Will the Rays fill a minor league stadium in Tampa?

Hundreds of Tampa Bay Rays tickets remain available for the team’s first-ever regular season game in Tampa – despite their temporary home holding just 11,026 people.

Opening day at Steinbrenner Field is March 28, just over a week away. Over 25,000 people attended the 2024 home opener in St. Petersburg.

Many amateur and professional baseball pundits have long claimed that a move across the bay would improve the team’s woeful attendance. The 2025 season will either validate or refute that theory, and early indications are not promising.

City Council Chair Copley Gerdes staunchly supported plans to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg announced March 13 that he could no longer move forward with the long-negotiated deal, and Gerdes believes that decision could affect ticket sales.

“I think, in part, this confirms what I have believed to be true – St. Pete is the right place for baseball,” Gerdes told the Catalyst. “I think it also speaks to the uncertainty surrounding the team’s future.

“People want to know they are going to be here for the long haul.”

According to various social media threads, most local fans thought the Rays sold out their inaugural game in Tampa by March 15. Others said increased costs at the limited-capacity minor league and spring training facility would discourage attendance. A quick Google search would dispel both sentiments.

Major League Baseball’s Ballpark app showed 49 ticket listings at 2 p.m. Thursday, ranging in price from $130 to $390. Those are more expensive than average Tropicana Field prices.

However, the ticketing platform SeatGeek had 57 listings, each with multiple available seats, starting at $68. StubHub showed 162 listings, some with up to 14 available seats, ranging from $50 to $402. The website did note that tickets are “selling fast.”

For comparison, the inaugural Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays game in March 1998 attracted 45,369 fans to Tropicana Field. Crowds of that size were short-lived, and the team consistently ranks near the bottom of Major League Baseball’s attendance rankings.

Still, the Trop averaged nearly 18,000 people in 2023 and 16,515 in 2024. The Rays must sell out every game at Steinbrenner Field and have 5,000 fans searching for scalpers to match last year’s typical attendance.

Steinbrenner Field has the largest seating capacity of any local baseball stadium outside of St. Petersburg. Photo: MLB.com.

The team and city stakeholders have posited that a new ballpark surrounded by a massive, cohesively built mixed-use community in downtown St. Petersburg – the Historic Gas Plant’s $6.7 billion redevelopment – would increase attendance. That deal is seemingly dead.

Fostering a loyal fan base takes time, particularly in an area known for its transplants. The team is now in its 27^th season, and Millennials who changed their allegiances in 1998 are now raising children who will grow up rooting for the Rays.

“Think about people like me,” Gerdes said. “My kids are 6 and 7, and they are becoming baseball fans. I’m part of the first generation, and they are adding to the story of baseball in St. Pete.”

When asked about ticket sales in a March 6 interview, Bill Walsh, chief business officer for the Rays, said the team was pleased with the community’s response. He said it was “nice to see” new businesses and fans purchase season tickets.

From left: Josie Scannell, 1; Amanda Scannell; Saylor Scannell, 3; Kristi Wright and Cindy Caccia attend the Tampa Bay Rays 2024 home opener, a family tradition. Photo by Mark Parker.

Walsh also foreshadowed potential hurdles that have become more apparent in the following weeks. He noted an unprecedented hurricane season and uncertainty surrounding the team’s temporary home forced leadership to navigate “such a compressed sales timeline.”

“We normally go on sale with single-game tickets before the holidays, or at least we have for the past several years, and we’re just doing it here in March,” Walsh explained. “I think once we get closer to opening day, we’re going to see an even bigger response from the fan base.”

Due to the size disparity, nearly every seat at Steinbrenner Field is comparable to the Trop’s lower levels. Some people have reportedly purchased opening-day tickets for $35.

However, Walsh said the team offered 1,000 standing-room-only tickets in Tampa due to anticipated demand. “Folks might get priced out.”

“It was really important for us to have an option available that folks could sign up for, and we could make some inventory available, maybe even last-minute,” Walsh added. “Even if they only have a chance to go to a couple of games, it still allows them to experience the magic of Rays baseball in a new and special way.”