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181-530: Tropicana Field (nicknamed "The Trop" ) is a multi-purpose domed stadium located in St. Petersburg, Florida , United States. "The Trop" has been the home of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball since the team's inaugural season in 1998 . The stadium is also used for college football , and from December 2008 to December 2017 was the home of the St. Petersburg Bowl , an annual postseason bowl game . The venue

362-480: A 2–1 victory. The underdog Marlins went on to face the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series , and won in seven games. In Game 7, Craig Counsell 's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth tied the game at 2, then, with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 11th, Édgar Rentería's soft liner glanced off the glove of Cleveland pitcher Charles Nagy and into center field to score Counsell and give

543-596: A World Series title. In 2012, the team moved from the football-oriented Sun Life Stadium (located in Miami Gardens ) to Marlins Park in downtown Miami . As a condition of the move, the team was renamed the Miami Marlins , and adopted a new logo and colors. On November 16, 2017, Giancarlo Stanton won the National League MVP , becoming the first Marlin to win the award. During the 2020 shortened season ,

724-475: A clockwise fashion. Gate 1 is the main entrance, known as the Rotunda, on the right-field side of the stadium. Gate 4 is a VIP-only entrance, while Gate 7 is for stadium and team personnel only. Seating at Tropicana Field is arranged with odd sections on the third base side and even sections on the first base side. The hallway behind sections 133–149 is nicknamed "Left Field Street." The hallway behind sections 136–150

905-691: A college baseball stadium, now sitting on its former site. Most other inflatable domes, such as the Hoosier Dome and Pontiac Silverdome , were football-only stadiums, although both stadiums hosted basketball; the later-RCA Dome hosted the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament many times and hosted the Final Four multiple times while the Silverdome was the home arena for the Detroit Pistons for most of

1086-591: A few years). Wrigley Field , while originally built for baseball, also hosted the Chicago Bears , Comiskey Park hosted the Chicago Cardinals , and Tiger Stadium hosted the Detroit Lions . Later venues such as Cleveland Stadium , Milwaukee County Stadium and Baltimore Memorial Stadium were all built to accommodate both baseball and football. In 1920s New England, outdoor wood-track velodromes such as

1267-811: A first at Tropicana Field. Because of rioting in Baltimore , a series between the Rays and Baltimore Orioles in May 2015 was moved from Oriole Park at Camden Yards to Tropicana Field. The games were played with the Orioles serving as the home team and the Rays serving as the visiting team. Due to severe flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area, the Houston Astros played one "home" series at Tropicana Field in August 2017 against

1448-728: A future MLB team by adding a third deck to the Mezzanine roof. It ultimately served as a temporary home to the Toronto Blue Jays of MLB in 2020 and 2021, when they were displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic after the government of Canada denied them permission to play at Rogers Centre . During the 1990s and 2000s, most of the multipurpose stadiums used for MLB in the United States were replaced by "retro-style" ballparks. These parks were built in two varieties: "retro-classic" parks, which combine

1629-537: A ground-rule double due to fan interference, was overturned and made a home run on September 19. The umpires determined that the fan in question, originally believed to have reached over the right field wall, did not reach over the wall. In October 2008 , Tropicana Field hosted its first ever baseball postseason games as the Rays met the Chicago White Sox in the American League Division Series ,

1810-696: A member club of the National League (NL) East Division . The team plays its home games at LoanDepot Park . The franchise began play as an expansion team in the 1993 season as the Florida Marlins . The Marlins originally played home games at Joe Robbie Stadium , which they shared with the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). In 2012, the team moved to LoanDepot Park (then known as Marlins Park), their first exclusive home and

1991-513: A member of the Rays from 2006 to 2008. About one month after Jackson's no-hitter on July 26, 2010, Tropicana Field was the site of the first no-hitter in Rays' history when pitcher Matt Garza achieved the feat. Garza faced the minimum 27 batters, as the only opponent to reach base (on a walk) was erased by a double play hit by the following batter. On June 24, 2013, in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays , three Rays players – James Loney , Wil Myers , and Sam Fuld – hit consecutive home runs,

