I went there in the early 90s to see some guy named Michael Jordan. It was an exhibition game between the Bulls and SuperSonics. The packed dome went crazy every time he touched the ball. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Tropicana Field was build specifically to attract an MLB team. The San Francisco Giants almost moved there in the early 90s, and if it weren't for the incredible season the Seattle Mariners had in 1995, the Mariners would have likely moved there sometime in the late 90s.
@Steven Manning The winter meetings for major league owners in January 1995 occured while the player strike was still ongoing and it was announced that Phoenix and St. Petersburg would both be awarded expansion teams to start play three years later. The 1995 season wasn't able to start until the beginning of May 1995 after the strike ended. The Mariners weren't going to be moving to St. Petersburg after they were already given the expansion team, King County, Wash. had to resolve the future of the team without Florida being a part of it. You can go see the Jan. 1995 meetings for yourself.
The White Sox actually came the closest to moving to Tampa. But the Illinois legislature moved the clock back to secure more votes to fund a new ballpark in Chicago.
Thank you for actually researching the Trop. Instead of just calling it a dump. Tampa is my home. And many memories since '98. Will be sad when it's gone. The fact is here in Tampa/ St Pete you need somewhere to go that is 72 degrees and rain proof. And not over those bridges. I even wondered when I was younger if there was any way to air lift The Trop and plant in in Tampa.
MLB got more use out of Tropicana Field before the Rays even moved. It was specifically used as a carrot for teams to move, the Giants were about 1 hour away from moving to Tampa Bay. It was a midnight deadline and Mcgowen ended up reaching a deal for the Giants with Bob Lurie, which was under 100 million for the team. Now its worth over 1 billion according to Forbes. They also ended up paying entirely for AT*T, and took out 200 million in loans which were paid off after 20 years. Tax payers didn't pay a dime. Seattle also almost moved to Tampa but it was more of an extortion to get a new park in Seattle. So MLB got their money out of Tropicana that's for sure.
They did the same thing with the Rangers. At the time that place was being built, Eddie Chiles wanted to sell, and the MLB owners refused to approve a sale to the only person promising to keep the club in Texas, Edwin Gaylord, and more or less pressured Chiles into selling to a Tampa-based group that was less than subtle in their intent to move the team. But Gaylord blocked the sale with a Right Of First Refusal, and by that time, the Rangers had signed Nolan Ryan and a bunch of other players to make the club attractive enough for the group led by George W Bush to buy the team and keep then in DFW.
@@trclark7689 I remember going to sleep at night thinking they were all but gone, woke up and found out that McGowen had bought them. I remember Lurie giving him a midnight deadline, which was actually a real midnight deadline to get the deal done.
think you got it mixed up. the white sox were the midnight deadline in the illinois legislature where they stopped the clock to extend the deadline. with the giants MLB and the national league president at the time basically forced loria to take less money than the tampa deal was for.
@@Mike-hf8kq NL owners voted against the Giants sell and move to Tampa, I believe the vote went 9 no’s, 2 yes’s, with one abstention. MLB was immediately sued by the Tampa ownership group. Tampa/St. Pete was awarded an expansion team 3 years later and the lawsuit was finally settled almost a decade later.
Yeah it's not terrible just terribly outdated and that's where the trop gets a lot of its flack from. Sure I guess they could have put 500 million in renovating it to keep pace with modern mlb stadiums, but it makes no sense given the age of the stadium to do something like that.
Little known fact is that Kevin Cash was part of the opening ceremony for the Trop and could be considered to have played in the first game there... a wiffle ball game.
Been to most of MLB stadiums and one thing about the Tropicana is that is unique compared to all the new stadiums built in recent years. I actually had a good time watching a baseball game there.
Yeah, I’m a Nats fan who went there for the first time last weekend. Had a good time. It was cool to be in a ballpark that didn’t look like most of the others, including Nats Park.
Good history video of The Trop. My brother's friend recently went there to see a Yankee game this season and the Rays won on a comeback down 6-0 to win and Gerrit Cole was pitching that game. If St Petersburg didn't build Tropicana Field, MLB wouldn't had gave Tampa Bay Rays an expansion team in 1998 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. What other city would have had a team in 1998 if Tampa Bay didn't have the Trop built? Alamodome for San Antonio in 90s? What other arenas in the country were built and which of those cities that could have had a team in 1998? Anyone know? I can't wait for MLB to expand to 32 teams soon. It's about time we get new franchise for cities that haven't gotten baseball yet. It's great for the game for all the positive reasons. As a Yankee fan, I hated seeing the Yankees play Rays in Tropicana Field, even though both teams always had good games against each other.
