A’s, Rays Stadium Situations Are MLB Failures

Major League Baseball is riding a wave of momentum heading into the 2025 season. 

The 2024 World Series matched the two biggest names in baseball, with the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the New York Yankees with massive ratings for Fox. Pace of play enhancements and the pitch clock have made the games more exciting and fun to watch. And bigger bases contributed to more steals, with Shohei Ohtani putting up the first ever 50-50 season.

Yet with all these positives, there’s a massive embarrassment looming over the rapidly approaching regular season: two franchises will be playing their home games in minor league stadiums.

The Tampa Bay Rays, though, through no fault of their own, will be playing in the spring training home of the New York Yankees. An outdoor stadium in Florida. In summer. With that heat and that rain.

The Athletics, very much through fault of their own, will be playing in a minor league stadium in Sacramento for three seasons. 

Commissioner Rob Manfred said the stadiums are “intimate” and “charming,” That’s sure to be inaccurate, and especially difficult for players used to much larger venues with more Major League amenities. 

Tropicana Field. Photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

MLB Has To Fix Stadium Situations Early

ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote that the league should have pushed for a better resolution for Tampa years ago, ensuring the Rays would never have to deal with years of uncertainty at the decrepit Troipcana Field.

Instead, their execs, including Matt Silverman, are relying on the Yankees to save any semblance of a home stadium.

“If not for Steinbrenner Field and the Yankees, I don’t know what we would have done,” Silverman said to ESPN. “The quick yes from Hal Steinbrenner gave us peace of mind when we really needed it. I think there’s real excitement for outdoor baseball in Tampa. The whole region is talking about it.”

Except now because of the uncertainty, there are investment groups circling the franchise, potentially looking to relocate it and punt on baseball in the Tampa area.

The A’s meanwhile, have admitted they “don’t know what to expect” from Sacramento.

“Whether it was 3,000 or 7,000 in a midweek game, the energy was still great,” said manager Mark Kotsay. “That’s the one thing that I can honestly say I’ll miss, because even though there may not have been a lot of fans in the stands, the passion that they brought for us through the years was incredible. But I’m excited about Sacramento. I don’t know really what to expect. I do know that we’ve sold the place out and that energy in itself will be awesome to witness.”

And their new home in Las Vegas has yet to break ground, putting a 2028 opening in jeopardy.

So where does MLB come in? 

The league could have, and should have, ensured that ownership groups buying the two organizations were better capitalized. They should have pushed for resolutions earlier, instead of allowing the process to drag on indefinitely as cheap owners demanded hand-outs from local taxpayers. 

It might be a fun novelty for 2025 to see Major League Baseball in a minor league stadium. But that novelty won’t last for long as frustrations and relocation talks set in. Avoidable ones, too.