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2172-417: A movable natural grass surface for soccer, and the other a synthetic turf surface for gridiron. To accommodate the different sight lines preferred for each sport, the soccer surface is positioned several feet above the gridiron, so that the seats are closer to the field in its soccer configuration and elevated above the sidelines and coaches in its gridiron configuration. The idea of a sharp difference between

2353-585: A multi-purpose stadium is that a singular infrastructure and piece of real estate can support both teams in terms of transportation and playing area, while money (often public funds) that would have been spent to support infrastructure for two stadiums can be spent elsewhere. Also playing into the advent of the multipurpose stadium was Americans' growing use of automobiles, which required professional sports stadiums surrounded by parking: most cities lacked affordable space for such stadiums near their city centers, so multi-purpose stadiums were typically built farther from

2534-465: A multipurpose stadium and a single-sport stadium is less important outside of North America, since in most countries stadiums that are constructed with football in mind are easily able to accommodate rugby , track and field, and other popular sports, which tend to have a similarly sized playing field. For example, any large stadium in most of Latin America, part of Asia, most of Africa, or continental Europe

2715-447: A potential MLB expansion franchise, opened. Pilot Field replaced the long-obsolete War Memorial Stadium , which had been designed mainly for football, and hosted the NFL's Buffalo Bills ; but it had been (awkwardly) fit for baseball after the city's baseball park, Offermann Stadium , was condemned and torn down in 1960 to build a high school in its place . Pilot Field was also designed to host

2896-622: A premium buffet with in-seat service. The second club section, the Rays Club, is along the first-base side on the 100-level at the Loge Box level. It features its own premium buffet and premium seating. MacDillville is a section located on the right field line, behind the Rays' bullpen. The section is reserved for the 24 tickets that the Rays provide to personnel returning from deployment, families of deployed personnel and staff assigned to MacDill Air Force Base. Field-level party sections were installed in

3077-530: A press box in the upper tier on the third-base line oriented specifically for football, along with space beyond right field for a movable grandstand to accommodate an additional 13,000 fans for a future pro football franchise. This additional grandstand was indeed added to Anaheim Stadium in 1980 to accommodate the Los Angeles Rams' move from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Anaheim Stadium

3258-759: A proposal was unveiled to replace the facility with Ybor Stadium . However, later that year at the MLB Winter Owners Meeting, it was announced by Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg that the Ybor stadium plan would not go forward. The current stadium lease between the Rays and the City of St. Petersburg runs through 2027. The city granted the Rays until December 31, 2018, to continue negotiations with Hillsborough County officials. Although MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has stated his support for "the ballpark effort and [his] desire to be [help] in assisting all parties in finding

3439-416: A rectangular playing field, but cricket and Australian-rules fields are rounded, while baseball is played on a diamond. This makes them much harder to accommodate within a rectangular-shaped stadium. Likewise, accommodating athletics, such as for a Summer Olympics, means constructing a curved 400-m track around the infield. This often means the sports simply find it easier to be played in separate stadiums. In

3620-622: A row into the stands along the third baseline. Cubs fan Steve Bartman reached for the ball, preventing Cubs left fielder Moisés Alou from making the out and setting off an eight-run Marlins rally. The incident with Bartman and a come-from-behind win in Wrigley Field in Game 7 helped the Marlins capture their second NL pennant, keeping the " Curse of the Billy Goat " alive and well. In the 2003 World Series ,

3801-449: A special edition brew just for the Rays called 2-Seam Blonde Ale. In addition to these concessions, Tropicana Field previously hosted a concession stand for Outback Steakhouse . Outback is a Tampa Bay-based establishment. To compete with established stadiums' hot dog traditions, the Trop introduced the "Sting 'Em" Dog in 2007. This consists of a regular hot dog topped with chili and cheese. It

