MLB 2025: Roming in the transformation of Steinbrenner Field

The Rays were free to paint again, but, in a rare rest for the franchise during agitation, it was not necessary to paint much because the Yankees navy pantone (PMS 289 c) is not far from the navy blue of the Rays (PMS 648 C). There was an explicitly prohibited thing during the renewal of the stadium: the bronze statue of 272 kilos of George Steinbrenner, the late owner of the Yankees, which rises on a marble pedestal next to the main entrance.

The work covered all corners, both the obvious and the dark, from the headquarters of the local club, which the Rays opened on Monday at 4:30 pm, to the two stores of the team on the property and the huge letters “Yankees” on the stands of the right and left field. There were cranes, lifting platforms and cameras to record a fast camera video of something that had never been done: a major leagues team that moves from a stadium after spring training and another that moves to him for the summer.

“We are not going to remove all the stripe details in the next four days and that is not really the goal,” said Rays commercial director Bill Walsh, on Sunday, shortly after the Rays received green light to take care of the stadium. “The goal is for this place to give the feeling, when you walk through it, when you are sitting in the stands, that this is the home of the Rays.”

The most important thing, Walsh said, is to make the stadium feel like a home for players.

On Sunday, they played as a visiting team against the Yankees. On Wednesday, less than 72 hours later, the players entered the local club for the first time before a team training. That gave them 48 hours to acclimatize their new environment after calling Port Charlotte, 90 minutes south, during the previous six weeks. The Rays manager, Kevin Cash, did not expect a difficult transition for a team that longed for the end of the spring training routine and play matches that they told.

“I mean, leaving Port Charlotte,” Cash joked, “any m — da” swallow. “

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Play a full season In the spring stadium of a division rival is not ideal. Several options were considered in the area. The Steinbrenner Field was considered the most appropriate option for the League. In November, a one year agreement was reached between the Rays and the Yankees that allowed the Rays to use the full -time stadium and New York receives more than 15 million dollars in return.

The Steinbrenner Field was already in the final phase of an important renewal of the facilities for players and staff, with improvements in health and well -being that include a two -storey gym, a kitchen with dedicated staff and a players room with playroom.

The project, which began last season with the renewal of the clubhouse headquarters, caused the stadium to better adapt to the Rays, beyond its convenient location. More work was required for the building to meet the standards of the regular MLB season, including the remodeling of the visitors club and improvements in the wiring and the transmission infrastructure.

The Tarpons will play their games at home in a field next to the stadium that was improved with lights and seats for 1000 people. The MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred, estimated that the entire operation would cost 50 million dollars.

“A Yankees knight said this at one of our first meetings: ‘We may not support them in the field, but we can support them so they have a field,” Walsh recalled. “We simply appreciate the spirit of collaboration that they have really shown here.”

Even so, the Steinbrenner stadium has capacity for only 11 026 spectators. The Rays occupied the 28th position in the major leagues last season, but their average of 16 515 spectators was significantly higher than the capacity of their new home. To further complicate the situation, the organization had already renewed its season of seasonal fertilizers for Tropicana Field in 2025 in September.

Playing in an outdoor stadium during a summer in Florida will also be a problem, between relentless heat and constant rain. MLB delayed the time of the first launch from June 19:05 at 7:35 p.m. and gave the Rays more games at home before June. Tampa Bay will play 19 of his first 22 games at home and 37 of his first 54 games there.

To prepare for the inevitable elements, the director of Special Projects and Field Operations, Dan Moeller, made six of the eight full -time gardeners of the Rays work in the matches at the house of the Yankees Baseball League next to the Yankees team, while two stayed to keep the 34 hectares of the team around the Tropicana Field.

Moeller said his team helped take out the canvas twice this spring, a good practice for when the games matter. It is not surprising that Tropicana Field has never housed a canvas. The first in the history of the franchise will have a Budweiser logo in what is a first advertising space.

The work will not be entirely unknown to Moeller and his maintenance team. They take care of the six natural fields of the team in Port Charlotte. Moeller, who was hired by the franchise in 1997, also previously worked in the five outdoor fields of the team, including the Lang stadium, in its former spring training complex in St. Petersburg until 2008.

“I don’t know very well what to expect,” Moeller said. “But we have the best maintenance team of the big leagues and we will face anything. My boys are prepared for the task and are excited”

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The veteran second base Brandon Lowe considered that Sunday’s game against the Yankees at Steinbrenner Field was more important than a typical exhibition game. For him, it was an opportunity to become more familiar with the stadium. With the ground balls on the game surface. With the bottom from the batter’s drawer.

“I think baseball players are very resistant and good adapting to the changes,” said Lowe, who lives in Tampa and will significantly reduce their journey to work. (His manager is not so lucky: Cash, that he lives in St. Petersburg, said his will increase from only eight minutes to 25).

The afternoon served to remember that he was not yet at home. The Rays listened to some cheers, but the strongest went to Aaron Judge and the Yankees for a match that ended in a draw and served as a general essay for the organization.

In the 29 -seat press booth, the Rays Public Relations team tried to find out how to manage large media groups during the regular season and possibly beyond, while radio and television transmission equipment adapted to their new workplace.

A problem they found: the speakers cannot see the bullpens from the cabins. The Rays would have to install new camera shots.

Ryan Bass, the team’s reporter for Fanduel Sports Network Sun, said that there often there may not be enough space to sit in the wells for the cameras next to the benches during the games as he normally does.

“From our perspective, doing television every day, we have to find out, during the course of the season, what is the best method to make sure to take the rays baseball to fans,” Bass said before Sunday’s game. “I think what is seen on March 28 will be completely different from what is seen on April 27, just having been able to have an idea with so many games at home at the beginning of the year”

After the game, the Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, finished collecting his office things and left Cash.

“Today I leave here,” said Boone with a smile, “so I’ll leave him something”

For the Rays, the rhythm was frantic. On Sunday night, when it was called by phone for an interview just 90 minutes after Tampa Bay received authorization to start renewal, Walsh kindly asked if he could call again in five minutes.

“Sorry,” he said, “I’m hanging a poster”

Around it, the walls of the field were being washed under pressure to install ads on Monday, the grass was cut and replaced with ads of the Yankees sponsors, one of the equipment’s stores was supplying with the Rays material and, with the help of Walsh, posters were being placed everywhere.

The next morning, the Yankees made their bags and moved from the club headquarters before a flight to Miami, emptying the room for the next tenants.

While they did, the reliever of the Yankees Scott Effross asked an assistant to the club a question that was in everyone’s mind this spring: What are the Rays to do with the gigantic lamp with the yankees logo suspended from the ceiling in the middle?

The answer, revealed on Wednesday, was to cover it with a box with the Rays brand. Near there, an non -slip carpet with the Rays mark hid the tiles that led to the showers with the word “The Bronx” written in them. At the end of the hall, the Rays logos replaced those of the Yankees at the training tables and in the tiles of the hydromassage bathtub. In the press room, photos of former rays and covers of media guides were hung.

On the outside, beyond the wall of the central field, on the facade that gives the Dale Mabry highway, an advertising fence was placed with the motto of the “Rays Up” organization, so that all cars that pass at full speed through the stadium know that the George M. Steinbrenner stadium is the home of the Rays.

However, at the bottom there is a reminder that it is only temporary:

“Thank you, Yankees!”