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.

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.

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.

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.

It's so ugly. Whoever designed it should not be allowed near a drafting desk ever again.

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.

Those old photos are really cool.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"Translucent see-through" is is just transparent with extra steps. Sorry I had to.

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.

Why do I feel like you’re yelling at me💀

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).

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.

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.

Crossing that bridge was a nightmare. At least I got to see Jeter hit one out.

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.

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.

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.

No excuses to not build state of the art technology stadium not in days that last for at 100 years

The bleachers are the original seats but they reduced those during the 1996-1998 renovation for the then Devil Rays.

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.

Ive went to the trop several times over the decades and it always seemed pretty cool to me

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

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.

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 !

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.

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

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?

@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?

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

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

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.

I never understood why people hate this stadium.....its different and i enjoy that.

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.

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.

The crooked roof is to save energy.

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

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

Whats the difference between the grass lmao like I’m so confused about like it’s turf lol how many different types are there

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.

It looked like a tiger cage in a circus act

5:40 see Olympic Stadium as to why that wouldn't work

I kind of like it. Tickets are fairly cheap for MLB. Pretty easy to get to being right off I-275.

You didn't mention the surrounding neighborhood. Things to do, conditions, other than a game, would ppl visit the area??

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 want to see pictures of the final four.

How do you make so many videos so fast?

Hot take, the trop is not that bad

Move the Rays to Nashville, level this thing, and be done with it already.

Why are the crowds always small. And most of them leave by the 7th inning ?

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??????????????????????????????

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.

It was also DOMED from the start

Trop > Metrodome because of all dirt between bases.

Please do video on rays new stadium?

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 won’t miss it, worst stadium I’ve set foot in

Kansas City built a nice arena without a major tenant.

The sf giants were going to move there

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

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.

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..

Mid 200’s😂

That's the ugliest design of any MLB stadium today. It's so bad and unappealing that it makes the Oakland Coliseum look modernized.

If the stadium is structurally sound and still serving its purpose, then why get rid of it?

The hockey layout was crap!

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

The Oakland coliseum is so much better than this

Billion+ stadiums tend to be paid for by exorbiant sales taxes so there's that.

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.

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.