This is very well done on the history of the Trop. Sure it’s quirky but I always have a good time there. I miss the Ted Williams Museum that was there for a while. It’ll be nice when the Rays get a new stadium, though.
St. Pete is just a terrible location. Getting there from Tampa is a nightmare no matter how you slice it. It’s quite literally cut off from the main population center in Tampa. The real problem is that St. Pete’s a AAA town trying to support a MLB team.
I been to the Tropicana too. When my friend lived in tampa .... It was neat.... Weird inside. Weird looking field turf. It was like 10 years plus.... Long live the trop. When it dies at least. The memories live on..
San Antonio has the Alamodome which was completed in 1993 for $186 million. They built it to try and lure an NFL franchise to the city, but it never really happened. When hurricane Katrina struck, the Saints played a couple of home games there. The stadium was home to the Spurs after they demolished Hemisphere Arena, then the Spurs built the AT&T Center. San Antonio still uses the Alamodome for all kinds of things, and they seem committed to the stadium having approved $23.2 million in renovations in 2022 to try and secure the Final Four in 2025.
San Antonio was able to find decent intermittent use for the stadium, and it allows them to host big events that would otherwise skip over San Antonio, so while it sits without a tenant, I never considered it a failure or a white elephant
Alamodome in San Antonio was more than enough to get an NFL and MLB Team I really think that San Antonio got the Jaguars instead of Jacksonville in 1995 and got a relocated team like the White Sox or Angels.
I don't remember it as the white Sox but it's possible because the suitors were all terrible teams of the early 90s. The giants were going to move to Tampa until Wayne Huizenga of Blockbuster and the Miami Marlins funded the group to keep them in San Fran.
The trop looks like some of the Japanese and Korean league stadiums. Like a relic of the 90’s. MLB needs to make stadiums like the new Japanese stadium (forgot the team name).
Tampa native and Rays fan. Trust me people here hate St pete waayyyyy more than they hate the Trop. When people say they hate the Trop they are really saying they hate driving to St Pete to watch a Tampa team play. This has always been the issue. Every Tampa sports venue is absolutely LIT and highly successful.
I sat in the very back row of the Trop during game five of the 2010 ALDS and it was hot as hell up there. When I have gone to games that had more than 30,000 attending, it would get hot in there.
WWE used it during the pandemic to do their weekly shows and monthly pay per views. They were in Amway center in Orlando in early 2020 till the NBA season started that year.
No, Ginger, they can't have a translucent roof. They tried that already at the Astrodome. The translucent tiles permitted enough light to let grass grow indoors; but the glare during day games made fielding impossible. So they painted over the tiles. The glare problem was solved, but the grass died. That's when Astroturf came in.
you mentioned Guaranteed Rate Field. That's a park opened around the same time that gives the Trop a run for it's money when it comes to worst semi-modern MLB stadiums. Has many of the same flawed late 80s-early 90s baseball field concepts we know now are not good. I think they share a lot of the same issues because of the timing they were both built.
I found a rejuvenated love for the game of baseball when I moved to Tampa Bay Area a few years ago. Grew up in New England and was a Sox fan til I stopped playing ball and started skating. Was a casual fan as I grew older and would go to Fenway here and there. But going to my first Rays game at home with some free tickets it ended up being a fantastic experience. Trop feels like a 90’s time capsule. It’s clean, friendly staff, easy to get in an out, not a single bad seat, etc! I love Trop and I truly think it gets unwarranted hate. Hoping we can stay in Tampa Bay! #raysup
I mean i guess they could repurpose it after the rays leave for college sports games, concerts and other events for st pete if the rays get a new staduim thats not in st pete.
It should have remained the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Just re-work the building better, and then when MLB agreed to expand, set the Devil Rays up with a better park elsewhere
Nahh, Amalie is one of the best arenas in hockey period. It was neat the Bolts used to play at the Trop, but it’s not a hockey barn and no one likes going to St. Pete.
I went to the Rays/Tigers game in the opening series back in April. I like the way the roof let's in natural light without the need for the retractable roof.