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3982-473: A temporary wall. The Oakland Coliseum uses a configuration such that its football sideline runs along a line drawn from first base to third base (the former Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium also used this configuration). This was done presumably to make the same coveted seats behind home plate at a baseball game also coveted 50-yard line seats at a football game, and also so the stadium would need only one press box . Different stadiums have different angles between

4163-783: A venue for Major League Baseball or the Summer Olympics and felt no need to replace their smaller, open-air stadiums used mostly for Canadian football. For example, Calgary 's open-air McMahon Stadium dates from 1960 and has been used only for Canadian football,and later was chosen to host the 1988 Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, and an outdoor ice hockey event (the 2011 Heritage Classic ). Similar situations hold in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Regina. No large stadiums of any kind are in cities such as Quebec City, London, or Saskatoon, or in Atlantic Canada ; in those places (with

4344-611: A very spirited campaign bolstered by its family-oriented tourism industry. Tampa Bay already had a baseball park—the Florida Suncoast Dome in St. Petersburg , completed in 1990. However, on June 10, 1991 , the National League awarded a Miami-based franchise to Huizenga. The franchise adopted the nickname "Marlins" from previous minor league teams, the Miami Marlins of the Triple-A 's International League from 1956 to 1960, and

4525-537: A way that it could be converted to a new baseball stadium, and ACOG paid for the conversion. Despite being considered controversial at the time, the International Olympic Committee considered the action innovative, due to the fact that there were no local needs for another stadium with a capacity for more than 70.000, given the existence of the Georgia Dome which was completed in 1992. Furthermore,

4706-463: A way to keep the Rays in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area", he also went on to say that the Rays should "explore a path that is in the best interests of his Club and Major League Baseball". In addition, the relocation announcement sparked a flurry of redevelopment proposals submitted to the City of St. Petersburg. There are proposals to eliminate the structure completely, but efforts have been made to include

4887-419: Is at street level, with elevators, escalators and stairs separating the outfield and infield sections, since the ground is at different grades on either side. The 200-level loge box concourse is further separated, and is carpeted, as it includes the entrances to most of the luxury suites. The 300-level concourse is the highest of the concourses. There are seven gate entrances/exits to Tropicana Field, numbered in

5068-538: Is capable of hosting baseball but has been primarily a football venue. Rogers Centre was built to accommodate baseball (MLB's Toronto Blue Jays play there), but was a football venue until the CFL's Toronto Argonauts moved to BMO Field after the 2015 CFL season . Montreal's Olympic Stadium was built primarily for a multisport event (the 1976 Summer Olympics ), during which it hosted the athletics , equestrian , football . Latterly, it hosted professional team sports: it became

5249-565: Is featured in The Porch, and co-owned by Evan Longoria ; the Ducky's branding was removed following the trade of Longoria to the San Francisco Giants before the 2018 season, and 162 Landing has been sponsored by Hard Rock Café since the 2018 season. The right field party section is the " Papa John's Bullpen Box" and is available for groups of 50–85. When the right field corner was sponsored by

5430-598: Is harder than the grass and is also a significant injury risk. Baseball purists disliked artificial turf, though the Cincinnati Reds took advantage of this on Riverfront Stadium 's artificial turf: on offense by recruiting players who combined power and speed and encouraging line drive hitting that could produce doubles, triples, and high-bouncing infield hits; while for defense the fast surface and virtually dirtless infield rewarded range and quickness by both outfielders and infielders, like shortstop Dave Concepción , who used

5611-574: Is likely to be used mostly for association football. The majority of the largest stadiums in the world were built for either association football or American football. The regions where other outdoor sports can draw numbers comparable to association football or American football are limited. They include baseball in Japan and the Spanish Caribbean ; cricket in United Kingdom,South Africa, Australia,

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5792-447: Is located between Gates 3 and 4 on the 100 level, section 102 (behind home plate). St. Anthony's Health Medical Team staffs the clinic and offers first aid services to fans. A Baby Care Suite is located on the 300 level near section 300. It features baby changing stations and private nursing suites. One of the team's two main apparel stores is located in the stadium, near gate 1. The other main store, The Tampa Pro Shop & Ticket Outlet,

