Cash boost for Tropicana roof repairs

Image: Tropicana Field, Adog, CC BY-SA 4.0

St. Petersburg City Council has approved about $23 million for a new roof at the Tropicana Field home of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Tampa Bay Rays.

Fox 13 News said the cash injection is just part of the estimated $56 million it will cost to repair damage to the stadium caused by Hurricane Milton last fall.

In a 7-1 vote, the council agreed to pay $23 million towards replacement of the domed roof that was destroyed during the storm.

The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area in Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League East Division.

The Rays ditched plans in March to build a new ballpark as part of a redeveloped Historic Gas Plant District in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Because of this, Council members expressed a lack of trust with the Tampa Bay Rays but explained they don’t really have a choice when it comes to the Tropicana Field repairs.

Vice-Chair Lisset Hanewicz said, “We are legally bound by an agreement and the agreement requires us to fix the stadium.”

The city’s architect Raul Quintana said the new roof will be thicker, stronger and able to withstand 165 mile per hour winds.

Quintana said, “It’s a significantly higher wind reaction than what it was back when it was originally installed.”

The roof will be fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, which raised concerns after President Donald Trump’s recent announcement regarding tariffs.

In June, crews will start to put netting up and prepare for roof installation. The roof will be air-freighted to Florida in four separate bundles. The first will arrive in St. Pete from China in August.

They hope to have all the work done by December 2025. Once the roof replacement is completed, crews can start working on interior repairs and turf installation.

All stadium repairs are still on track to be done by Opening Day 2026, city staff said.

The Rays have found a temporary home for this season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the Yankees’ Spring Training and Single-A ballpark.

Fox 13 News further stated that City Council will now vote on four interior repair packages that contractors and city staff are currently working to put together.

Those will include metal panel repair and replacement, sports lighting, low-voltage/audio/visual and architectural/mechanical/baseball-specific items like drywall, flooring, cabinetry and installing the new turf.

City staff said they hope to have all the packages before City Council by the summer.

Some work can be done in the meantime, but much of the repairs will have to take place once the roof is on and tested for waterproofing.

Until then, the second deck, outfield seats and dugouts have been sealed by waterproof tarps and concourses have temporary doors.

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• Major League Baseball
• St. Petersburg
• Tropicana Field

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