Tampa Bay’s World Series Moment

Afternoon Edition

October 26, 2026

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As Tropicana Field prepares to host Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night, Rays CEO Ken Babby tells Front Office Sports how “incredibly fortunate” the club is for getting the ballpark ready for a global showcase just two years after being ravaged by Hurricane Milton.

—Eric Fisher

First Up

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How Tropicana Field Went From Hurricane Ravaged to World Series Host

Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Imagn Images

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays’ Tropicana Field is one of MLB’s more reviled ballparks, and it’s a stadium that the club has spent decades trying to replace, and finally will in 2029.

But no North American pro stadium, outside of perhaps the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, has gone through a more remarkable journey than Tropicana Field.

Just two years after Hurricane Milton shredded the fiberglass fabric roof off Tropicana Field, caused sizable interior damage, and forced the Rays to the Yankees’ nearby spring training facility for a year, the ballpark is on baseball’s biggest stage. The Rays’ home ballpark will host Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night, giving a facility that began in 1990 as the Florida Suncoast Dome a global showcase.

Getting the Rays back into the publicly owned Tropicana Field required a frenetic, $60 million restoration effort. Then the club built upon that by overcoming widespread preseason expectations of another losing season to win its first American League pennant in a non-pandemic season since 2008.

“The building looks great, and it’s been unbelievable,” Rays CEO Ken Babby tells Front Office Sports. “When you look back, a year ago, we didn’t have a roof over our heads. We didn’t have a home. We were playing in a minor league/spring training facility that wasn’t ours. Getting the Trop reopened and being in a position where our fans can enjoy this is amazing. We’re incredibly fortunate.”

Long Journey

Beyond the obvious and daunting matter of repairing the extensive hurricane damage at Tropicana Field, there was also a debate about whether it even made sense to attempt a restoration.

At first, the Rays openly questioned the effort and whether the extent of the damage would allow the club to get back for the 2026 season. As the city of St. Petersburg owns Tropicana Field, the repairs also were temporarily intertwined with discussions with former Rays owner Stu Sternberg about a new ballpark there. Sternberg soon reversed course on pushing forward with the renovations, but he walked away early last year from the deal for the new stadium.

Soon thereafter, Sternberg sold the team to the group led by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski and Babby in a $1.7 billion deal, beginning a critical new chapter for the Rays.

With a restored relationship with local leaders, the Rays and the city of St. Petersburg have not only brought back Tropicana Field from near-death but also elevated it. The ballpark features updated suites, a new turf field, an upgraded video board, and an improved locker room. Even the club’s iconic ray tank is back behind the center-field wall.

That’s helped the Rays thrive on and off the field. The Rays tied the National League champion Brewers for MLB’s best home record during the regular season at 55–26. Tampa Bay also had the league’s largest attendance increase, taking advantage of this year’s return to a major league facility.

In the postseason, the Tropicana Field situation has gone to another level. The Rays have opened up Tropicana Field’s upper deck that is normally closed, pushing playoff crowds frequently beyond 40,000 and introducing a dramatically heightened level of playoff energy. With that, Tampa Bay has gone 4–1 at home during the playoffs.

That fan enthusiasm will be critical as the Rays attempt to come back from an 0–2 World Series deficit to the Brewers.

“There’s definitely little nuances at our ballpark that make the Trop unique,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “We love it there, we love our fan support, and our fan support has been second to none in this postseason run. It was loud [at Milwaukee’s American Family Field]. I think that we can get just as loud, if not louder, at our ballpark.”

The Forever Home

While Tropicana Field will get its star turn this week for the World Series, the Rays are also frenetically moving forward on their planned $2.36 billion ballpark in Tampa, what club officials have frequently termed its “forever home.”

The club received approvals in late August from the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County, and it is now going through a bond validation process to access the $876 million in public funds committed to the project. A groundbreaking is expected later this year, with the ballpark situated at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry Campus, and near Tampa International Airport and the NFL Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium.

“The team has been working around the clock, finalizing the designs, and we’re in a great place,” Babby said. “We so proud for our community, and proud for our team. Tampa Bay really deserves this. They’ve waited for 25 years to learn what the future of this team is going to be, and I’m just thrilled it’s finally happening.”

Inside the Technology Behind MLB™ Replay Reviews

What happens behind the scenes when an MLB™ team challenges a call?