One thing about Tropicana Field is that in the mid 90's it was being considered as a home for an Tampa MLS team during the phase the league was being formed. That team became the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1996 & was scheduled to play games at Tropicana Field until the league found out about Raymond James Stadium being built for the Bucs & decided to share Tampa Stadium with them for a couple of years until Raymond James was built & signed a lease to play there in 1999. The Mutiny also have the dubious distinction of being one of three MLS clubs (with Miami Fusion & Chivas USA being the others) to be forced to shut down by the league which happened in 2001 due to them going bankrupt.
GREAT old photos! It isn't the best looking and the catwalks are annoying for some, but I don't mind watching games there. And I always sat in the upperdeck before they closed it. Always got in the first row. Great view (unless you are close, you are far), small crowd, no lines for concessions, good foul ball action.
Personally, I love the Trop, but I'm a native. There's a lot of history in the Gas Plant neighborhood, a lot of families were uprooted, a historic neighborhood was destroyed, the promise of jobs, affordable housing, and other opportunity were lies that never happened. There were 4-5 teams that used St. Pete as leverage. We even briefly had the Giants for a minute before National League owners vetoed the sell and subsequent relocation. MLB waited too long to place expansion teams in Florida. By the late 1990's, natives replaced oranges as Florida's largest export. It's hard to build fan bases when the majority of your population are from somewhere else. It's hard to build a loyal base when your biggest rival has a community of transplants from their city (New York) and you're also the home to their Spring Training camp. Well, at least for the Marlins, the Mets are 100 miles away. The Rays will ultimately stay in the Bay Area, I'd prefer that they move to Tampa, but I think the St. Pete development is going to move forward. The attendance might just suck forever, but at least they'll stay in the Bay Area. St. Petersburg is better than Nashville or Salt Lake City.
You pointed it out in here, but what's important to note about the Trop is that unlike other stadiums that people tend to criticize for similar reasons (Oakland), the Rays have put tens of millions of dollars into renovations to make the ballpark more fan-friendly and a better experience overall. The FO knows the stadium isn't great, but they've at least made an attempt, adding in more modern concession stands with a wide variety of food options, and other things for fans to experience. Overall, it's still not great, but compared to 1998, it's 10000x better
adjusted for inflation it seems remarkably low more because the federal government chronically understates the rate and compounded over that length of time is a massive difference between stated vs. reality
a lot of people like to blame Rays attendance or anything wrong with them on Tropicana Field but doesn't some of it have to do with the Single A Tampa Tarpoons affiliate of the New York Yankees playing in the Tampa Bay area and the Yankees taking some of the fanbase there? just a thought Im not familiar with the Tampa Bay area.
Less than 1,000 people go to games on average. Florida State League attendance is notorious for being the worst of any minor league. The first time I saw that eyesore next to RayJay get filled, including during spring training, was for the Savannah Bananas. That's literally the only thing that draws people to that waste of space
Should've showed a couple pics of the Lightning playing in it from the 90s. It looked pretty impressive seeing almost 30k people watching a hockey game
Most of it was to reduce injuries. Plastic grass on concrete never really was as practical as its creators had initially hoped. All the new versions do sound silly after a while though
An economical stadium that brought a MLB team to South Florida. A cheap way for a small university to upgrade a football program and house basketball games.
Nobody could have called it at the time, but the stadiums built in the 80s (Tropicana Field, Guaranteed Rate Field, Metrodome, Rogers Centre, Hard Rock Stadium) were just built at a bad time.
The Trop is the only domed baseball stadium I've been to, so I can't compare or contrast it with others. Just being indoors makes the experience different. I've only seen Yankees games there, so I had no problem with the experience. My problem is the location. I live on the east coast, so it's a drive to get there. And having so many minor league teams to see, it's not worth the time, drive, and money to go there just to see a game.
Someone else already touched on this but the location itself is a problem. I went to my first game there this year and it was opening day so you figured the traffic would be bad but it was a flipping nightmare. Unlike other parks that have plenty of big private lots the private parking lots around that stadium are small. There is plenty of parking near the stadium but as I mentioned, getting to it was a bitch. The roads leading there are two lane and the cops were clueless when it came to sorting things out. They relied on the traffic lights which, if you know Florida, are timed like crap. They could have and should have taken charge that day but they didn't. If they stick around, they would be better off going to Tampa but even then I'm not sure by how much. Orlando will probably be the landing spot. I'll admit, I'm not a Rays fan but there are a lot of us who have relocated in the area so it's not uncommon to see a lot of fans for the visiting team, even though the Rays are a very good ballclub. As far as the stadium, I thought it was goofy. Describing it like an amusement park is a good descriptor but then again I grew up in a town with an old ballpark so I guess I'm biased. It is a lot better than the Rogers Center or whatever they are calling that mess in Toronto these days so that prevents Tropicana from being the worst park I've been to but I digress a bit.
