By the time the Rays return for their March 28 opener against Colorado, more than 3,000 unique signs and advertising boards will have been installed. The 10-by-9 foot “Y-A-N-K-E-E-S” letters above the first- and third-base stands will have been covered with Rays markings, along with the interlocking “NY” hanging from the ceiling in the center of the clubhouse. The team store will have been emptied of pinstriped gear and restocked with Rays apparel.
A metamorphosis that even Statcast can’t measure.
“Building the plane while you fly it,” said Bill Walsh, the Rays’ chief business officer. “At times really, really exciting and at times obviously just incredibly frantic and stressful.”
Tampa Bay is one of two big league teams whose home games will be in minor league stadiums this year. The Athletics moved to Sutter Park in West Sacramento, California, for at least three seasons while a planned structure is built in Las Vegas.
A made-to-order open kitchen is near a 2,400-square foot picnic patio with 18 tables for dining and a long counter.
“I could totally see a wedding,” said Matt Ferry, the Yankees’ director of baseball operations.
Andy Pettitte, a former Yankees ace and now a spring training instructor, recalled how the food table was in a clubhouse corner near the showers when the stadium opened in 1996.
“It’s crazy it’s so beautiful,” Pettitte said after a dip in the cold tank. “When I came up, it was taboo to be in the trainers room.”
Steinbrenner Field’s regular-season team is the Yankees’ Class A Tampa Tarpons, who will dress a 1.2-mile drive away at the team’s minor league complex across Dale Mabry Highway and play home games on field two, a practice diamond behind Steinbrenner’s first-base side.
New York spent the last two offseasons renovating the home clubhouse.
“The industry owes Hal Steinbrenner a real debt of gratitude,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said of the Yankees owner. “He put literally tens of millions of dollars into improving Steinbrenner Field and the first people who are really going to get to use it for any period of time is the Tampa Bay Rays.”
Some reminders of Yankees will remain
George Steinbrenner’s statue and the retired numbers commemorating Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other Yankees greats near the entrance must remain untouched along with the late owner’s name above the videoboard.
All the other signage is set to change — the new ones would stretch a mile laid side to side. Five companies, 50 installers and at least 80 Rays staff will carry out the conversion.
A method will be found to cover the floor tiles leading to the clubhouse bathrooms that spell out: “The Bronx” and “New York.” It was unclear whether the Rays can cover wallpaper near the showers meant to create the illusion of scenery viewed from a speeding subway. While the clubhouse is set up for spring training with 51 stalls along the walls circling the room and 28 in the center spread into four pods, the Rays thought it might be too difficult to remove the unneeded spaces in the middle.
“We didn’t do as much branding as we wanted to do because the Rays are going to cover most of it,” Ferry said.
Yankees staff will remain in their fourth-floor offices, but the team will use the cramped visitors’ clubhouse on the third-base side when the Rays host New York from April 17-20 and Aug. 19-20. Extra construction is being funded by the Rays.
What had been the visitors trainers room was opened to the main part of the locker room and in the equivalent of musical chairs, the training tables moved to the baseball storage area. The umpires room became the manager’s office, which was remade into the clubhouse manager’s space, and umpires were moved to a trailer outside the ballpark. Max’s Cafe, which had been used for media meals, will be the visiting team’s food area.
A security room became the video review room and a humidor for baseballs was constructed off the tunnel circling between the dugouts. Tracking and replay technology was installed.
Seat inventory will change from Ticketmaster to Tickets.com and additional luxury suites will be created beyond the current 13. Food will be provided by Legends Hospitality, co-owned by the Yankees’ parent company, instead of Levy Restaurants, Tropicana Field’s concessionaire since 2018.
“We absolutely have kind of day by day, in some cases kind of hour by hour schedules for various installations,” said Walsh, who learned from the experience of shifting the team’s 2023 spring training site after damage in Port Charlotte caused by Hurricane Ian.
Storms are likely in the summer
Absence of a roof figures to be disruptive in an area that had a record 80.29 inches of rain last year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including 82% from June 1 through Oct. 15. The Tarpons had eight games delayed by rain either pregame or in-game plus four cancellations, three postponements, four suspended games and one that was shortened.
Tampa Bay’s schedule was adjusted to have 19 of its first 22 games at home and then 16 of 19 on the road from June 24 to July 13 and 19 of 22 from July 25 to Aug. 17.
“We’re going to be playing outdoor baseball in Tampa Bay for the first time ever during the regular season and people have been talking about this for decades,” Walsh said. “It’s kind of in our DNA to be a bit of an agitator and try to find opportunity sort of through challenges and through doing things differently. And this is certainly doing things differently.”
