My boss took me to a Tampa Bay Rays game earlier this month. Fans filled most of the seats at Stein Brenner Field despite being an in-week game with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
This was one of the ideal April evenings to see why baseball is best seen outdoors. It’s warm but comfortable. A slight breeze. The sheetlightning flashed at clouds far from the east. The game sounded better – cleaner and less echoed.
More than most sports, national entertainment is a connection to the past. It’s easy to sit outside and get lost in nostalgia. After all, Babe Ruth hit all of his major league home runs outdoors. Jackie Robinson never stole the base in the air-conditioned dome. The fictional Ray Kinsella did not build a retractable roof over his dream field in Dyersville, Iowa.
But Tampa’s April will soon make way for June. With triple digit heat index, humidity covering hair and afternoon omissions, the amount of nostalgia can’t contain nature. Wetlands can also be obtained in these areas. Stubborn fans still take part in outdoor games in the summer. Everyone else does something sane and retreat indoors.
Enter your crazy ideas: two stadiums.
Many of you will recall the suggestion of splitting the home game between Tampa Bay and Montreal. Support for the idea began slowly, gaining traction and marinated for over a year, until Major League Baseball finally said no. Montreal is located in another country 1,300 miles from Tampa Bay. It was complicated.
What if the two cities are much closer? Can the Rays split the home game between Tampa and St. Petersburg?
The boss who took me into the game loved the idea and laid out a wide stroke as he saw the Rays beat the Pirates. Since then, I have been running the concept by 12 other baseball fans as two other people have been asking me about the possibility. The responses were mixed from “I like creative thinking” to “I’m dead on arrival.” I’m leaning towards the latter.
The idea includes rays to find ways to build an outdoor stadium in Tampa, which seats between 15,000 and 20,000. The team will play the first part of the spring training game and the regular season.
The Tropicana Field, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton last year, has been renovated, including a new roof. Every season around June, the team moves to Trop’s indoor comfort. In the fall, near the end of the season, the Rays could return to Tampa Stadium. You need to resolve the details.
The advantage is that the Tampa Bay Area maintains major league baseball teams. Fans get both an outdoor experience and a relief in the air-conditioned dome. Rays can take advantage of a fanbase that often complains about charging premium prices at smaller Tampa Stadiums and crossing the bridge to St. Petersburg.
Supporters also believe it is less. A 30,000-seat indoor stadium that was recently discarded in St. Petersburg costs $1.3 billion.
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Comparisons are difficult because there are no major league baseball teams that have recently built such a small stadium. They are all much bigger.
For example, eight years ago, the Rays estimated the cost of building a stadium planned for Ybor without a roof for around $600 million. It was all in 2017, with little cost, but it was a 30,000-seat facility, about twice the size of what was envisaged for the split season proposal.
The recently opened 8,000-seat Minor League Ballpark, near Salt Lake City, cost $140 million. In Knoxville, Tennessee, the new 6,355-seat Covenant Health Park cost $114 million. The University of South Florida’s proposed 35,000-seat outdoor multi-purpose stadium is expected to cost $340 million. None of these are the same size as what we’re talking about tampa. And none of them are major league baseball facilities, and all the expensive, often mandatory traps.
Regarding TROP, the repairs are estimated at $56 million. Additionally, if the rays are used for more than a decade, the facility may require significant upgrades. So certainly it would cost to rehabilitate the Trop and build a relatively small outdoor stadium, but that doesn’t mean it’s not expensive.
The Rays declined to comment on the idea, and Major League Baseball did not respond. Convincing MLB to sign off on such a radical departure from regular stadium trades could be one of the biggest hurdles.
Certainly, this is the one behind Napkin, with an unknown number of dizzying numbers. Can rays make numbers work? Does the player like it? Can Tampa find land? Does St. Pete want to keep the Tropicana field for the long term? Can supporters convince elected officials from two counties to board? Is it okay for residents to spend public money at two stadiums? Can both sides of the bay cooperate long enough to pull it apart? And many times.
Outdoor baseball is attractive. So are creative ideas to keep the rays of Tampa Bay. But considering so many what-ifs I can’t hold my breath at this.
