Tag: Petersburg

The Tampa Bay Rays aren’t the only ones unable to use Tropicana Field in 2025.

In addition to baseball games, the Trop also hosts home and boat shows, gymnastics meets and other events that drive tourism in the off-season. The WWE Royal Rumble last year broke attendance records.

Roughly 40 to 50 planned events this year were displaced when Hurricane Milton tore off the Trop’s roof, City Council member Copley Gerdes estimated. Some of those events may look to venues in other cities or counties and take the tourism dollars with them.

“There’s definitely been some impacts from that standpoint,” said Craig Campbell, director of community and brand engagement for Visit St. Petersburg-Clearwater. The publicly funded agency markets travel to Pinellas County.

As a deal to build a new $1.3 billion stadium for the Rays is in limbo, so is what will happen with the Trop. It needs at least $56 million in repairs yet is scheduled for demolition to make way for construction. Fans will go across the bay to Tampa to watch the Rays play at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field in 2025.

It’s not clear how much could be lost in tourism dollars. Gerdes, who is also a member of the county’s tourism development council, said during a meeting Tuesday that 60 to 75 events are held in and around the Trop every year. He noted that the Trop’s damage drove the Savannah Bananas baseball stunt team, which had sold out the upper deck at the Trop for two dates, to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The team also added a Miami date, which “doesn’t help us,” he said.

Rays President Brian Auld said the Trop’s damage “wasn’t just a blow to the Rays but to our entire community, which relies on this venue for more than baseball — hosting graduations and other cherished events.” He added, “We’re committed to working hand-in-hand with the city to restore Tropicana Field and bring baseball and community events back to St. Petersburg.”

Tim Keckler, president and CEO of Lightning City Gymnastics in Lutz, has hosted the Gasparilla Classic at the Trop for 23 years. He said it’s the biggest gymnastics meet in the country and had 7,300 athletes from 40 states and 14 countries signed up for this year’s meet.

Keckler said he received a letter a week after the hurricanes that the Trop would not be available. By that point, 2,500 hotel rooms were booked, he said. The meet will now be held in February at the Orlando Convention Center.

“There was a good 10 teams that canceled because they love St. Pete,” Keckler said.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater spokesperson Jason Latimer said the Savannah Bananas and the Gasparilla Classic were estimated to each have an economic impact of $10 million.

Pinellas County Schools holds about 20 high school graduations at the Trop and had to scramble to make alternative plans. The BayCare Sound in Clearwater will host most of its graduations next year, with some of the county’s most northern schools heading to the University of South Florida’s Yuengling Center.

Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector said at the meeting that a lot of visitors attending events at Raymond James will end up staying in Clearwater Beach, offsetting some of the loss of events moving to Hillsborough County. The Savannah Bananas’ move to the larger Raymond James stadium allowed it to sell more tickets, which could mean more tourism in the area, he said.

“I think there’s some shifting that should lessen,” Rector said.

Some events are still hoping to use the Trop’s parking lots, which are available through April. Last week, St. Petersburg’s director of events recruitment and management sent an email to the Rays asking for guidance on whether the parking lots were available for events.

”All my event friends looking to use your parking lots are waiting to hear if there will be any availability in 2025,” Tony Leno wrote.

The Skyway 10K, a 6.2-mile race over the Sunshine Skyway bridge, has been staged out of Tropicana Field every March for the past few years. This year’s race has been delayed because of uncertainty about the Trop being available, a spokesperson said.

The Trop’s closure has also put kinks in a sponsorship deal to use the Trop to advertise Pinellas County tourism.

The head of marketing for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater grew frustrated in November at the lack of communication from the Rays, despite having a yearly $625,000 sponsorship deal to advertise Pinellas County tourism on signs and branding at the Trop.

Chief Marketing Officer Steve Grimes told the Rays he was surprised “no one thought it’d be a good idea“ to reach out to discuss how the agency’s sponsorship would be affected by the Rays playing at Steinbrenner Field.

“I would have thought, as (a) significant Rays partner, there would have been some outreach about all the changes for next season, regardless of the stadium issues that are above all our pay grades,” Grimes wrote in an email to the Rays on Nov. 20, at the height of tensions between the Rays and Pinellas County. “Clearly the 2025 season will not be as we all imagined when we put together the sponsorship deal before the ‘24 season and I would have appreciated a conversation before now.”

Grimes said communications have since improved and Visit St. Pete-Clearwater and the Rays are working out how to advertise at Steinbrenner.