5973-606: Is located in Tampa. Many specialty, smaller, stores are located throughout the stadium, including a "Game-Used Merchandise" store located in Center Field Street. Just over the right-center field fence is the Rays Touch Tank. This 35-foot (11 m), 10,000 US gallons (38,000 L; 8,300 imp gal) tank is filled with three different species of rays, including cownose rays that were taken from Tampa Bay waters. The tank

6154-407: Is nicknamed "Right Field Street." The 100-level seating wraps around the entire field with a 360° walkway. Behind the stadium's batter's eye is a center field common area, known as The Porch, which provides fans with open seating and standing room to watch games. The Porch, along with other facility improvements, was part of a multimillion-dollar renovation project that was completed before the start of

6335-431: Is one of the 10 biggest in the nation. Admission to the tank area is free for all fans attending home games, but there is a limit of 40 people in the area at any given time. The tank is open to fans about twenty minutes after the gates open and closes to the public two hours after the first pitch. Fans get to see the rays up close and get to learn educational info about them. The tank and rays are sponsored and maintained by

6516-555: Is the latest proposal to replace Tropicana Field starting in the 2028 MLB season. This proposal has been approved by both the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County commissioners, although construction has not started yet. The Rays and Hines plan to begin building the stadium in early 2025, having it ready for Opening Day in 2028. On October 9, 2024, while Hurricane Milton impacted the Tampa Bay region, strong winds tore through Tropicana Field's fiberglass roof. Video showed pieces of

6697-703: Is the only major outdoor team sport in many countries; in many other countries, association football and rugby can easily coexist with limited venue conversion required beyond goalpost changes and line markings. In Australia, many sports grounds are suited to both Australian rules football and cricket , as Australian Rules fields and laws are laid out on cricket ovals. In some cases, such as at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Docklands Stadium in Melbourne, and National Stadium, in Singapore , stadiums are designed to be converted between

6878-526: Is the only non-retractable domed stadium in Major League Baseball. Tropicana Field is the smallest MLB stadium by seating capacity when obstructed-view rows in the uppermost sections are covered with tarps as they are for most Rays games. Tropicana Field opened in 1990 and was originally known as the Florida Suncoast Dome . In 1993, the Tampa Bay Lightning moved to the facility and its name

7059-587: The 1983 Summer Universiade . In Canada, several large multisport stadiums were built during this style's heyday. However, unlike in the United States, an NFL team has never been based primarily in Canada (though the Buffalo Bills played some home games in Toronto between 2008 and 2013) and only two MLB teams have been based there. So, teams from these leagues have not been the major impetus behind stadium construction (with

7240-552: The 2006 FIFA World Cup . A different take on the multipurpose concept can be seen in the Saitama Super Arena in Japan and Paris La Défense Arena in the inner suburbs of Paris. Both venues are similar to JMA Wireless Dome in that they are fully enclosed stadiums (though with fixed roofs instead of the Dome's original air-supported roof) that can accommodate field and indoor court sports. However, they differ from JMA Wireless Dome in

7421-498: The 2007 season . It has always featured a traditional "full dirt" infield, instead of the "sliding pits" design that was common during the 1970s and 1980s, making it the first artificial turf field with a full dirt infield since Busch Stadium II in 1976. Since Tropicana Field does not need to convert between baseball and football, sliding pits, designed to save re-configuration time, were unnecessary. Tropicana has hosted football games, but never during baseball season. On August 6, 2007,

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7602-468: The 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field , a nearby stadium that serves as the spring training home of the New York Yankees. On November 21, 2024, St. Petersburg initially voted 4–3 to spend $ 23 million to fix the roof of Tropicana Field, but later reversed course. Unless the Rays return to the stadium after 2025, the last home game for the Rays at Tropicana Field was on September 22, 2024, where

7783-770: The Anglophone Caribbean , and the Indian subcontinent ; rugby (union or league) in Wales, England, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji, the country of Georgia, and parts of Australia and France; Australian rules football in Australia; bandy in Russia and Scandinavia; and Gaelic games in Ireland. However, even in these areas, the amount of compromise needed to accommodate multiple sports varies considerably. Most outdoor team sports require

