St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch now says Tropicana Field can be repaired in time for the 2026 baseball season. This comes just after the city sent the Tampa Bay Rays a letter saying there's no deadline for completing the repairs.
Welch spoke Monday during a meeting of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club, along with the mayors of Tampa and Clearwater. In the audience were Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg and president Brian Auld.
Welch said the city is ready to give its "last, best shot" at keeping the Rays in town for the next 30 years in a new stadium slated to open in 2028. But first, repairs must be made to Tropicana Field, which was damaged by Hurricane Milton in October.
“We are required to repair that stadium. Our folks believe that can be done by the start of the 2026 season,” he said. “That will give the Rays a professional major league place to play for the duration of the current contract, so we have to do that, and most of those dollars will be reimbursed by FEMA and by insurance.”
A letter sent earlier in January from the city to the Rays says the stadium use agreement gives no deadline for completing the repairs.
Welch said the deal is the best all sides can expect to get. He used a baseball analogy to get his point across.
“It is, you know, bottom of the ninth, we're at home, we're leading. There are two outs, and all we need is for our closer to close the game, and that closer is the Rays.”
The team has gone back and forth over Tropicana Field repairs, which could cost over $56 million.
They plan to play the upcoming regular season at Tampa's Steinbrenner Field, the 11,000-seat spring training home of the New York Yankees.
The Rays have until March to complete a list of conditions before they can use allocated public money to build the $1.3 billion stadium.
In December, Pinellas County commissioners agreed to help pay for the new stadium using bed taxes, which are collected on hotel room stays. St. Petersburg council members also approved the city's portion of the funding.
The Rays have agreed to pay the rest, including any cost overruns.
