Nearly a decade
after its completion Tampa Bay finally was awarded a baseball team to
play at Tropicana Field in 1998. Wanting to attract a major league
baseball team to the area, construction began on a dome stadium in
the Tampa/St. Petersburg area on November 22, 1986. A dome stadium
was chosen because of the rain that the area receives throughout the
year. Originally named the Florida Suncoast Dome, the stadium opened
on March 3, 1990. Once the stadium opened officials
began trying to lure several teams (San Francisco, Chicago, and
Seattle) to the area. However this was unsuccessful. Although the stadium
did not have a baseball team it
was used for basketball, hockey and many other events. Finally in
1995 Major League Baseball awarded the area a franchise. The team
called the Tampa Bay Rays would begin playing at the dome in
1998. Although the stadium had originally been built for baseball,
the organization decided to renovate the stadium to make it more
like a ballpark. It was the last stadium built with a dome and
looks similar to a cookie cutter stadium. The stadium was closed for
17 months while it was renovated. In 1996 the stadium was
renamed Tropicana Field after Tropicana Juice purchased the naming
rights. Part of the $85 million renovations
included wider concourses, installation of Astroturf, clubhouses,
dugouts, additional luxury suites, restrooms, elevators, escalators
and administrative offices. The seating capacity was reduced from
48,000 to 45,000.
The Tampa Bay Rays played their first game on March
31, 1998 when fans filled Tropicana Field to see
professional baseball for the first time. Fans enter the main entrance
of Tropicana
Field through a giant rotunda reminiscent of Brooklyn's Ebbets
Field. Once inside the stadium, visitors find themselves in a place
called Centerfield Street. Here are a microbrewery, a cigar bar, a
wine cellar and various entertainment venues. Once fans enter the field area,
they view a sea of blue seats. The lower level of seats extend from
right center field to homeplate and around to left center field. The
upper level of seats extend down the base lines. An area of seats
above the lower level in left field is a place called the Beach.
This is a section with beach decor and tropical foliage. Tropicana
Field's outfield wall has many nooks and crannies that provides
interesting plays off the wall. Beyond the centerfield wall is the
Batter’s Eye Restaurant. The main scoreboard is located beyond the
right centerfield seats. After the 1999 season, the Astroturf was
removed and replaced by Field Turf, a plastic grass. Starting in
2008, Tropicana Field began hosting college football, the St.
Petersburg Bowl, that matches the Big East against C-USA.