Is the other Tropicana Field DOOMED as well??? Nine acre ballparks at the Tropicana Hotel!!! What if??? What if the retractable roof doesn't work??????????????????????????????
I love the trop. It a great fan experience there. My home stadium is rogers centre. I don’t have much to compare it to. Really like the rays tank. Food is good there. Lots of room there. Hope it doesn’t close anytime soon
Get off the trops back its a kool stadium u should do a video on that dome in Vancuver that the tarp roof pulls into a center drum thats crazier than a closed dome lol
This has to be the ugliest stadium in MLB history. Who approved his design? A tilted dome and the deadly grey interior is astonishing in how anyone could say lets build this. The Rays this year are a great story, build them a new stadium they deserve.
It reminds me of the type of architecture you'd see from a communist or fascist state that is so prefabed, dull, bland and drab looking. I love the city of Tampa Florida. It's one of my favorite cities in the country and my favorite city in the state of Florida. It's alive, its vibrant, its youthful. The Tampa Bay Ray's should be in an outdoor park that coincides with its home cities identity with green grass, palm trees and sunshine..
You had me until the outdoor park part. Between the thunderstorms from May to July and the brutal heat in August and September, it’s not feasible for play/broadcasts - let alone getting fans in the seats. They need a fixed roof stadium with big windows in Tampa.
Because it is in a bad part of town, hard to get to games, does not draw much revenue. Rays are at the bottom of MLB when it comes to revenue. They have been decent because they have had some great drafts.
They built it in St. Pete expecting the metropolitan area to expand in that direction, but it didn't and so the stadium's location has poor accessibility for most of its market area. Structurally it technically suffices but it's the location that calls the whole "serving its purpose" thing into question, at least as the home of the Rays.
I like European Club Soccer ownership system and think it should be implemented for MLB, NBA & NFL. The franchise owners should pay for venues and there should be relegation system.
Спорт
People will miss hating on the Trop when it’s gone. It’s such a strange and quirky venue. Here’s to hoping the Rays next home is in Tampa proper.
One of my favorite places to catch a game
I went there in the early 90s to see some guy named Michael Jordan. It was an exhibition game between the Bulls and SuperSonics. The packed dome went crazy every time he touched the ball. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Holy shit I didn’t even know about that. If I could time travel
Tropicana Field was build specifically to attract an MLB team. The San Francisco Giants almost moved there in the early 90s, and if it weren't for the incredible season the Seattle Mariners had in 1995, the Mariners would have likely moved there sometime in the late 90s.
@Steven Manning The winter meetings for major league owners in January 1995 occured while the player strike was still ongoing and it was announced that Phoenix and St. Petersburg would both be awarded expansion teams to start play three years later. The 1995 season wasn't able to start until the beginning of May 1995 after the strike ended. The Mariners weren't going to be moving to St. Petersburg after they were already given the expansion team, King County, Wash. had to resolve the future of the team without Florida being a part of it. You can go see the Jan. 1995 meetings for yourself.
The White Sox actually came the closest to moving to Tampa. But the Illinois legislature moved the clock back to secure more votes to fund a new ballpark in Chicago.
Thank you for actually researching the Trop. Instead of just calling it a dump. Tampa is my home. And many memories since '98. Will be sad when it's gone. The fact is here in Tampa/ St Pete you need somewhere to go that is 72 degrees and rain proof. And not over those bridges. I even wondered when I was younger if there was any way to air lift The Trop and plant in in Tampa.
MLB got more use out of Tropicana Field before the Rays even moved. It was specifically used as a carrot for teams to move, the Giants were about 1 hour away from moving to Tampa Bay. It was a midnight deadline and Mcgowen ended up reaching a deal for the Giants with Bob Lurie, which was under 100 million for the team. Now its worth over 1 billion according to Forbes. They also ended up paying entirely for AT*T, and took out 200 million in loans which were paid off after 20 years. Tax payers didn't pay a dime. Seattle also almost moved to Tampa but it was more of an extortion to get a new park in Seattle. So MLB got their money out of Tropicana that's for sure.
