St. Petersburg leaders say Tropicana Field is ready for the Rays\u2019 home opener after months of work and millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 After months of repairs and tens of millions of dollars in work, Tropicana Field is ready for baseball.<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg City Council approved a contract amendment Thursday tied to final cleanup inside the stadium, as crews wrap up preparations ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 home opener on April 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe facility will be ready for Opening Day, is ready, the city\u2019s work is substantially complete,\u201d said Beth Herendeen, Managing Director of City Development Administration for the city of St. Petersburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The approved measure reallocates just under $26,000 for additional sanitization services performed after mechanical systems were restored. The funding comes from savings in other areas and does not increase the overall project budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I\u2019m asking for a second amendment for just under $26,000 just for some cleaning they did once the mechanical systems came on,\u201d Herendeen said. \u201cIt\u2019s not extra money. We\u2019re just taking some of those funds, so it\u2019s not added to the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
The amendment brings the total contract with BMS CAT, the company handling remediation and cleaning, to nearly $5.7 million.<\/p>\n
Overall, the total caost restore and prepare Tropicana Field for the 2026 season is projected to be about $57.7 million.<\/p>\n
To offset those expenses, the city has received $10.8 million from insurance. An additional $16.5 million has been obligated through FEMA, and about $2.75 million is expected from the state.<\/p>\n
Council members didn’t focus on price Thursday, though, and instead praised the work completed in time for the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe we did it. Not we. You got it done,\u201d Councilwoman Gina Driscoll said.<\/p>\n
Leaders also pointed to improvements aimed at enhancing the fan experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing it last week, the new ownership has put in some work too to make it a better fan experience,\u201d Driscoll added.<\/p>\n
Officials emphasized the importance of maintaining the stadium regardless of the team\u2019s long-term future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a city-owned asset we have to protect and preserve regardless of what happens for the future of baseball,\u201d Councilman Corey Givens said.<\/p>\n
With Opening Day approaching, the focus now shifts from construction to welcoming fans back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg leaders say Tropicana Field is ready for the Rays\u2019 home opener after months of work and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-207871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}