Front Office Sports goes inside the Major League Baseball™ Replay Operations Center in Manhattan to see how officials review plays and how video coaches make decisions under pressure. Major League Baseball™ proprietary replay technology delivers the video evidence, while the Zoom communication platform helps connect team video coaches with league staff when technical issues arise.

The partnership also extends to the MLB^® Draft presented by Nippon Express and MLB.TV™ fan support, offering a closer look at the technology and operations behind the game.

Watch here.

ONE BIG FIG

SEC Continues to Pay Up

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

$1.5 million

That’s the total amount that three SEC schools have been fined for field storming so far this college football season. Kentucky, Tennessee, and, most recently, South Carolina have each been fined $500,000 this season for fans storming the field after big wins.

Since 2023, fines incurred during conference games have been paid to the opposing school; if an SEC team is fined while playing a non-conference opponent, fines are paid to the SEC’s post-graduate scholarship fund. The conference changed its rules ahead of the 2025 football season so that every violation would result in a $500,000 fine.

LOUD AND CLEAR

Brady in the Booth

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

“Not much at all.”

—Fox Sports color analyst Tom Brady on a roughing-the-passer penalty on Packers defensive end Brenton Cox Jr. in the third quarter against the Lions on Sunday. The call extended a possession for Detroit when it would have otherwise been forced to punt.

“He’s coming off the block. His face is buried. I don’t know about that. That’s a tough one,” said Brady, who didn’t hold back on referees while calling the game with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt.

Brady’s criticism was notable—not in the sense that he was wrong about the referees missing a number of significant calls, but because as a minority owner of the Raiders he is subject to a roving electrical fence about what is and isn’t allowed in his commentary for Fox Sports.

Where Conversations Get to Work

The best teams don’t just have more conversations. They turn those conversations into progress. But between back-to-back meetings, endless notes, and a growing list of follow-ups, it’s easy for great ideas to get lost in the shuffle.

Zoom is changing how work gets done with tools designed to help you move from conversation to finished work. That 4:59 Friday brainstorm? Monday’s slide deck is ready by 5:02 with ZoomMate. That 9 a.m. meeting you were barely awake for? A clear summary, complete with key decisions and suggested next steps, lands in your inbox with My Notes. And that “one more thing” at the end of the call? It’s already reflected in the project plan.

It’s a smarter way to work—designed to help you move from talking about what needs to happen to actually getting it done.

STATUS REPORT

Two Down, Two Push

Bob Frid-Imagn Images

Quinn Hughes ⬆⬇ The former Canucks captain returned to Vancouver after being traded to the Wild last season with a year remaining on his contract, when he made it clear he would not re-sign with the bottom-dwelling team. On Sunday, Canucks fans met him with boos and chants including “Quitter!” The star defenseman wasn’t bothered—Hughes notched his 500th NHL point with a goal in a 4–2 Wild win. He still has not re-signed with Minnesota, either, holding the cards as he becomes a potential unrestricted free agent this summer.

Kings attendance ⬇ Sacramento announced an attendance of 13,076 for its Sunday home game against the Grizzlies, marking the team’s lowest attendance in five seasons, according to TicketData. The Kings lost 123–112 to Memphis and have now made an 0–3 start after last year’s 60-loss season. The Golden 1 Center in Sacramento has an arena capacity of 17,608, but tickets were widely available on resale markets leading up to tip-off, leading to a final get-in price of just $20.

Rwanda ⬇ Senators Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.) and Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) sent a letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver asking him to defend the league’s marketing ties to Rwanda amid the country’s “worsening human rights record and destabilizing role in the region, including its support for armed groups in [the Democratic Republic of Congo].” The Rwanda tourism board has multiple jersey patch sponsorships with sports teams, including the Clippers, as well as other marketing deals. When the senators pressed the NBA on the issue two years ago, the league said its commercial ties to the East African country were appropriate given U.S. policy. But with the U.S. leveling sanctions on the Rwandan military this year, the senators said the league “risks becoming complicit in sportswashing.”

Ballon d’Or ⬆⬇ The website for the annual soccer award sparked confusion when, about 90 minutes before announcing this year’s best men’s soccer player, it published that Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane had won. And also Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé. And Barcelona phenom Lamine Yamal, too. All three men were finalists for the 70th iteration of the award, alongside eight-time winner Lionel Messi, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, and five others. The links were quickly taken down.