After Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field, the New York Yankees loaned their spring training facility, George M. Steinbrenner Field, to the Tampa Bay Rays for the 2025 season.
Photo by Irena Mesa | The Crow’s Nest
The Tampa Bay Rays ended their 2025 stint at George M. Steinbrenner Field just how they started it—with a win. While Sunday’s contest wasn’t won with a flashy walk-off home run like the season opener, the 7-3 win over the Red Sox was a rewarding sendoff for the Rays faithful who filled those seats all season.
Many of those fans were happier that the Rays were playing much closer to home.
“We have actually been to more games this season than we did at the Trop, but we live in Tampa, so it’s been really nice to be so close,” said Rays fan Katie Leonard.
Leonard’s father and fellow Rays fan, Ray Marshall, agreed and explained that the smaller venue offered a very different feel to the fans in attendance. Steinbrenner Field is the spring home of the New York Yankees, so the stadium is much smaller when compared to other MLB fields.
“I’ve been going to spring training games for years, and I love how close you can get to the players,” Marshall said. “It is a very intimate feel.”
Steinbrenner Field also gave the Rays something that their home field has never had: an open-air stadium.
“It pulls some heart strings to have open air baseball in Tampa, as a kid that grew up here,” Rays fan Casey Bauer said. “It’s a kind of a weird dream come true.”
However, the love of outdoor baseball couldn’t beat the heat of a Floridian summer, and it left all fans missing the air-conditioned dome of Tropicana Field.
“Outside games were a fun experience… when it wasn’t 1,000,000 degrees outside,” one fan said on X. “Give me the Trop and her 72-degree games next year.”
The change in venue was an adjustment for the players as well, and many fans were proud of the team’s efforts this season.
“[The Rays are] basically renting an Airbnb from the Yankees,” said Rays fan Kimberly Buechner. “I think all of our players stepped up. They’re also playing in conditions they’re not used to all the time.”
The outdoor stadium also offered the Rays a few franchise firsts, such as the first ever rain delay. The team commemorated the momentous occasion with a special poncho for the fans in attendance.
The Rays were also the only MLB team east of Denver that played in an outdoor stadium that did not have a rained-out game, according to Fox 13 Chief Meteorologist Paul Dellegatto stated in a post on X.
“We got lucky this year. We could have had so many rainouts, but we had not one double header,” Bauer said. “We had divinity or something on our side this year.”
With a new ownership group set to take the reins in the coming months, many fans are hopeful that they will keep the Rays in Tampa.
Patrick Zalupski, leader of the new group who will own the team, already has two locations in Hillsborough County in mind: The harbor area of Ybor City and the Hillsborough Community College campus that is adjacent to Steinbrenner Field.
“I think we could get a bigger fan base, and more people would come to the games,” Buechner said. “People that live in Orlando don’t want to go all the way to St. Pete, so it could be a more central location.”
