Rays Return to Tropicana Field After $60 Million Roof Rebuild for World Series Game 3

Tampa Bay returns to a renovated Tropicana Field for Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night.

Hurricane Milton struck St. Petersburg on Oct. 9, 2024, shredding the roof and damaging the stadium. The organization spent nearly $60 million to replace the roof and rebuild the structure. The team returned 18 1/2 months later to open this season. During the 2025 campaign, the Rays played home games at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training facility of the New York Yankees. Concerns existed after the storm that the Rays would never play again at the site they had occupied since the franchise began in 1998.

The Milwaukee Brewers hold a 2-0 series lead and sit two wins from the first World Series title in franchise history. The Rays must take four of the next five games to win their first championship in their 29th season. Milwaukee defeated Tampa Bay in one-run games in the first two matchups. A capacity crowd exceeding 40,000 is expected Monday. Second baseman Richie Palacios said, "We love playing at the Trop. We played so well at the Trop all year." Manager Kevin Cash said, "These Milwaukee fans have been really loud. I know our fans are going to be really loud and excited to see us come back and kind of reset ourselves a little bit."

The organization has secured approval for a new venue while playing in the current one. Patrick Zalupski leads the ownership group that acquired the team during the stadium renovation. County officials approved a financing plan in August for a $2.3 billion project to construct a 31,000-seat ballpark in Tampa near the home of the NFL's Buccaneers. The team refers to the facility as their "forever home" within a mixed-use entertainment district, with an opening scheduled for 2029.

Tropicana Field features a catwalk system with four circular steel rings suspended beneath a non-retractable, cable-supported roof. Ground rules state that a ball striking either of the lower two catwalks is a home run, while contact with either of the upper two rings keeps the ball in play. Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said, "It's very much a different place." He added, "It seems like a great place, and you have to make adjustments to it. That's part of being a big leaguer."

The facility includes a 10,000-gallon touch tank beyond the right-center-field fence called the Cownose Clubhouse. Seven cownose stingrays inside the tank weathered Hurricane Milton and returned for opening day. Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby said, "They have stingrays in the outfield here? I didn't know that." Second baseman Brice Turang asked if the animals could be touched; the answer was yes. He responded, "That's really cool."

The Rays and Brewers finished the regular season with identical 55-26 home records. Tampa Bay ranked 28th in attendance with 1.4 million spectators. Tropicana Field hosted two World Series games in 2008, with the Rays splitting those matchups before losing three straight in Philadelphia. The 2020 World Series took place on a neutral field in Arlington, Texas, due to the coronavirus pandemic, where the Rays fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.