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St. Petersburg, Florida // United States | Home to: Tampa Bay Rays // Baseball
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Tropicana Field is a domed stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida which has been the home of the Tampa Bay Rays since 1998.
Capacity 43,500 Opened March 3rd 1990 Owner The City of St. Petersburg Cost $130 million Architect Criswell, Blizzard & Blouin Architects The ballpark originally began construction in 1986 in the hope that it would lure a Major League Baseball team. The stadium, built originally as the Florida Suncoast Dome, was first used in an attempt to entice the Chicago White Sox to relocate if a new ballpark were not built to replace the aging Comiskey Park. The governments of Chicago and Illinois eventually agreed to build a “new” Comiskey Park (now called U.S. Cellular Field) in 1989, and the White Sox owners ceased discussing the idea of moving the team to the Tampa Bay Area.
The stadium was finished in 1990, but still had no tenants. There were rumors of the Seattle Mariners moving in the early part of the 1990s, and the San Francisco Giants were reportedly very close to moving to the area, with Tampa Bay investors even announcing they were in a press conference in 1992. However, the sale was blocked by the then-owner of the Florida Marlins, H. Wayne Huizenga, and the move never happened. A local boycott of Blockbuster Video stores occurred for several years thereafter.
The Suncoast Dome did manage to gain a tenant in 1993 when the Tampa Bay Lightning made the stadium its home for three seasons. In the process, the Suncoast Dome was renamed the ThunderDome. Because of the large capacity of what was basically a park built for baseball, several NHL attendance records were set during their time there. The Arena Football Tampa Bay Storm also played there during the “ThunderDome” era, and set attendance records for that league as well.
Finally, in 1995, the dome got a baseball team when Major League Baseball expanded to the Tampa Bay area. Changes were made to the stadium and the name, which was changed due to the sale of naming rights, became Tropicana Field in 1996. A $70 million renovation then took place — to upgrade a stadium that had cost $115 million to complete only eight years earlier. The first regular-season baseball game took place at the park on March 31, 1998, when the Rays faced the Detroit Tigers, losing 11-6.
The park was initially built with an AstroTurf surface, but it was replaced in 2000 by softer FieldTurf, becoming the first major professional facility to use it.
Among the most cited dislikes about the stadium are the four catwalks that hang from the ceiling. The roof was slanted in order to reduce the interior volume and make the stadium cheaper to air-condition. Therefore, the dome is tilted toward the outfield, resulting in the catwalks being lower in the outfield. The upper catwalks are Ring A and Ring B; these catwalks are entirely in play and balls bouncing off them can be caught for outs, or drop for base hits. Ring C and Ring D are out of play; if they are struck between the foul poles (each one has a yellow post marking the relative foul line position), then the ball is ruled a home run. A few hits have been lost in them; for example, Jonny Gomes was called out during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 12, 2006, when a ball he hit landed in Ring B and rolled off to be caught by third baseman John McDonald. By the time it was caught, Gomes was already headed for home plate. Although then-Manager Joe Maddon tried to argue that it should have been at least a ground rule double since it stayed in Ring B for a while before coming loose, umpires eventually ruled against the Rays and called Gomes out.
Another criticism of the stadium is the drab interior environment; although the stadium is located in a subtropical climate, one cannot tell from inside the dome.
The facility has also been used for rounds of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament; it hosted the Final Four in 1999. Despite being built in 1990, the stadium is constantly rated among the bottom of MLB fields. The Kane’s Club is a premium seating area located at the lowest level right behind the home plate.
Nicknames include “The Trop”, “The Juicer” and “Slopicana Field”.
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