They did the same thing with the Rangers. At the time that place was being built, Eddie Chiles wanted to sell, and the MLB owners refused to approve a sale to the only person promising to keep the club in Texas, Edwin Gaylord, and more or less pressured Chiles into selling to a Tampa-based group that was less than subtle in their intent to move the team. But Gaylord blocked the sale with a Right Of First Refusal, and by that time, the Rangers had signed Nolan Ryan and a bunch of other players to make the club attractive enough for the group led by George W Bush to buy the team and keep then in DFW.
I remember buying a "Tampa Bay Giants" t-shirt when I was a kid... that's how close that move came to going down.
@@trclark7689 I remember going to sleep at night thinking they were all but gone, woke up and found out that McGowen had bought them. I remember Lurie giving him a midnight deadline, which was actually a real midnight deadline to get the deal done.
think you got it mixed up. the white sox were the midnight deadline in the illinois legislature where they stopped the clock to extend the deadline. with the giants MLB and the national league president at the time basically forced loria to take less money than the tampa deal was for.
@@Mike-hf8kq NL owners voted against the Giants sell and move to Tampa, I believe the vote went 9 no’s, 2 yes’s, with one abstention.
MLB was immediately sued by the Tampa ownership group.
Tampa/St. Pete was awarded an expansion team 3 years later and the lawsuit was finally settled almost a decade later.
It's so ugly. Whoever designed it should not be allowed near a drafting desk ever again.
Fact
:) Spot on but it really was built to lure a team to Tampa Bay
I went to the Trop for the first time this year. I have to say, it wasnt as terrible as I expected, but it does suck lol.
Yeah it's not terrible just terribly outdated and that's where the trop gets a lot of its flack from. Sure I guess they could have put 500 million in renovating it to keep pace with modern mlb stadiums, but it makes no sense given the age of the stadium to do something like that.
Those old photos are really cool.
Little known fact is that Kevin Cash was part of the opening ceremony for the Trop and could be considered to have played in the first game there... a wiffle ball game.
Tampas favorite son
Been to most of MLB stadiums and one thing about the Tropicana is that is unique compared to all the new stadiums built in recent years. I actually had a good time watching a baseball game there.
Yeah, I’m a Nats fan who went there for the first time last weekend. Had a good time. It was cool to be in a ballpark that didn’t look like most of the others, including Nats Park.
Good history video of The Trop. My brother's friend recently went there to see a Yankee game this season and the Rays won on a comeback down 6-0 to win and Gerrit Cole was pitching that game. If St Petersburg didn't build Tropicana Field, MLB wouldn't had gave Tampa Bay Rays an expansion team in 1998 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. What other city would have had a team in 1998 if Tampa Bay didn't have the Trop built? Alamodome for San Antonio in 90s? What other arenas in the country were built and which of those cities that could have had a team in 1998? Anyone know?
I can't wait for MLB to expand to 32 teams soon. It's about time we get new franchise for cities that haven't gotten baseball yet. It's great for the game for all the positive reasons. As a Yankee fan, I hated seeing the Yankees play Rays in Tropicana Field, even though both teams always had good games against each other.
Yeah dilute the pitching even more
This is very well done on the history of the Trop. Sure it’s quirky but I always have a good time there. I miss the Ted Williams Museum that was there for a while. It’ll be nice when the Rays get a new stadium, though.
St. Pete is just a terrible location. Getting there from Tampa is a nightmare no matter how you slice it. It’s quite literally cut off from the main population center in Tampa. The real problem is that St. Pete’s a AAA town trying to support a MLB team.
I been to the Tropicana too. When my friend lived in tampa .... It was neat.... Weird inside. Weird looking field turf. It was like 10 years plus.... Long live the trop. When it dies at least. The memories live on..
San Antonio has the Alamodome which was completed in 1993 for $186 million. They built it to try and lure an NFL franchise to the city, but it never really happened. When hurricane Katrina struck, the Saints played a couple of home games there. The stadium was home to the Spurs after they demolished Hemisphere Arena, then the Spurs built the AT&T Center. San Antonio still uses the Alamodome for all kinds of things, and they seem committed to the stadium having approved $23.2 million in renovations in 2022 to try and secure the Final Four in 2025.
