-JC24