Bay area fans are well aware of the low attendance at Tampa Bay Rays baseball games, but a seat configuration and new renovations at Tropicana Field could make the home crowd look and feel a lot more robust when the 2019 season begins.
A press release said that the team would add a premium seating section in the lower level of the Trop and also stop seating fans in the ballpark’s upper level. The move eliminates more than 10,000 seats and reduces Tropicana Field’s capacity to somewhere between 25,000-26,000. The previous capacity was 31,042.
“These renovations mark our continued commitment to providing a first-rate fan experience at Tropicana Field,” Rays President Matt Silverman said in the release. “Together, in concert with the reduction in seating capacity, these investments will help create a more intimate, entertaining and appealing experience for our fans.”
That’s a good move for a team that averaged just 14,258 fans per game last season (good enough for second to last in attendance across Major League Baseball, according to ESPN). The news comes just weeks after the Rays discontinued a search for a ballpark in Tampa and also in the wake of more than $50 million worth of renovations that Tropicana Field has undergone since 2005.
Look below for a list of new amenities and changes outlined in today’s release.
- More social gathering spaces with the creation of a new common area, the Left Field Ledge (formerly the tarped seats above the left field crosswalk) to include a full-service bar, ledge tables, and seated drink rails.
- Two redesigned and enhanced primary fan entrances (Gates 4 and 5) to improve the flow of fans through increased access points and wayfinding features.
- New Shaw Sports Turf product, designed to withstand the myriad events held at Tropicana Field throughout the calendar year.
- The addition of access from the Budweiser Porch and Ballpark & Rec areas to the Outfielder bar behind center field as well as the creation of an external entrance to the food and beverage space.
- A redoubling of the organization’s commitment to sustainable energy practices with the replacement of the existing field lights with energy-efficient LED lights, which should improve overall on-field playability and entertainment lighting throughout the ballpark.
- The elimination of the upper deck level which reconfigures the ballpark seating areas to include the first, mezzanine and second seating levels, as well as the new GTE Financial Party Deck, and concentrates fans closer to the field of play.
This article appears in Jan 3-10, 2019.