7964-658: The Arup Group cited history to show that a rarely-used athletics track does not work for association football, as these multi-purpose stadiums substantially lengthen the viewing distance for spectators, as compared to football-specific stadiums. Notable unsuccessful past examples, of football matches played within athletics stadiums, include the former Stadio delle Alpi and the Munich Olympic Stadium , with both Juventus and Bayern Munich moving to new stadiums less than 40 years after inheriting them. The delle Alpi's design

8145-546: The Atlanta Braves had already been exploring opportunities for a new venue to replace the outdated Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium . The southwest corner of the Olympic Stadium was built to accommodate the future baseball infield and seating. This is observable in aerial views and plans of the stadium in its Olympic configuration, where the temporary seats are not placed next to the oval running track. The southwest part of

8326-792: The Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series , and the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series . It hosted the on-field trophy presentations for the Rays when they became the American League Champions on October 19, following Game 7 of the ALCS. Chase Utley hit the first ever World Series home run at Tropicana Field during the first inning of Game 1 of the 2008 World Series. The Rays ended up losing

8507-512: The Colorado Rockies ) to have never won a division title, as well as the only franchise to have never appeared in back-to-back postseasons. The Marlins were also the first team to win the World Series as a wild card. The Marlins have no retired numbers, with the exception of Jackie Robinson 's universally retired #42 in 1997. Wayne Huizenga , CEO of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation ,

8688-512: The Coppa Italia home match against Sampdoria in the 2001–02 season, while in the 2005–06 season, the average attendance was 35,880. Manchester City Council wished to avoid creating a white elephant , so to give the stadium long-term financial viability, extensive work was carried out to convert the City of Manchester Stadium from a track and field arena to a football stadium. The old Estádio da Luz

8869-641: The DC United soccer club moved out, and its demolition began in 2022. Thus, only the Oakland Coliseum remains in use, while the Athletics are now the sole tenants of the Oakland Coliseum after the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas in 2020 . However, in 2023, the A's announced their own intentions of moving to Las Vegas . The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was unusual as one of the few air-supported dome stadiums that

9050-455: The East Hartford Velodrome and Providence's Cycledrome could, with some compromises, fit an American football field in their infields: early NFL franchises in each city (the Hartford Blues and Providence Steam Roller , respectively) used the velodromes as their home stadiums. In the 1960s, multipurpose stadiums began replacing their baseball-only and football-only predecessors, now known as "classics" or "jewel box" parks. The advantage of

9231-422: The Florida Aquarium , and educates people about rays and other aquatic life. For every ball hit into the tank during a game by a Rays player, the Rays would donate $ 5,000 to charity with $ 2,500 going to the Florida Aquarium and $ 2,500 going to that player's charity of choice. As of the 2021 season, the netting over the tank was extended to fully enclose the area, removing the possibility of a home run ball entering

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9412-404: The Florida Marlins , Blockbuster Video Chairman H. Wayne Huizenga . A local boycott of Blockbuster Video stores occurred for several years thereafter. The Suncoast Dome finally got a regular tenant in 1991, when the Arena Football League 's Tampa Bay Storm made their debut. Two years later, the National Hockey League 's Tampa Bay Lightning made the stadium their home for three seasons. In

9593-421: The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), and the rules of each game are mapped onto the same dimensions—although some pitches in areas where hurling is the dominant code have longer pitches slightly more suited to faster, longer passes in the hurling game. When the Aviva was being rebuilt, Croke Park stepped in as home for the national teams in both soccer and rugby union, a decision of significant political weight in

9774-423: The Houston Astros 12–8 in their inaugural spring training game. Jeff Conine hit Florida's first homer before a crowd of 6,696 at the Cocoa Expo Sports Complex. The Marlins won their first game on April 5, 1993 , against the Dodgers . Charlie Hough was the starting pitcher for that game. Jeff Conine went 4-for-4 as well, making him an immediate crowd favorite. By the end of his tenure with Florida, he had earned

