{"id":156294,"date":"2025-07-06T15:08:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T15:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/156294\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T15:08:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T15:08:22","slug":"red-hot-mlb-team-could-be-banned-from-hosting-playoff-games-and-moved-to-new-stadium-over-strict-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/156294\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-hot MLB team could be banned from hosting playoff games and moved to new stadium over strict rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

ONE of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball can be banned from hosting playoff games due to rules.<\/p>\n

The MLB<\/a> franchise has been playing at a new stadium this season.<\/p>\n

\"Junior<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays have gotten off to an impressive start in the 2025 seasonCredit: Getty\"George<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

However, the Rays could see themselves not hosting playoff games due to their current ballpark, George M. Steinbrenner FieldCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> were predicted to be a .500 team or worse in 2025, but have stunningly gotten off to a hot start.<\/p>\n

They hold the No. 2 Wild Card spot with a 47-39 record and are just 1.5 games in back of the division-leading New York Yankees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Rays have had to play at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa while Tropicana Field is being renovated after hurricane damage last fall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Athletic reported<\/a> that the Rays and league officials have started to discuss where the team would play home games if the team made the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The conversations are over the issues that Steinbrenner Field brings, as the 10,046-seat capacity venue isn’t big enough for a playoff game.<\/p>\n

The stadium is the Spring Training home of the Yankees.<\/p>\n

The limited capacity creates challenges for the MLB to make thousands of tickets available to the public and for broadcast partners to provide their usual postseason TV production.<\/p>\n

There’s also an issue for the players and their compensation during the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Their money comes from gate receipts of guaranteed postseason games and would result in the players earning less playoff shares.<\/p>\n

The Rays could end up being moved temporarily to a larger venue if the team reaches the Division Series.<\/p>\n

Terrifying moment MLB star is rushed to hospital after taking foul ball to side of head and undergoes urgent CT scans<\/p>\n

If the season ended today, they’d be the road team during a potential three-game Wild Card round.<\/p>\n

While a move to a neutral site makes sense for both the Rays and the league, there will be a loss of home-field advantage that the team could’ve received.<\/p>\n

Steinbrenner Field could still be doable for the Wild Card round and Division Series, should the Rays either control the No. 1 spot in the WC or win the AL East division.<\/p>\n

The franchise has a 28-14 record since May 8.<\/p>\n

While the Rays have exceeded expectations in a little more than half a season, the franchise’s winning ways aren’t certain to continue.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

The Rays have had to play at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa while Tropicana Field is being renovated after substantial hurricane damage last yearCredit: AP<\/p>\n

The MLB front-loaded their home schedule to have fewer games in the summer heat and rain in Florida.<\/p>\n

That means 52 of their final 81 games are on the road.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Rays currently have a 71.2 percent chance of making the playoffs, giving the league plenty of decisions to potentially make in the not-so-distant future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONE of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball can be banned from hosting playoff games due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,19,4,297,4322,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-156294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-rays","12":"tag-section-sportbaseball","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114806922016026599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}