Related Stories<\/b><\/p>\n The Rays are playing this season\u2019s home games across Tampa Bay at the New York Yankees\u2019 spring training home of Steinbrenner Field, because Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton. The Rays\u2019 home since 1998, the fabric roof over Tropicana Field was ripped to shreds after Hurricane Milton came ashore, bringing wind gusts exceeding 100 mph and flooding parts of Florida.<\/p>\n At about 11,000 seats, Steinbrenner Field is the largest spring training site in Florida. That the Rays stayed in market and did not go elsewhere to play is the reverse of what the Athletics are currently doing in California<\/a>, or what the Toronto Blue Jays did during the pandemic (including a season in Florida).<\/p>\n \u201cAny time you\u2019re fortunate enough to have a professional franchise in your market, you want to do everything to keep them there because of what it represents and means to your community,\u201d said\u00a0Jason Aughey<\/strong>, senior vice president of sports tourism for the\u00a0Tampa Bay Sports Commission<\/a>. \u201cThat partners like the Yankees were able to make it happen says a lot about them and the way that the community has rallied and come together under the circumstances says a lot about the grit and togetherness of what Team Tampa Bay is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rays\u2019 saga has dragged on for years and the news about a potential ownership change<\/a>, with the tentative plan to return to the Trop next year, looms over fans. Yet in this region that abuts the Gulf of Mexico, there is way, way more than baseball.<\/p>\n Yes, Tampa has a reputation for major sporting events on both the collegiate and professional levels; five Super Bowls (including the famous pandemic event<\/a>), the 1999 NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Final Four and this past season\u2019s Women\u2019s Final Four (one year after hosting the NCAA Volleyball Championships). It\u2019s been home in the past year to a preseason MLS game featuring Lionel Messi<\/a>, four nights of WWE<\/a> and will host the 2027 and 2028 American Athletic Conference men\u2019s basketball tournaments<\/a>.<\/p>\n But like many markets, what can move economic impact equally as much is the 97 youth and amateur events Tampa hosted last year. In November 2024, the Red Bull Flugtag attracted nearly 100,000 people to the Tampa Convention Center. More than 20,000 cheerleaders descended upon downtown for a recent Varsity Spirit competition.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no denying the profound economic impact that comes from hosting these events,\u201d Aughey said. \u201cWe find that a lot of families turn their trip into a vacation because of all we have to offer away from the fields or off the court. When you see all these people staying in hotels, eating at restaurants and visiting attractions, there is an intrinsic value derived from knowing that your organization played a direct role in helping bring them to Tampa.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tournament SportsPlex of Tampa Bay, a county owned and operated facility, opened in November 2018 after a six-year process from proposal to approval to groundbreaking. The complex, which has 15 full-size soccer fields that can be adapted to as many as 54 flag football fields, is a special event complex that keeps its schedule to around 25 events per year at most to keep the fields from being overused.<\/p>\n Stephen Reed<\/strong>, vice president of the Sportsplex, said that more than 90% of what the complex hosts is youth events. \u201cWe don’t want it to be run down,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving the outside partnership with the county has helped tremendously to keep the status of the fields and the status of the complex up.\u201d<\/p>\n The SportsPlex\u2019s location with a 20-minute drive between downtown and the Tampa Bay International Airport means there can be up to 10,000 hotel rooms available for tournaments (the region overall has approximately 26,000 hotel rooms). With three operations employees and five maintenance people to maintain the quality of the fields, the SportsPlex is able to serve as almost a one-stop shop for event organizers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve gone from a lot of smaller local and regional events to more nationwide events,\u201d Reed said. \u201cOur scheduling has become easier because a lot of these groups want to come back here after year, so it makes it a lot easier for us just to roll to the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Seven years on from its opening, the SportsPlex has developed new parts within its facility. There\u2019s been a building for locker rooms and extra shade for teams constructed and in addition to a concession area, food trucks will come to the venue to help feed athletes and families during big tournaments. There\u2019s also meeting room space and a vendor building for event organizers who are selling merchandise during an event, Reed said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re bringing in these events and giving local kids and coaches the opportunity to participate and experience events that are truly the best of the best, it raises the profile for people in the market and generates a tremendous sense of pride,\u201d Aughey said.<\/p>\n On the night of this first regular season rain delay, it didn\u2019t last long as a matter of fact. And when the Rays\u2019 ground crew rolled the tarp back up, the scoreboard in left field kept track of the time needed \u2014\u00a0 just under one minute, impressive given that before this season only two people on the grounds crew had ever pulled a tarp.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest difference is that during spring training, you typically gets cold fronts that come down so you can kind of really gauge when to put the tarp on,\u201d said one of those people, Dan Moeller, <\/strong>director of special project and field operations for the Rays. \u201c(Today), you’ve got those pop up storms and you can pull the tarp anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n Playing outside means more time for Moeller on his phone \u2014 \u201cI spend a lot of time looking at different (weather) apps on my phone. And it’s almost like every single app has a different story to tell.\u201d But being outside means more than just needing to pull a tarp during a weather delay.<\/p>\n The Rays\u2019 ground crew has worked to change how the grass is cut, especially in the outfield, as the regular season has gone on. Even more than that is the infield dirt, which is more of a clay-based surface.