Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Tropicana Field

Saturday, June 23, 2018

When we decided to head to Walt Disney World for our summer vacation in June 2018, I checked the map and realized that we were staying only 1 hour and 45 minutes away from Tropicana Field. And although I had not heard great things about it, I still had to see for myself.

Unfortunately, the often low-drawing Rays were playing the Yankees. And I say that because I knew ticket prices would be significantly higher than an average game. And I was right. The stadium was virtually sold out, even three weeks before the game. So I settled on some “Obstructed View” seats on the lower level. They were about the same price as the nosebleed.

So after a day at the Magic Kingdom, and the next morning at the Marriott pool, we packed up for the road trip to St. Petersburg, the actual location of the stadium. Joining me was Kim, Savannah, Owen, Eric and Cooper Kambestad and my Father-In-Law, Jeff, who offered to drive the mini-van. We got off to a slow start as thunderstorms were a-brewing, and there was some significant traffic due to numerous accidents leaving Orlando. After 45 minutes of driving, we had gone less than 15 miles. Ugh. Our hour-45 drive was quickly turning into much more.

Even after taking the “short-cut” toll road, we exited the highway around the second inning. Not too bad, or so I thought. Due to some bad city planning, and I imagine the unusual size of the crowd, we came to realize all of the parking lots were full. And not just the official lots. Like all of the surrounding lots. We proceeded to drive around for another 30 minutes or so until we found someone who opened a Wells Fargo bank lot and was questionably selling spaces. But we had no choice. It was over an hour past game time and we were nearly a mile from the stadium. We took the gamble that the guy was legit and paid him the $20.

After a long power walk to the park, we finally arrived. And keep in mind, this is Florida in the summer, so it was a long, hot & humid walk!

Upon first glance, the stadium did not impress from the exterior. It’s basically a big cement circle with a slanted white dome on top. This slanted roof is unusual, and was apparently built to save on air conditioning costs and to help protect it from inevitable hurricanes. Although it was built in 1998, it looks like it was built in 1970. And even though we we attending the 20th anniversary season of the park, it did not appear that much has been done to spruce it up since.

Walking up through the sold-out parking lot, through a tiled walkway and some palm trees, the view looked a bit better from this approach (see photo on right). Since we were in a hurry, I didn’t really appreciate the tiled walkway until after we had left the park. I later learned that it is actually composed of 1,849,091 one-inch-square tiles and is 900 feet long. Still, this wasn’t doing much to dissuade me from flashbacks of the tiles in the walkways from LAX in the 70’s.

But we were finally arriving, and so I was finally able to get a bit excited to head on in. For it must be better on the inside, right?

Well, not so much.

We later came to find out there was a Pride festival in downtown which made the parking situation even worse.

Driving to St. Petersburg

Walking to the stadium

View from Outside

The view from inside (after the game)

The Jersey

Admission Ticket