3 big reasons why the Tampa Bay Rays aren't likely to play in Oakland

Jason Burke | Oct 17, 2024

The roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team, was torn off by Hurricane Milton's powerful winds. Satellite imagery from Maxar shows the destruction on Oct. 10, 2024. Prior to landfall, the stadium was converted into a base camp for emergency responders. / Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Rays are looking for a place to play games in 2025 after Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off the Tropicana. The helpful folks on social media have been heaving answers out left and right, and one that has come up quite a bit is that the Rays should just play at the Oakland Coliseum with the A's having left town to play in a minor-league facility in Sacramento for the foreseeable future.

There are a couple of reasons that won't work, but first here is the situation. The Rays are hoping to open up their own shiny new ballpark in 2028, so there will be some factors at play, like, should the roof even be fixed given that the team will only be there for three more seasons? That question likely gets answered by what it would cost and who is paying that bill. Given the timeline between now and Opening Day to get that roof built at all would be quite the undertaking, without the politics that go into it.

So, assuming that the Rays will not be playing there at the beginning of the season, the next question would be when, if ever, would they be returning to the Trop? That is another big question that will need to be answered, and the longer the time period in question, the more stable the site would have to be in terms of other tenants, upgrades to make it major league quality, etc.

If the Rays needed a home for three seasons, the Coliseum would seem like a pretty nice option, given that it'll be open to use outside of a few Oakland Roots soccer games, and it's already MLB quality.

There are three big reasons why this is an unlikely outcome, however.

The Rays play in the AL East

This may seem obvious, but the differences in coasts would be a huge factor here. The Tampa Bay Rays play on the east coast, while Oakland is in the west. Given the competition that Tampa would face, the amount of travel that would be added to their schedule, along with all of the teams in the AL East's schedules, would be a huge complicating factor.

The obvious counterpoint here would be that teams like the Seattle Mariners and all of the other west coast teams regularly travel more than every other franchise, and it's just part of the game. That's true, but given that Tampa Bay would have to travel to New York twice, Boston twice, Toronto twice, and Baltimore twice, those are miles on miles on miles that haven't been mitigated by a schedule that was made with those issues in mind.

In May, the Rays are scheduled for road series against the Yankees (May 2-4) and Blue Jays (May 13-15), and in June they'd have a road trip back to face Boston and the Mets (June 9-15), and then would fly back out to Baltimore from the 27th to the 29th. In July they'd head back out to Boston before the All Star break, and New York again at the end of the month, making that six east coast trips just to face divisional opponents.

That's a lot of travel from coast-to-coast.

The fans

To that same point, the fans of the team would have one heck of a time keeping track of the team, with the Rays playing 2,831 miles away. They could travel in for a game or two, but that wouldn't be cheap or easy.

Keeping up on TV would also be pretty difficult, with game times on the west coast typically starting at 6:40, which would be 9:40 ET. Nearly every game would be a late night affair for Rays fans. Of course, the team could see if they could start games earlier, say 3:40, but then they wouldn't be able to draw nearly as many local fans, which would already be a tricky proposition.

The one positive in this situation would be that the Coliseum does hold more fans than any other venue that will be under consideration, so in theory the Rays could make a little more in gate revenue than they would elsewhere.

MLB isn't going to look good no matter the decision

Arguably the biggest reason that the Rays won't be heading to Oakland in 2025 is that it would add more scrutiny to MLB's decision to allow the A's to leave Oakland to play in a minor-league facility for three or four seasons. The Rays are considering the same option, but because the roof was literally blown off their ballpark. The situations are not the same. The A's are going to Sacramento willingly.

How weird would it look if the A's were in a minor-league park and the Rays were then situated in Oakland? How weird would it be when the A's and Rays played each other in Oakland, with the Rays serving as the home team? Would the A's be booed in Oakland in this scenario? If so, that would sure cause a lot of headlines around the country.

Speaking of headlines, part of the reason that the A's are headed to Sacramento (aside from the TV deal panning out and John Fisher getting free rent) is that they believe that the fans won't make as much noise up north. Fewer "Sell the team!" chants. Fewer signs. Just less work for the A's and the league all around.

Giving those same fans a platform again doesn't seem like something MLB would want.