{"id":221039,"date":"2026-04-06T20:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221039\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:38:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:38:00","slug":"rays-are-back-at-renovated-tropicana-field-for-sold-out-home-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221039\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays are back at renovated Tropicana Field for sold-out home opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFans wait to go into Tropicana Field \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News 4\/6\/2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tListen:<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays are back in St. Petersburg for their home opener Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are playing at Tropicana Field for the first time since Hurricane Milton damaged the stadium in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays are back at the Trop after playing at Steinbrenner Field, the outdoor Yankees spring training facility in Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tailgater Mike Versnik says he\u2019s happy the Rays are back at the Trop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not, I did not make it to Steinbrenner. It was a little hot, little warm, little muggy for me. So I was waiting to get back to the Trop,\u201d Versnik told WMNF.<\/p>\n

The stadium\u2019s new renovations cost 60 million dollars, including the new roof as well as an upgraded video board and luxury suites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This comes as talks proceed to move the Rays permanently<\/a> to Tampa, on Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry Campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lori Price has been a Rays fan for 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re season members, and it\u2019s opening day, and it\u2019s a brand new Trop since the hurricane, we\u2019re so excited!\u201d Price told WMNF.<\/p>\n

But she says that may change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be a Tampa Rays fan as long as they stay in St. Pete. The minute they move, I\u2019m sorry, the minute they move, yeah, that will be the end of my season membership.\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n

The team says the home opener was a sellout. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans wait to go into Tropicana Field \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News 4\/6\/2026 Listen: The Tampa Bay Rays…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[23181,202,204,203,199,201,200,3815,8125],"class_list":{"0":"post-221039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-rays","9":"tag-st-pete","10":"tag-st-pete-headlines","11":"tag-st-pete-news","12":"tag-st-petersburg","13":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","14":"tag-st-petersburg-news","15":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","16":"tag-tropicana-field"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221039","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=221039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}