The Tampa Bay Rays have had anything but an ideal home stadium situation for years. The situation reached a head last year when they were forced to play their home games at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa because Hurricane Milton had ripped the roof of Tropicana Field.

Steinbrenner Field is normally the spring training home of the New York Yankees. There was no way the Rays or the city of St. Petersburg could have repaired The Trop in time for the Rays to return for the 2025 season. The Rays will return to Tropicana Field in 2026, but that is not a long-term solution either.

Tropicana Field has been rated as one of the worst home fields in all of Major League Baseball. Rays games are often sparsely attended even though the team has been a consistent contender in the American League East for nearly two decades. Former Rays manager Joe Maddon is among those who has raised his voice to the issue and wants to see the Rays in a new and better home.

“It's time for a new ballpark,” Maddon said, per Fox Sports. “The city of Tampa deserves it, the team deserves it and the fans deserve it. The Trop served its's purpose. It was air conditioned and covered, and you couldn't get rained on. It was home-court advantage. The people deserve something that that's modern, something that rivals the ball parks around Major League Baseball. It doesn't have to be huge.”

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Rays hope to return to contender status in 2026

The Rays endured a rare losing season in 2025. They did not have the homefield advantage at Steinbrenner Field that they had enjoyed in previous seasons at The Trop.

While the Rays finished in fourth place in the American League East with a 77-85 record, they have key players in Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe and Junior Caminero who are capable of helping the team return to a highly competitive position in the American League East.