Where Rays will play in 2025 one of many questions after Trop damage

ST. PETERSBURG — The first week since Hurricane Milton shredded the Tropicana Field roof on its wicked path of destruction through west central Florida has not provided much clarity on how severely the Rays will be impacted.

About the only thing that seems certain is that the team won’t be able to open the 2025 Major League Baseball season at home as planned on March 27.

Where the Rays play, how long they are displaced and what repairs beyond a new custom roof are needed to return to Tropicana Field — until the planned 2028 opening of their new stadium on an adjacent site — are among myriad things they don’t know, but hope to address in the coming weeks.

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.

Rays officials have refrained from any public comments since issuing a statement Oct. 10, the day after the storm hit, saying they expected “over the coming days and weeks” to “assess the true condition” of the stadium.

In a brief memo to staff last week, team leadership acknowledged there were “more questions than answers.” An update to employees is planned this week.

Where will the Rays play in 2025?

That is the most popular question, and, with opening day 162 days away, arguably the most pressing.

The Rays have to get a sense on whether they are looking for a temporary home for a few months, for a full season or for all three years. Plus, Major League Baseball will have a say, and the players union is sure to be involved.

There will be a lengthy list of options, maybe 50 locations long, with some more suitable based on length of stay. And all come with concerns such as weather, location, facilities and/or scheduling conflicts based on the primary tenant.

The idea of playing in one of the nearby minor-league/spring stadiums could be appealing for several reasons. Most notably that fans could still attend. Plus players and staff can live in their usual homes, and there potentially could be jobs for their game-day employees.

Several facilities are at least worth exploring, including St. Petersburg’s Al Lang Stadium, Clearwater’s BayCare Ballpark (used by the Phillies), Dunedin’s TD Ballpark (Blue Jays) and Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field (Yankees).

But none has a roof, leading to frequent weather delays and pre-game work disruptions during the summer. And all would require upgrades to host regular-season games.

Al Lang would have to be reconverted from soccer to baseball, and it has longstanding flooding issues. The other three stadiums also host minor-league affiliates, which adds to the degree of complication, scheduling conflicts and potentially the level of compensation to those organizations.

And would the Rays really want to play 81 games staring at the Yankees’ logos?

The Rays have familiarity with stadiums about 90 miles away in Port Charlotte, their usual spring home, and the Disney complex, where they have played two regular-season series and held part of 2023 spring training.

Weather would still be an issue, and housing for players and staff would be needed.

Disney likely would require the least upgrades, but could present scheduling challenges given the high number of youth events already booked throughout the venue.

The Rays’ familiarity with the Charlotte Sports Park, their spring home since 2009, is good and bad in this case. The small capacity (6,823), somewhat isolated area and need for upgrades are all concerns.

Playing in a current major-league facility would eliminate a lot of issues. Miami’s LoanDepot Park is within a reasonable drive and has a roof.

But players and staff would be relocated, and there would be serious scheduling problems, as the Rays and Marlins currently have 49 conflicting home dates. MLB could make some adjustments, but there would be a need for some odd doubleheaders.

The Rays could end up out of state, though ideally they would stay in the Eastern Time Zone for TV purposes.

Expect to hear suggestions that include Durham, North Carolina, home of their Triple-A team, and near Raleigh, which is hot for an expansion team; Nashville and Charlotte, which have Triple-A teams and expansion aspirations; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which has hosted big-league games. (Las Vegas appears to be off the table given the Athletics’ plans to move there in 2028.)

Maybe, in what would be an ironic twist, even Olympic Stadium in Montreal, where the Rays previous explored playing split seasons, though in a new outdoor ballpark.

The largest stadium in the United States without a major-league team is Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, the 24,000-seat home of the College World Series.

How extensive is the damage?

The iconic image — perhaps for the overall wreckage caused by Hurricane Milton — is the shredded Trop roof, but there is more damage to the stadium that opened in 1990 without a primary tenant.

Engineering experts are expected on the property within the next week to get a better sense of the overall structural integrity (such as whether the roof struts are in danger of falling), the condition of the large video board and other features that were not designed to be exposed to elements, and other damage throughout the building, such as the exposed offices.

