{"id":667136,"date":"2026-04-06T22:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/667136\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:05:23","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-reopen-tropicana-field-after-hurricane-milton-havoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/667136\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays Reopen Tropicana Field After Hurricane Milton Havoc"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          Tampa Bay Rays<br \/>\n                          Dome Sweet Dome!!!<br \/>\n                          Tropicana Field Reopens<\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                        Published<br \/>\n                              April 6, 2026<br \/>\n                            2:44 PM PDT\n                                                                            <\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260406_75e1f7d8b41243c3bb64256f148f3e15\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:cc2678ff-0b01-4af3-a995-d210d26a6ec5\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/75e1f7d8b41243c3bb64256f148f3e15_md.jpg\" alt=\"Tampa Bay Rays home opener getty 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The wait is over \u2026 Tampa Bay Rays fans finally returned home to The Trop after Hurricane Milton nearly wiped their ballpark off the map.<\/p>\n<p>A sold-out crowd of roughly 25,000 fans packed Tropicana Park Monday for the long-awaited comeback against the Chicago Cubs &#8212; and the vibes were way bigger than a typical Opening Day.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260406_6f19f9180a5f4ec4b465f630542a6f85\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:cc2678ff-0b01-4af3-a995-d210d26a6ec5\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6f19f9180a5f4ec4b465f630542a6f85_md.jpg\" alt=\"Tampa Bay Rays home opener getty 4\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>This wasn\u2019t just a baseball game \u2026 it was a comeback story nearly 561 days in the making.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Back in October 2024, Hurricane Milton tore through the Trop\u2019s roof, leaving the stadium exposed for months. Rain poured in, mold spread and critical systems got wrecked &#8212; to the point people seriously wondered if the Rays would ever return to the only home they\u2019ve known since 1998.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward 18 months \u2026 and the place is reborn.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re talking a nearly $60 million glow-up &#8212; complete with a new slanted roof, fresh turf, upgraded suites, revamped clubhouse, new lockers and a slick video board.<\/p>\n<p>The Trop went from disaster zone to big-league ready again &#8212; but getting there wasn\u2019t pretty.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays were forced to crash at Steinbrenner Field for the entire 2025 season \u2026 dealing with heat, minor-league facilities and unpredictable weather &#8212; something they never had to worry about under the dome. The result? A rough 77-85 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260406_5b775142b02c48208012a5a6174c9970\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:cc2678ff-0b01-4af3-a995-d210d26a6ec5\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5b775142b02c48208012a5a6174c9970_md.jpg\" alt=\"Tampa Bay Rays home opener getty 2\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yeah \u2026 they missed home, so Monday\u2019s return hit all the feels.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Ron DeSantis was on the field for BP before country star Eric Church belted out the national anthem \u2026 while workers and staff who rebuilt the stadium were honored with a special ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Even Rays manager Kevin Cash was fired up \u2026 saying in advance of the game that the team couldn\u2019t wait to feel the energy of a packed house again after the long road back.<\/p>\n<p>From wreckage to roaring \u2026 the Trop\u2019s comeback is now complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays Dome Sweet Dome!!! Tropicana Field Reopens Published April 6, 2026 2:44 PM PDT The wait&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,169,297,185,317,2550,68,2551,2549,1564],"class_list":{"0":"post-667136","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-news","11":"tag-rays","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sports-news","14":"tag-tampa-bay","15":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","16":"tag-tampabay","17":"tag-tampabayrays","18":"tag-tmz-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116360035907180542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667136","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=667136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}