{"id":666638,"date":"2026-04-06T16:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666638\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:14:19","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-celebrate-return-to-renovated-tropicana-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666638\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays celebrate return to renovated Tropicana Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Monday, April 6, game against the Chicago Cubs is more than a typical MLB<\/a> home opener for the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The franchise returns to Tropicana Field, the only true home it has known, for the first time since September 22, 2024. Days later, Hurricane Milton damaged the domed stadium. As a result, the Rays played home games at a spring training facility in Tampa last season.<\/p>\n

MORE: Red Sox early season struggles are raising major red flags<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, $60 million<\/a> in repairs later, the Rays are happy to be back in a stadium that boasts a new roof, new turf and new lights.<\/p>\n

The team marked its return to Tropicana Field after 560 days with a video on X<\/a> captioned \u201cBack and better than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHome is where the memories live: the walk-offs, the no-hitters, the postseason runs, the moments that made this more than a field,\u201d said the video voice-over.<\/p>\n

In its previous incarnation, Tropicana Field routinely finished at or near the bottom of MLB stadium rankings<\/a>. Critics described Its indoor atmosphere as sterile and dank. The off-white roof and low catwalks bothered fielders trying to catch high fly balls.<\/p>\n

The team hopes the renovations improve the dome\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of time was spent talking about what was wrong with the Trop when we were there. And then we left,\u201d Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said<\/a>. \u201cAnd a lot more is spent on what\u2019s right with the Trop as we go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rays have scheduled special events leading up to the 4:10 p.m. ET first pitch. The team will recognize the efforts of the repair workers and club staff who helped\u00a0rebuild Tropicana Field. Those participants and their guests will take part in a special flag unfurling ceremony highlighting the strength and resiliency of the community, according to the Rays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Country music star Eric Church will perform the national anthem. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor will throw out the first pitches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Monday, April 6, game against the Chicago Cubs is more than a typical MLB home opener for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,297,2550,68,2551,2549,8607],"class_list":{"0":"post-666638","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-mlb","10":"tag-rays","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabayrays","15":"tag-tropicana-field"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116358654818642945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666638","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=666638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}