Replacing the 6-acre roof would be a major undertaking, starting with ascertaining how long it would take to get one made.

Who pays for repairs?

The city of St. Petersburg is responsible and has insurance to cover the costs. That doesn’t mean it will be a simple process to get the stadium fixed, however, as anyone dealing with their own claims knows.

“It’s a little bit complicated how the fund works for Tropicana Field, but there is insurance on the property,” city administrator Rob Gerdes said. “So that’s the first thing we’ll be looking at is the property insurance to help make repairs.”

Still, factor in how large and complicated the claim will be, the issues of a three-party process and protocols to determine the level of repairs. (In the case of Hurricane Ian damage to the Port Charlotte facility, for example, facilities could only be restored to pre-storm condition, not improved.)

Could the Rays play with no roof?

That seems unlikely.

Because the stadium was designed as an enclosed, multi-purpose facility, there is no drainage system, so rain would pool and flood the field, dugouts and the seating areas. (And will do so with any additional rains until the roof is replaced.)

Adding a drainage system would seem complicated, as the stadium turf sits on a a concrete base that also includes electrical boxes and wiring and would require extensive work.

Will the staff stay intact?

In addition to repairing the stadium, there will be considerable additional expenses, many stemming from relocating to a temporary home.

There likely would be a drop in revenue, such as from ticket sales, sponsorships and marketing deals, and the potential for refunds to be required.

Could that lead to a reduction in staff or furloughs? Depending where the Rays are playing, that facility could have its own employees to handle ticketing, field prep and game-day operations.

Another big question is whether Major League Baseball will provide any financial assistance for what would seem an unprecedented situation for a team.

Is the new stadium timeline impacted?

As the Rays and St. Petersburg officials determine how to proceed, a key question may be how much is it worth spending in the short term to fix Tropicana Field — which hosts graduations and other events besides baseball — given it will be knocked down to make room for the new stadium, slated to open in 2028.

A related issue is whether the overall damage throughout the Tampa Bay area leads to a delay in the timetable for the new stadium, which was to have its groundbreaking in January.

And will there be any revision in the glass-heavy design? Should it be fortified against higher than the Category 4 winds officials say it can withstand?

Is there precedent at other U.S. stadiums?

Yes, but not quite at this level.

The best comparison is the old Metrodome roof where the Vikings and Twins played in Minneapolis. On Dec. 13, 2010, the stadium’s roof tore and collapsed under the weight of a massive 24-hour snowstorm. A Vikings home game the next day had to be postponed and moved to Detroit.

Like the Trop, the Metrodome did not have a fixed roof, per se. It used 10 acres of Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric that was suspended by air pressure from a series of massive fans. The cost of repairing the damage was in the neighborhood of $23 million and was covered by insurance.

Construction to replace the roof began in March and took a little more than four months to complete. Fortunately, the Twins were moving into the recently completed Target Field that April and were not impacted by the damage. The incident hastened talks for a new football stadium in Minneapolis, and the Metrodome was torn down four years later.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the Superdome was used as a shelter for thousands of displaced residents for nearly a week. While the 10-acre roof did not collapse, the outer surface had to be completely replaced. The inside of the NFL stadium also was severely damaged by flooding, plumbing failures and vandalism as evacuees began destroying doors and walls in search of food and other necessities.

The stadium reopened a year later after a $250 million facelift funded by FEMA, the state of Louisiana and the NFL, according to a stadium news release.

A tornado in downtown Atlanta created a puncture in the Georgia Dome roof, which caused stadium fixtures to fall in the middle of an SEC tournament basketball game in March 2008. An Alabama-Mississippi State game was in overtime when the storm hit. The game was delayed for an hour before being completed. Four more games over the next two days were moved to a facility on the Georgia Tech campus.

The roof was repaired fairly quickly, although the Georgia Dome was demolished nine years later when the Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened.

Times sports columnist John Romano and staff writer Colleen Wright contributed to this report.

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