New Date For Tampa Bay Rays Home Opener
The Tampa Bay Rays will be playing their home games at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa for the 2025 season. This is due to the roof being torn off Tropicana Field due to Hurricane Milton. They have amended their schedule the put more home games early in the season to prevent rain outs during the summer months. Now, they have moved the opening game of the season. Opening Day will move from March 27 back by a day to March 28. The reason why is to give them time to do the changeover from the Yankees to the Rays at Steinbrenner Field.
Will It Feel Like A Rays Home Game?
Since Steinbrenner Field is the home of the New York Yankees for spring training and pretty much used for for Yankees events will there be Rays signage at the stadium? The answer is yes. A document has come out and there are 42 bullet points that detail what the Rays can and can not do at the stadium. The Rays will be allowed to put up signage around the stadium and will be able to cover up the Yankees logos. There is only one Yankees related thing they cannot cover up and that is the statue of George Steinbrenner at the front of the ballpark.
There will be Rays team stores and if you are planning on going to some games this season parking will mostly be across the street in the Raymond James Stadium lots.
Will The Rays Stay In St. Pete?
Ok, there has been a lot of drama with this. The St. Pete city council and Pinellas County Commissioners voted to fund a new ballpark back in the summer. Now, that stadium deal is still up in the air because of a few different issues. The St. Pete city council voted again to fund it in early December. The Pinellas County Commissioners will vote on December 17th about funding the stadium. After that vote that won’t be the end of the drama because something else will come up.
