The Tampa Bay Rays, who despite having zero fan base, even less of a budget, and playing in a ballpark (Tropicana Field) that makes the much-maligned Oakland Coliseum seem like the field of dreams, have over recent years managed to piece together an on-field product that has seldom been less than competitive. When your divisional competition includes the New York Yankees, whose clubhouse snacks budget dwarfs the Rays’ entire payroll, that’s saying something.
The Rays didn’t make the postseason this year, which, given recent events, is arguably for the best. When Hurricane Milton came through the Tampa/St. Petersburg area on October 9, 2024, it shredded Tropicana Field’s roof. It may have done even more damage than that.
To our Rays family, fans and the entire Tampa Bay community. 💙 pic.twitter.com/X9fwjZdcRX
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 10, 2024
Although not yet fully assessed, the initial damage reports are dour:
Access to the building has been extremely limited due to safety concerns, including the integrity of the struts that held the Teflon-coated fiberglass roof.
There are indications of extensive damage elsewhere at the stadium. For example, some team offices on the fourth floor, which had drop ceilings under the overall roof, are now open to the elements.
Long story short, don’t count on the Rays’ 2025 home opener, presently scheduled for March 27 against the Colorado Rockies, taking place at the Trop.
Should the Rays be forced to play their home games elsewhere for part or all of 2025, things will get messy quickly, as San Francisco Bay Area sports reporter Brodie Brazil notes.
Brazil notes a possible scenario that albeit surreal could transpire which forces the Tampa Bay Rays to play their 2025 home games in the only available Major League ballpark that could accommodate the team with ease. You know … the one near the San Francisco Bay, presently
without a tenant courtesy of MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and A’s owner John Fisher’s mendacity?
MORE: A Personal Farewell to the Oakland A’s
Stranger things have happened when the money talks.
The Rays are supposed to have a new stadium in St. Petersburg, the location being adjacent to Tropicana Field, ready in time for the 2028 season. Whether this happens or not is unknown, as when it comes to building a new ballpark, anything can happen and usually does. If Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is involved, it’ll get done if he has to pour the concrete himself since he’s no-nonsensically efficient. However, he’s not involved, which leads to the next point.
Besides perhaps Texas, no state in this great union of ours is as sports-crazy as Florida. Even a sport as foreign to the Sunshine State as can be imagined, namely hockey, has been wholeheartedly embraced by the fan base. Although it has often struggled at the professional level due to a combination of ownership’s financial chicanery and atrocious stadiums, the Florida sports mind has long unreservedly embraced, and does embrace, baseball. The decades of spring training success bear this out. All well and good.
That said, Ron DeSantis has made it clear in word and deed that he is no fan of public money going toward professional sports in his state. In 2022, he nixed a plan to give the Rays public money for a training facility. (The linked story below is available to VIP members only, making this a perfect time to sign up if you’re not already on board so you can get the deep dives and unfiltered commentary available only to members. Join today by clicking this link.)
MORE: CNN Lies About DeSantis Denying Funding for Tampa Bay Rays’ Training Facility
Flash over to the left coast and Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA), the opposite of Ron DeSantis in more ways than one can relate in a single post. Under Newsom’s watch, Oakland has become a deserted city of the heart, with the Raiders and A’s leaving for Las Vegas and the Warriors moving across the Bay to San Francisco. If Newsom has made even the slightest effort to keep either the Raiders or A’s in the not-so-Golden State, he has kept it to himself. Now, he has an opportunity to rectify his previous failures and extract some measure of revenge against Ron DeSantis for the thorough whuppin’ he administered to Newsom during their December 2023 debate. (The linked story is also for VIP members — what are you waiting for? Do yourself a favor and click this link to sign up today! )
MORE: What the Heck Was That DeSantis-Newsom Debate Really About?
If I was advising Newsom — which I assure you I am not — I’d be making a phone call five minutes ago to Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who has long had an offer on the table to buy the A’s and keep them in Oakland, and suggest he call the Rays’ ownership with a sweet offer to end all their weather headaches. There is the minor detail of California earthquakes, but they happen far less often than Florida hurricanes. The Rays move to Oakland, Lacob builds them a new stadium on the Oakland Coliseum’s parking lot, the Rays’ ownership gets an expansion franchise to start play when/if the new stadium comes to pass, and everyone in Major League Baseball lines their already luxurious pockets with the team sale money and expansion buy-in money. This, of course, since it makes at least a little sense, will not happen. But, as a jilted A’s fan, I still have dreams.
