{"id":31880,"date":"2025-11-03T22:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T22:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/31880\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T22:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T22:03:09","slug":"rays-open-more-than-just-a-store-in-st-pete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/31880\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays open \u2018more than just a store\u2019 in St. Pete"},"content":{"rendered":"

The area around Tropicana Field was abuzz with Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> fans for the first time in over a year Saturday as the team took its first step toward returning home.<\/p>\n

A storm-damaged Trop, with its new roof nearly complete<\/a>, provides a symbolic backdrop for the new Rays Pop-Up Team Store across the street. The two-story building at 1101 1st Ave. S. in St. Petersburg\u2019s EDGE District formerly housed a barbecue restaurant.<\/p>\n

Fans browsed merchandise typically found in the official team store while listening to a live DJ and sipping drinks from a full-service coffee bar. The festive event also featured complimentary pastries, hot dogs and hamburgers, photo opportunities with mascots, games, prizes and starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really is more than just a store \u2013 I think the celebratory atmosphere you feel here today is really reflective of that,\u201d said Chief Business Officer Bill Walsh. \u201cWhen we started talking about it, we realized pretty quickly that this is actually our first step towards getting back into Tropicana Field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event began at 10 a.m. the morning after Halloween. Pepiot, 28, decided to spend it with a community that has embraced him since he joined the team in 2024.<\/p>\n

Pepiot said he and his wife, Lilia, \u201clove living in St. Pete\u201d and being part of the Rays. \u201cThe people are phenomenal and the fans are even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s the least I could do to come out and support,\u201d Pepiot continued. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool to be back in St. Pete; the crowd today has been unbelievable. It feels like coming back home again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Attendees could meet and receive complimentary autographs from starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot.<\/p>\n

The new store also symbolizes the team\u2019s and the community\u2019s adaptability and resilience. Hurricane Milton\u2019s gusts decimated the Trop in October 2024 while many people within the organization were still reeling from Hurricane Helen\u2019s storm surge.<\/p>\n

The Rays had four days to transform<\/a> Tampa\u2019s Steinbrenner Field into a temporary home in March. They had a similar time crunch when moving everything out in late September.<\/p>\n

Walsh said leadership realized in August that \u201cpretty soon, we\u2019re actually not going to have a home for the team store\u201d throughout the holiday season. The city expects to complete storm repairs on the Trop next spring.<\/p>\n

Walsh said the Rays began searching for a space in St. Petersburg that could host a store and special events, and \u201cbring fans together.\u201d He noted that they \u201cdidn\u2019t look very far\u201d as there were some \u201cgreat options\u201d across the street from the Trop.<\/p>\n

PTM Partners, which built the nearby Moxy Hotel,<\/a> owns the site that once housed Dr. BBQ<\/a>. The development firm plans to demolish the 8,000-square-foot building and redevelop the property.<\/p>\n

Walsh said PTM was \u201creally supportive\u201d and \u201chelped us get in here very, very quickly.\u201d The firm\u2019s crews \u201ccleaned the whole place out in a matter of weeks,\u201d and the Rays relied on recently gleaned experience to quickly reimagine the space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building reps, I think, of doing really hard things, really well,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re really proud of it. There are hard things to come<\/a>, but I think all of this is conditioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rays plan to capitalize on the building\u2019s former life as a restaurant. Walsh said infrastructure remains to \u201cdo some fun and interesting things.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The store is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

He believes the sip-and-shop experience \u201cmelds well with the vibe on Central Avenue and the EDGE District.\u201d The team will continue offering a complimentary coffee bar and pastries.<\/p>\n

Walsh expects the store to operate throughout early 2026 and into the spring. That would leave little downtime before the April 6 home opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, personally, it\u2019s really special,\u201d Walsh added. \u201cI walked in here this morning and saw hundreds of people with the music going in the party atmosphere, and the hot dogs coming off the grill, and I got the chills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing construction workers installing the Trop\u2019s new roof paneling on a Saturday was also a welcome sight for the Rays. The team is having a season ticket sale, and Walsh noted that many people throughout Tampa Bay don\u2019t realize that \u201cwe\u2019re so far along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh said the city \u201cdeserves a tremendous amount of credit for pushing that project forward,\u201d and contractor AECOM Hunt is \u201cdoing tremendous work to get us in here and allow baseball to come home in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pepiot also appreciated the crowd\u2019s \u201cvibe and the buzz,\u201d particularly considering \u201ceverything that happened a little over a year ago.\u201d He said the new store symbolizes the franchise\u2019s ability to \u201croll with the punches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to truly come back to our home over here, it\u2019s going to be pretty special,\u201d Pepiot said. \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s going to be a wild crowd when we play our first few home games back here. And, air conditioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Rays will continue hosting special events at the former restaurant throughout the holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The area around Tropicana Field was abuzz with Tampa Bay Rays fans for the first time in over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-31880","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\/31880","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=31880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}