The question of where the Tampa Bay Rays will play their home games in 2025 opened wide when Hurricane Milton blew the roof off Tropicana Field.
Scratch one site off the list.
The Rays’ Triple-A affiliate, the Durham Bulls, announced on their official Twitter/X account Thursday that they are not under consideration to host Rays home games for at least the outset of the 2025 season.
“As the proud Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, we are always ready to support our parent club,” the statement read. “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 logisitical challenges.”
Durham, N.C. is less than two hours by plane and would keep the team on the East Coast. Players are familiar with their home park. The Bulls’ fans are familiar with the Rays’ players. The seating capacity (10,000) is relatively large for a Tampa Bay team that averaged 16,515 fans last season.
More news: Rays Might Not Have Tropicana Field Repaired In Time For 2025 MLB Season
Hosting a full slate of Triple-A games poses an obvious challenge to the idea of Durham hosting a full slate of MLB games in the same season, so Thursday’s statement hardly constitutes a surprise.
While it leaves open the possibility of the Rays playing some of their 2025 home games in Durham, it also narrows the possibilities if the team wants to play a full season’s worth of games in one home venue next year — or at least until Tropicana Field is repaired.
A drone image shows the dome of Tropicana Field which has been torn open due to Hurricane Milton in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 10, 2024. At least four people were confirmed killed as a result of two tornadoes triggered by Hurricane Milton on the east coast of the US state of Florida, local authorities said Thursday. One possible temporary home withdrew from consideration Thursday.
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images
The Athletic reported that the City of St. Petersburg, which owns Tropicana Field, planned to use the days and weeks following Hurricane Milton’s destruction to “work with the Tampa Bay Rays to thoroughly assess the condition of the ballpark and chart a path forward.”
More news: Rays Issue Heartfelt Statement About Hurricane Milton Damage to Tropicana Field
According to the Tampa Bay Times, there will be a lengthy list of options — maybe 50 locations long — to host the Rays’ 2025 schedule. Some are more suitable based on length of stay, while all come with concerns such as weather, location, facilities, and/or scheduling conflicts based on the primary tenant.
Eliminating Durham still leaves the Rays with no shortage of alternate-site options.
More news: After Hurricane Milton Damaged Rays’ Stadium, Where Will They Play?
Located 80 miles south of St. Petersburg in Port Charlotte, the Rays’ spring training facility makes the most logistical sense as a temporary home. Players and team personnel are familiar with the venue, as are Rays fans and visiting teams. The stadium’s capacity (6,823) presents an issue for fans, however.
The Rays played two regular-season series at the Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando more than a decade ago. They also hosted games there for part of spring training in 2023. The stadium’s 9,500 seats and relative proximity (90 miles northeast of Tampa Bay) make it a suitable temporary home.
Other possibilities include Doak Field in Raleigh, N.C., Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, P.R., and Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec.
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