Tropicana Field — St. Petersburg, Florida

Tropicana Field is a domed stadium located in downtown St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida, and has served as the home venue of the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball franchise since the team's inaugural 1998 season, as documented by Construction Dive. The structure occupies approximately 86 acres on the former site of the Gas Plant District, a historically Black neighborhood demolished in the 1980s to make way for its construction, according to WUSF Public Radio.

The stadium opened in March 1990 under the name Florida Suncoast Dome, has operated under three different names, and as of May 2026 is under a lease with the Rays that extends through the end of the 2028 season, per St. Pete Rising. Hurricane Milton struck in October 2024, destroying the stadium's original fabric roof and triggering a $59.7 million city-funded renovation. The Rays returned to Tropicana Field for their April 6, 2026 home opener following a full 2025 season played at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The long-term future of both the stadium and the surrounding 86-acre site remains unresolved following the March 2025 withdrawal of the Rays from a proposed mixed-use redevelopment agreement.

The land now occupied by Tropicana Field was once the Gas Plant District, one of St. Petersburg's oldest historically Black neighborhoods. FOX 13 Tampa Bay documents the district's demolition as the seventh mass displacement of Black families in the city's history, with a 2021 study cited by Fox 13 identifying 2,100 Black families, businesses, and institutions displaced over the course of a dozen years. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that more than 500 families had been relocated and more than 280 buildings demolished by 1986, and that the sites of at least three former Black cemeteries were paved over in the process.

WUSF Public Radio documented the displacement as affecting more than 800 residents, with nine churches relocated and 285 buildings demolished to accommodate stadium construction. The 86 acres were razed in the 1980s, with construction on the stadium beginning in 1987, according to WUSF.

In February 2025, WUSF reported on the premiere of Razed, a 75-minute documentary featuring oral histories of 20 former Gas Plant District residents and three local historians, screened publicly in St. Petersburg. The film documented that nine churches were relocated and 30 businesses closed during the demolition period. The displacement remains a defining element of civic memory surrounding Tropicana Field, and Mayor Ken Welch — documented by FOX 13 as the city's first Black mayor, who took office in January 2022 — is himself a native of the Gas Plant District neighborhood.

The stadium opened in March 1990 under the name Florida Suncoast Dome. It was renamed the ThunderDome in 1993 and became Tropicana Field in 1996, following a naming-rights agreement, as documented by WUSF Public Radio. The Tampa Bay Rays began playing there in 1998, the franchise's inaugural MLB season.

Before Hurricane Milton's October 2024 strike, the stadium was covered by a fabric tensile roof — a distinctive architectural feature of the structure. The City of St. Petersburg holds responsibility for maintaining Tropicana Field under its lease agreement with the Rays, as documented by St. Pete Rising. That lease is contracted through the end of the 2028 season, per St. Pete Rising, establishing a fixed horizon for the current tenancy arrangement regardless of longer-term stadium decisions.

Hurricane Milton struck in October 2024 and destroyed Tropicana Field's original fabric roof, exposing the stadium interior to months of rainwater intrusion and causing widespread internal damage, as reported by St. Pete Rising. With the stadium rendered unusable, the Tampa Bay Rays played their entire 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, as documented by both St. Pete Rising and Construction Dive.

The City of St. Petersburg undertook a $59.7 million renovation program to restore the venue. The project was carried out in partnership with contractors Hennessy Construction Services and AECOM Hunt, according to St. Pete Rising. The centerpiece of the renovation was the installation of a new PTFE fiberglass membrane roof, engineered to withstand winds up to 165 miles per hour. St. Pete Rising reported that the membrane was manufactured in Germany and assembled in China before installation. Beth Herendeen, identified by St. Pete Rising as the city's Managing Director of City Development, was among the city officials involved in overseeing the project.

The Rays returned to Tropicana Field for their April 6, 2026 home opener, as documented by St. Pete Rising. The renovation was funded by the city at a time when the long-term future of the 86-acre site remained unresolved — a circumstance that drew attention to the relationship between short-term infrastructure obligations and the broader question of what follows the current lease.

Prior to Hurricane Milton, the most consequential civic deliberation surrounding Tropicana Field concerned a proposed mixed-use redevelopment of the 86-acre site. The proposal — developed by the Rays in partnership with developer Hines — included a new $2.3 billion ballpark and surrounding development. The St. Petersburg City Council approved the proposal in a 4-3 vote in December 2024, and the Pinellas County Commission followed with a 5-2 vote of approval the same month, according to St. Pete Rising.

The proposed Hines-Rays development had included a $50 million commitment to intentional equity initiatives directed toward south St. Petersburg, encompassing affordable housing funding, employment and business support, education programs, and Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprises hiring commitments, as reported by WUSF Public Radio. The Southern Poverty Law Center documented community opposition from former Gas Plant District residents and their advocates, who raised concerns about the adequacy of equity commitments relative to the scale of historic displacement.

In March 2025, the Rays announced they would not pursue the redevelopment project, as reported by St. Pete Rising. Following a $1.7 billion sale of the franchise in September 2025, the team's new ownership group was evaluating potential stadium sites across the broader Tampa Bay region, according to St. Pete Rising. As of early 2026, the economic trajectory of the 86-acre site remains unresolved. St. Pete Rising also reported that the city was considering a $600 million resiliency bond to address flooding and harden city infrastructure — a parallel fiscal deliberation shaped in part by the damage Hurricane Milton inflicted on Tropicana Field itself.

Tropicana Field occupies a position in St. Petersburg's civic life that extends well beyond its function as a baseball venue. The stadium sits at the intersection of the city's documented history of urban displacement, its obligations as a landlord to a Major League Baseball franchise, and its ongoing debates about the future of one of the largest underdeveloped parcels in a Florida urban core.

Mayor Ken Welch, documented by FOX 13 Tampa Bay as the city's first Black mayor, took office in January 2022 and grew up in the Gas Plant District neighborhood that was demolished to build the stadium. His administration oversaw both the December 2024 City Council vote approving the since-collapsed redevelopment proposal and the $59.7 million renovation undertaken after Hurricane Milton. The Southern Poverty Law Center documents that former residents and community advocates maintained active opposition to aspects of the redevelopment process, citing unresolved obligations to those displaced in the 1980s.

St. Petersburg, with a population of 260,646 as of the U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023, is Florida's fourth-largest city and the seat of Pinellas County — the most densely populated county in the state. The city's lease responsibility for Tropicana Field represents one of its most consequential infrastructure commitments, carrying fiscal, historical, and land-use dimensions that are expected to remain central to local governance through at least the end of the 2028 Rays tenancy.