San Antonio was able to find decent intermittent use for the stadium, and it allows them to host big events that would otherwise skip over San Antonio, so while it sits without a tenant, I never considered it a failure or a white elephant
Alamodome in San Antonio was more than enough to get an NFL and MLB Team I really think that San Antonio got the Jaguars instead of Jacksonville in 1995 and got a relocated team like the White Sox or Angels.
Why do I feel like you’re yelling at me💀
Fr tho😂
Just the way he talks LOL
@@overbanked fr😭😂
Here I thought I was the only one
I don't remember it as the white Sox but it's possible because the suitors were all terrible teams of the early 90s. The giants were going to move to Tampa until Wayne Huizenga of Blockbuster and the Miami Marlins funded the group to keep them in San Fran.
The Giants, the White Sox, the Indians, the Rangers - MLB was doing everything possible to get a team to move to Tampa back in the 80s/90s.
"Translucent see-through" is is just transparent with extra steps. Sorry I had to.
The trop looks like some of the Japanese and Korean league stadiums. Like a relic of the 90’s. MLB needs to make stadiums like the new Japanese stadium (forgot the team name).
Tampa native and Rays fan. Trust me people here hate St pete waayyyyy more than they hate the Trop. When people say they hate the Trop they are really saying they hate driving to St Pete to watch a Tampa team play. This has always been the issue. Every Tampa sports venue is absolutely LIT and highly successful.
I sat in the very back row of the Trop during game five of the 2010 ALDS and it was hot as hell up there. When I have gone to games that had more than 30,000 attending, it would get hot in there.
WWE used it during the pandemic to do their weekly shows and monthly pay per views. They were in Amway center in Orlando in early 2020 till the NBA season started that year.
No, Ginger, they can't have a translucent roof. They tried that already at the Astrodome. The translucent tiles permitted enough light to let grass grow indoors; but the glare during day games made fielding impossible. So they painted over the tiles. The glare problem was solved, but the grass died. That's when Astroturf came in.
you mentioned Guaranteed Rate Field. That's a park opened around the same time that gives the Trop a run for it's money when it comes to worst semi-modern MLB stadiums. Has many of the same flawed late 80s-early 90s baseball field concepts we know now are not good. I think they share a lot of the same issues because of the timing they were both built.
Crossing that bridge was a nightmare. At least I got to see Jeter hit one out.
I found a rejuvenated love for the game of baseball when I moved to Tampa Bay Area a few years ago. Grew up in New England and was a Sox fan til I stopped playing ball and started skating. Was a casual fan as I grew older and would go to Fenway here and there. But going to my first Rays game at home with some free tickets it ended up being a fantastic experience. Trop feels like a 90’s time capsule. It’s clean, friendly staff, easy to get in an out, not a single bad seat, etc! I love Trop and I truly think it gets unwarranted hate. Hoping we can stay in Tampa Bay! #raysup
Your right. No obstructed views except foul poles
The bleachers are the original seats but they reduced those during the 1996-1998 renovation for the then Devil Rays.
I mean i guess they could repurpose it after the rays leave for college sports games, concerts and other events for st pete if the rays get a new staduim thats not in st pete.
It should have remained the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Just re-work the building better, and then when MLB agreed to expand, set the Devil Rays up with a better park elsewhere
Nahh, Amalie is one of the best arenas in hockey period. It was neat the Bolts used to play at the Trop, but it’s not a hockey barn and no one likes going to St. Pete.
Ive went to the trop several times over the decades and it always seemed pretty cool to me
@depressedginger I got a question for you. Why does a stadium not do like Ceasar's Palace and make a fake sky in a dome?
I went to the Rays/Tigers game in the opening series back in April. I like the way the roof let's in natural light without the need for the retractable roof.
One thing about Tropicana Field is that in the mid 90's it was being considered as a home for an Tampa MLS team during the phase the league was being formed. That team became the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1996 & was scheduled to play games at Tropicana Field until the league found out about Raymond James Stadium being built for the Bucs & decided to share Tampa Stadium with them for a couple of years until Raymond James was built & signed a lease to play there in 1999. The Mutiny also have the dubious distinction of being one of three MLS clubs (with Miami Fusion & Chivas USA being the others) to be forced to shut down by the league which happened in 2001 due to them going bankrupt.
Great job!
Please make videos of the history of others ballparks too !
No excuses to not build state of the art technology stadium not in days that last for at 100 years
GREAT old photos! It isn't the best looking and the catwalks are annoying for some, but I don't mind watching games there. And I always sat in the upperdeck before they closed it. Always got in the first row. Great view (unless you are close, you are far), small crowd, no lines for concessions, good foul ball action.
