MLB team set to return to home ballpark after severe hurricane damage

Tropicana Field took a major step toward reopening for the business of baseball. 

All 24 replacement panels have been placed on the roof of the stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida the largest step toward ensuring the hurricane-damaged stadium is set to open on time for the 2026 season. 

Hurricane Milton ravaged the stadium as it made a surprise turn through Tampa Bay in October 2024, destroying the translucent roof and leading to significant interior damage, as the stadium has no drainage system. The disaster forced the Tampa Bay Rays to play the 2025 season at the spring training home of the New York Yankees, 10,000-seat Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. 

But the city of St. Petersburg, per terms of its lease with the Rays, footed the bill for the more than $60 million in repair costs; the Rays’ season in Tampa ensured they’d play one more year at the Trop, through 2028. 

The club is essentially back to the starting line on finding a new stadium in the Tampa Bay area after it backed out of a deal with the city of St. Petersburg to build and develop the land around Tropicana Field. 

The dead deal and the damaged stadium thrust the franchise into flux, but in that period owner Stuart Sternberg sold the club to Jacksonville-based owner Patrick Zalupski for $1.7 billion. 

Now, even as the team’s long-term future remains cloudy their old home is getting nearly-baseball ready, several months before the Rays’ April 6 home opener against the Chicago Cubs.