As Tampa Bay Rays eye 2025 move, ballpark deal in jeopardy

The Tampa Bay Rays will play its home games at the Yankees training facility in 2025, but with the deal for a new ballpark in limbo, there is a chance it may never play in St. Petersburg again.

By Louis Llovio
| 9:35 a.m. November 16, 2024
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

Tropicana Field suffered severe damaged when Hurricane Milton hit St. Petersburg on October 16, 2024.

Tampa Bay-Lakeland

Just shy of four months after the Tampa Bay Rays got the final approval for a long-awaited (or, depending on your perspective, long-delayed) new ballpark, the team announced Nov. 14 that it would play the 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

The team made the decision to hold its home games at the the New York Yankees’ Spring Training facility because of extensive damage to its current ballpark, St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field, caused by Hurricane Milton in October.