9955-424: The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome following the 2009 season and moved into Target Field in 2010, Tropicana Field became the only active Major League Baseball stadium with a fixed (i.e., not retractable) roof. The catwalks attached to the non-retractable roof have been rare but occasional obstructions in the way of batted balls. The main rotunda, on the east end of the stadium, resembles the Ebbets Field rotunda on

10136-500: The Kingdome in 1976. Eight of these eleven stadiums have been since demolished, with Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium demolished in 1997, the Kingdome in 2000, Three Rivers Stadium in 2001, Riverfront Stadium in 2002, Veterans Stadium in 2004, Busch Memorial Stadium in 2005, Shea Stadium in 2009, and San Diego Stadium in 2021. Furthermore, the Astrodome has been vacant since 2008 due to its failure to meet current fire and building code requirements. RFK Stadium has been vacant since 2017 when

10317-447: The Miami Marlins (1962–70) and Miami Marlins (1982–88) teams that played in the Florida State League . The Marlins' first manager was Rene Lachemann , a former catcher who had previously managed the Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers , and who at the time of his hiring was a third base coach for the Oakland Athletics . The team drafted its initial lineup of players in the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft . The Marlins defeated

10498-424: The San Diego Padres for third baseman Gary Sheffield . While Sheffield helped Florida immediately and became an all-star, Hoffman eventually emerged as the best closer in the National League . After the 1993 season , Donald A. Smiley was named the second president in club history. The Marlins finished last (51–64) in their division in the strike -shortened season of 1994 and fourth (67–76) in 1995 . Lachemann

10679-416: The Seattle Mariners moving in the early part of the 1990s, and the San Francisco Giants came close to moving to the area, with Tampa Bay investors announcing their purchase of the team and its relocation in a press conference in 1992. However, the sale and move were blocked by National League owners, who voted against the deal in November 1992 under pressure from San Francisco officials and the then-owner of

10860-429: The Texas Rangers while the Rays were away on a previously scheduled road trip. This was only the fourth time games were moved to a neutral location due to weather. Coincidentally, in advance of Hurricane Irma arriving in the Tampa Bay area two weeks later, the Rays' home series against the New York Yankees was moved to Citi Field , the home stadium of the Yankees' crosstown rivals, the New York Mets . In July 2018,

11041-400: The World Series during their first two playoff runs in 1997 and 2003 . Only three players were on both World Series teams with the Marlins: Jeff Conine , Luis Castillo , and Rick Helling (both Conine and Castillo are the only Marlins to play a thousand games with the team). All four of their playoff appearances came as wild card teams, making them one of two MLB franchises (along with

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11222-413: The soccer-specific stadium movement. As of 2020 , 18 of Major League Soccer 's 26 clubs play in their own, soccer-specific stadiums, and two of the exceptions ( FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC ) are currently building their own soccer-specific stadiums. In addition, three of the four teams that will join MLS in 2021 and 2022 plan to open soccer-specific stadiums in time for their MLS debuts. Scheduling

11403-451: The 1980s. The Carrier Dome was another such air-supported, multipurpose stadium; it was built to accommodate outdoor sports such as football and indoor sports such as basketball. The Carrier Dome, since renamed JMA Wireless Dome, remains in use, although its air-supported roof was replaced by a fixed roof in 2020. Air-supported domes fell out of favor in the 21st century after notable weather-related collapses in Minnesota and Pontiac exposed

11584-444: The 1990s, in light of the growing trend of "walkable urbanism", as teams sought to return to the city core where they could develop or take advantage of existing hospitality in order to grow their fanbase. Many teams also relocated to where they could control mixed-use development around their new stadium. Contrary to the above trend of teams moving away from suburbs, the Atlanta Braves left Turner Field for SunTrust Park . Often