Looks more like the old Kingdome. But the question i wonder is why was does it look so lopsided?
Personally, I love the Trop, but I'm a native.
There's a lot of history in the Gas Plant neighborhood, a lot of families were uprooted, a historic neighborhood was destroyed, the promise of jobs, affordable housing, and other opportunity were lies that never happened. There were 4-5 teams that used St. Pete as leverage. We even briefly had the Giants for a minute before National League owners vetoed the sell and subsequent relocation.
MLB waited too long to place expansion teams in Florida. By the late 1990's, natives replaced oranges as Florida's largest export. It's hard to build fan bases when the majority of your population are from somewhere else. It's hard to build a loyal base when your biggest rival has a community of transplants from their city (New York) and you're also the home to their Spring Training camp. Well, at least for the Marlins, the Mets are 100 miles away.
The Rays will ultimately stay in the Bay Area, I'd prefer that they move to Tampa, but I think the St. Pete development is going to move forward. The attendance might just suck forever, but at least they'll stay in the Bay Area. St. Petersburg is better than Nashville or Salt Lake City.
It's so ugly and cheap and outdated that it's got a cool vibe about it now :) I hope we find a way to keep them in Tampa Bay.
I agree. It's not like a fenway park vibe but it does write history. I wish I could go.
How do you make so many videos so fast?
You pointed it out in here, but what's important to note about the Trop is that unlike other stadiums that people tend to criticize for similar reasons (Oakland), the Rays have put tens of millions of dollars into renovations to make the ballpark more fan-friendly and a better experience overall. The FO knows the stadium isn't great, but they've at least made an attempt, adding in more modern concession stands with a wide variety of food options, and other things for fans to experience. Overall, it's still not great, but compared to 1998, it's 10000x better
adjusted for inflation it seems remarkably low more because the federal government chronically understates the rate and compounded over that length of time is a massive difference between stated vs. reality
a lot of people like to blame Rays attendance or anything wrong with them on Tropicana Field but doesn't some of it have to do with the Single A Tampa Tarpoons affiliate of the New York Yankees playing in the Tampa Bay area and the Yankees taking some of the fanbase there? just a thought Im not familiar with the Tampa Bay area.
Less than 1,000 people go to games on average. Florida State League attendance is notorious for being the worst of any minor league. The first time I saw that eyesore next to RayJay get filled, including during spring training, was for the Savannah Bananas. That's literally the only thing that draws people to that waste of space
Should've showed a couple pics of the Lightning playing in it from the 90s. It looked pretty impressive seeing almost 30k people watching a hockey game
I never understood why people hate this stadium.....its different and i enjoy that.
You didn't mention the surrounding neighborhood. Things to do, conditions, other than a game, would ppl visit the area??
Whats the difference between the grass lmao like I’m so confused about like it’s turf lol how many different types are there
Most of it was to reduce injuries. Plastic grass on concrete never really was as practical as its creators had initially hoped. All the new versions do sound silly after a while though
An economical stadium that brought a MLB team to South Florida. A cheap way for a small university to upgrade a football program and house basketball games.
Central Florida*
Mr depressed, Let’s play a game. I tell you how many MLB stadiums I have have you been to and you tell me how many you have been to.
Funny thing.. graduated HS in 08 and went to the Bitcoin St Petersburg Bowl at the trop.. bitcoin was $31 at the time
Haha
Its the Only dome left in the MLB soo its historical hope it lasts and they dont demolish it. No more seattle kingdom or expos
Nobody could have called it at the time, but the stadiums built in the 80s (Tropicana Field, Guaranteed Rate Field, Metrodome, Rogers Centre, Hard Rock Stadium) were just built at a bad time.
Please do video on rays new stadium?
Why are the crowds always small. And most of them leave by the 7th inning ?
The Trop is the only domed baseball stadium I've been to, so I can't compare or contrast it with others. Just being indoors makes the experience different. I've only seen Yankees games there, so I had no problem with the experience. My problem is the location. I live on the east coast, so it's a drive to get there. And having so many minor league teams to see, it's not worth the time, drive, and money to go there just to see a game.
I kind of like it. Tickets are fairly cheap for MLB. Pretty easy to get to being right off I-275.
The crooked roof is to save energy.
I want to see pictures of the final four.