<\/p>\n \u201cThe infielders really didn’t like the clay that was in here, which is more of a spring training type clay,\u201d Moeller said. \u201cSo we changed out the clay to give them more of a feel like the Trop.\u201d<\/p>\n Watering the field also means new challenges for the Rays\u2019 ground crew. Before, there was the consistent conditions of indoors at the Trop. Now with the changing conditions of outdoors, Moeller relies on player feedback.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ll go out and talk to the players like during batting practice, try and get their feedback and tweak things as we go along,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then, of course, having day games, that’s a totally different animal because it doesn’t matter how much water we put on the field at game time \u2014\u00a0by the third or fourth inning, it’s like a concrete out there. So it’s difficult to deal with in that respect, the day games and night games. And now that we’re coming into the rainy season, it’s going to be a whole another tweak to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Tweaking how things are presented is something that Warren Hypes, <\/strong>vice president, creative and brand for the Rays, knows all too well this season. Steinbrenner Field looks and feels like the Rays\u2019 home ballpark this season but it was nothing but easy in doing so. There was months of measuring the entire ballpark and working with the Yankees in knowing the dimensions needed for wall coverings, flags, advertising billboards \u2014 and then four days between the end of spring training and the start of the season to wrap the stadium in gold and blue.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think the adrenaline stopped through those four days or even through the first homestand here,\u201d Hypes said. \u201cWe all put so much into it and for on Opening Day to see how it went and to see the fans\u2019 reaction to be able to do things outside \u2014 we don’t normally do flyovers and fireworks \u2014\u00a0 it’s been really special and definitely a season I’ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rays worked with five different signage vendors to wrap the ballpark and 50 installers from those vendors, Hypes said, as well as several hundred team employees who volunteered time to do everything from putting Rays stickers on walls to going to the outfield wall with sponges and brushes to clean the walls of dirt before new sponsorship banners could be overlaid.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing into every season, you may have changes on the roster or different partners or whatnot,\u201d Hypes said. \u201cBut to do it on this scale and with this kind of timeline and to work with a partner \u2014 it wasn’t our building that we could just do whatever we want, so the partnership aspect of it with the Yankees is super important. To this magnitude it\u2019s the biggest project in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n This project will be more than just one year\u2019s worth of experiences for the Rays. Between not just the look at the ballpark but the digital assets on video boards and marketing campaigns, there are new ideas and presentations that could be transferred back to the old stadium for next year.<\/p>\n \u201cI think anytime you do something challenging in your career and you get through it, it makes you better,\u201d Hypes said. \u201cYou definitely have experiences from it that make you better. It make you learn new things. So that’s super important.\u201d<\/p>\n Sooner or later, the attention for the Rays \u2014 playoff appearance notwithstanding \u2014 will turn to next year and the proposed return to the Trop, with lessons learned about dressing the facility with a new look. There will also be another youth event at the SportsPlex, the 2026 NHL Stadium Series or another update on the University of South Florida\u2019s on-campus football stadium or more cheerleading at the convention center. It\u2019s part of the mix that the region delivers for a sports market that appreciates what it in town but also are anticipating what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s coming out supporting a special event or contributing to record attendance at an NCAA championship, this is an engaged community where people are always looking for something to do,\u201d Aughey said. \u201cPeople always ask what\u2019s next because that\u2019s the expectation here \u2014 in looking ahead, there are a ton of exciting announcements on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The crowd started to stir on this early June night in Florida as dark clouds gathered over the field. Rain started, slowly and then more steadily and harder, as those in the crowd began to take shelter under the concourses. There was also a nervous energy for when \u2014 not if in this case \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":73323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10951,3043],"tags":[8454,17876,13988,7817,8571],"class_list":["post-73971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-sports-venues","tag-jason-aughey","tag-stephen-reed","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-bay-sports-commission","tag-tournament-sportsplex-of-tampa-bay"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/sportstravelmagazine.com\/in-tampa-teamwork-keeps-rays-in-town\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"In Tampa, Teamwork Keeps Rays in Town","url":"http:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/in-tampa-teamwork-keeps-rays-in-town\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/in-tampa-teamwork-keeps-rays-in-town\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/16105559\/Tampa-Bay-Rain-Delay-150x150.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/16105559\/Tampa-Bay-Rain-Delay-scaled.jpg"},"articleSection":"Major League Baseball","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Traub"}],"creator":["Matt Traub"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"SportsTravel","logo":"https:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/sportstravel-logo-simple-1.jpg"},"keywords":["jason aughey","stephen reed","tampa bay rays","tampa bay sports commission","tournament sportsplex of tampa bay"],"dateCreated":"2025-07-15T11:00:57Z","datePublished":"2025-07-15T11:00:57Z","dateModified":"2025-07-30T15:02:49Z"},"rendered":"\n
All Pulling Together <\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Catching Rays Outside<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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