Rays shrink seating capacity at Tropicana Field

Article posted by Coliseum, February 4^th, 2019

Image: Jeff Gross / Getty Images

The Tampa Bay Rays announced early January that they are eliminating all of the upper-deck seats at Tropicana Field, dramatically shrinking the capacity of what was already the smallest stadium in Major League Baseball.

The Rays described the change in a news release as part of a series of “improvements and renovations” that team president Matt Silverman said will “help create a more intimate, entertaining and appealing experience for our fans.”

According to the release, Tropicana Field will have an estimated capacity between 25,000 and 26,000 when the renovations are complete — a reduction of at least 5,000 seats from its previous capacity of 31,042. The next smallest stadium in MLB, Progressive Field in Cleveland, has an listed capacity of 35,041.

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The Rays also plan to improve lighting throughout the stadium and turn a previously-tarped section of seats into a common area called “the Left Field Ledge,” according to the release.

The Rays’ proposed stadium in the Ybor City area of Tampa – which the club last month declared will not move forward – also called for the smallest capacity in the major leagues. The $892 million project included just 28,216 seats and a total capacity of 30,842.

Tampa Bay averaged just 14,258 fans per home game in 2018, which ranked 29th out of 30 teams, and the club has ranked last or second-to-last in average attendance every year since 2011. It’s gotten to the point that even a prominent Rays player, Tommy Pham, is speaking openly about the lack of fan support.

“It sucks going from playing in front of a great fan base to a team with really no fan base at all,” Pham, who previously played for the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a SiriusXM interview last week. “St. Louis, they’re one of the few teams to where day in and day out they have 40,000 fans at every game. That’s something that I miss.”

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