5:40 see Olympic Stadium as to why that wouldn't work
Someone else already touched on this but the location itself is a problem. I went to my first game there this year and it was opening day so you figured the traffic would be bad but it was a flipping nightmare. Unlike other parks that have plenty of big private lots the private parking lots around that stadium are small. There is plenty of parking near the stadium but as I mentioned, getting to it was a bitch. The roads leading there are two lane and the cops were clueless when it came to sorting things out. They relied on the traffic lights which, if you know Florida, are timed like crap. They could have and should have taken charge that day but they didn't.
If they stick around, they would be better off going to Tampa but even then I'm not sure by how much. Orlando will probably be the landing spot. I'll admit, I'm not a Rays fan but there are a lot of us who have relocated in the area so it's not uncommon to see a lot of fans for the visiting team, even though the Rays are a very good ballclub. As far as the stadium, I thought it was goofy. Describing it like an amusement park is a good descriptor but then again I grew up in a town with an old ballpark so I guess I'm biased. It is a lot better than the Rogers Center or whatever they are calling that mess in Toronto these days so that prevents Tropicana from being the worst park I've been to but I digress a bit.
Is the other Tropicana Field DOOMED as well??? Nine acre ballparks at the Tropicana Hotel!!! What if??? What if the retractable roof doesn't work??????????????????????????????
Hot take, the trop is not that bad
It looked like a tiger cage in a circus act
Move the Rays to Nashville, level this thing, and be done with it already.
I love the trop. It a great fan experience there. My home stadium is rogers centre. I don’t have much to compare it to. Really like the rays tank. Food is good there. Lots of room there. Hope it doesn’t close anytime soon
I hope you’re wrong lmao
I won’t miss it, worst stadium I’ve set foot in
It was also DOMED from the start
Get off the trops back its a kool stadium u should do a video on that dome in Vancuver that the tarp roof pulls into a center drum thats crazier than a closed dome lol
Kansas City built a nice arena without a major tenant.
Trop > Metrodome because of all dirt between bases.
Two World Series championship teams, a super bowl and final four never happened at the Tropicana
The sf giants were going to move there
Atleast he's not ASMR. I hate that shit!
Hok u are fired
This has to be the ugliest stadium in MLB history. Who approved his design? A tilted dome and the deadly grey interior is astonishing in how anyone could say lets build this.
The Rays this year are a great story, build them a new stadium they deserve.
IMO it just barely beats out the Kingdome lol
It reminds me of the type of architecture you'd see from a communist or fascist state that is so prefabed, dull, bland and drab looking. I love the city of Tampa Florida. It's one of my favorite cities in the country and my favorite city in the state of Florida. It's alive, its vibrant, its youthful. The Tampa Bay Ray's should be in an outdoor park that coincides with its home cities identity with green grass, palm trees and sunshine..
You had me until the outdoor park part. Between the thunderstorms from May to July and the brutal heat in August and September, it’s not feasible for play/broadcasts - let alone getting fans in the seats. They need a fixed roof stadium with big windows in Tampa.
The hockey layout was crap!
Mid 200’s😂
If the stadium is structurally sound and still serving its purpose, then why get rid of it?
Because it is in a bad part of town, hard to get to games, does not draw much revenue. Rays are at the bottom of MLB when it comes to revenue. They have been decent because they have had some great drafts.
They built it in St. Pete expecting the metropolitan area to expand in that direction, but it didn't and so the stadium's location has poor accessibility for most of its market area. Structurally it technically suffices but it's the location that calls the whole "serving its purpose" thing into question, at least as the home of the Rays.
That's the ugliest design of any MLB stadium today. It's so bad and unappealing that it makes the Oakland Coliseum look modernized.
Oh it does not have the poop problem the Coliseum does.
Implode and make new one there
A whole video without blaming democrats. I'm impressed.
Between the dumps that the Rays and Marlins play in and Ron DeSanctimomious, I won't be visiting Florida for baseball any time soon
Good! If you let politics decide where you will and won't go in the USA, then no one in their right mind would want you anyway.
The Oakland coliseum is so much better than this
I like European Club Soccer ownership system and think it should be implemented for MLB, NBA & NFL. The franchise owners should pay for venues and there should be relegation system.
Billion+ stadiums tend to be paid for by exorbiant sales taxes so there's that.
Keep the Trop but start all home games at 4 pm so retirees attending games can be back home going to bed by 8 pm.