Fastball

Tampa Bay Rays Seemingly Won't Be Playing in This Location in 2025

As the Tampa Bay Rays examine options in the wake of damage to Tropicana Field, you can seemingly rule out Durham.

Brady Farkas

The WooSox take on the Durham Bulls at Polar Park on Friday April 19, 2024.
The WooSox take on the Durham Bulls at Polar Park on Friday April 19, 2024. / Alan Arsenault/Special to the Telegram & Gazette / USA TODAY NETWORK
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Over the last few days, it's become increasingly clear that the Tampa Bay Rays won't be able to start the 2025 season in St. Petersburg.

This all stems from last week's Hurricane Milton, which devastated the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas. In that storm, Tropicana Field was badly damaged, with the roof coming nearly completely detached. It will take months to fix the damage to the ballpark - and it will also take several millions of dollars.

Given that the Rays will be moving to a new ballpark in 2028 anyways, they (and the city) may not want to foot the bill for the repairs. If they do, the Rays could just need a short-term fix to open the 2025 season. If they don't? You could be looking a multi-year solution until the new ballpark is ready.

It's been floated that the Rays could play in spring training stadiums or minor league stadiums in Florida, and it's also been floated that they could play in Montreal, Nashville or Charlotte. However, one area that seemingly isn't an option is Durham - the home of the team's Triple-A affiliate.

The Durham Bulls put out a statement on Thursday:

"As the proud Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, we are always ready to support our parent club. Currently, there have been no discussions about hosting them in Durham, and we do not anticipate hosting them for a full season due to schedules overlapping and other logistical challenges."

Though the Bulls say they don't anticipate helping them for a full season, it remains possible that the city could host the Rays for a small portion of the next year. We previously saw the Toronto Blue Jays play a portion of the 2021 season in Buffalo because of COVID-19 restrictions in Canada.

The Rays went 80-82 this year and finished fourth in the American League East.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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