11765-584: The 1990s, with the SkyDome (in Canada) that opened in 1989 being the last such stadium completed to accommodate baseball and football. With the completion of the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City in 1973, a model for purpose-built stadiums was laid down. Since the Baltimore Orioles left the multi-purpose Memorial Stadium for the baseball-only Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992, most major league sports stadiums have been built specifically for one sport. However, some newer NFL stadiums (e.g. Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte) have been built with consideration for

11946-489: The 2014 season. Loge boxes are featured along the infield of the 100-level from foul pole to foul pole. 200-level seating features 20 sections along the foul lines, broken by the press box behind home plate, with the luxury boxes directly behind and above them. 300-level seating wraps around the infield along the lines, and also features the "Party Deck", a small-capacity seating area above the left field outfield seats with separate concessions inside; initially sponsored by tbt* ,

12127-405: The AstroTurf warning track was replaced by brown-colored stone filled FieldTurf Duo. Tropicana Field underwent a further $ 25 million facelift prior to the 2006 season . Another $ 10 million in improvements were added during the season. In 2006, the Devil Rays added a live Cownose ray tank to Tropicana Field. The tank is located just behind the center field wall, in clear view of the play on

12308-502: The Aviva and for the ultimately unsuccessful 2023 Rugby World Cup bid. Croke Park has also occasionally hosted visiting American football college matches, especially those featuring the Army and Navy , or Notre Dame , with which Ireland has a long-standing connection. Several stadiums hosted multiple sports teams before the advent of multi-purpose stadiums. In New York City, the Polo Grounds hosted football teams early on, as its rectangular nature lent itself well to football and

12489-477: The CFL. It has also hosted many association football events, as well as the 2003 Heritage Classic , the first major outdoor ice hockey event in Canada. Tim Hortons Field , which opened in 2014, was built both as a venue for the 2015 Pan American Games and as the new home of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team; its predecessor, Ivor Wynne Stadium , was originally built for the first Commonwealth Games . Other Canadian cities never expressed interest in building

12670-447: The Chicago Cubs, the same day the San Francisco 49ers were scheduled to host their division rival New Orleans Saints . The October 8 game was moved to New Orleans and the November 6 game was moved to San Francisco. In Australia, most major stadiums that can hold over 50,000, such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Adelaide Oval , are circular or oval-shaped venues which – while suitable for cricket and Australian rules football – pose

12851-728: The Gaelic games community, most notably manifested in GAA Rule 42 , means that football and rugby clubs have generally had to play on separate grounds. True multisport facilities, where teams from a variety of sports use the same stadium as their home ground, exist outside North America in a few cases, most of those as smaller stadiums. A handful are notable for having 60,000 seats or more. The Melbourne Cricket Ground hosts athletics,cricket, Australian rules football, and association football. Accor Stadium hosts cricket and Australian rules football, as well as both rugby codes and association football. Wembley Stadium in London, Stade de France near Paris, and Millennium Stadium in Cardiff are not

13032-540: The Lightning and Storm into what is now Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa upon its completion permitted "The Trop" to be vacated for conversion to baseball. A US$ 70 million renovation then took place—to upgrade a stadium that had cost $ 130 million to complete only eight years earlier. Ebbets Field was the model for the renovations, which included a replica of the famous rotunda that greeted Dodger fans for many years. The first regular season baseball game took place at

13213-562: The Marlin's playoff success. Jeff Conine – an original Marlin and member of the 1997 World Series team – returned from Baltimore , Hall of Fame catcher Iván Rodríguez signed with the Marlins as a free agent and closer Ugueth Urbina arrived from the Texas Rangers . These acquisitions helped to keep the team in contention, and although they finished ten games behind the Braves, the Marlins captured

13394-553: The Marlins changed its road uniform design, replacing "Florida" with "Marlins". The sleeve logo patches were also removed. Rebranding as the Miami Marlins, the team introduced a new color scheme with orange, black and blue. The "M" insignia is white with orange, yellow and sky blue accents, along with a stylized abstract marlin on top. This logo served as a cap logo as well as a patch on the left sleeve. The primary home, road and black alternate uniforms all feature "Miami" in front, with

13575-531: The Marlins defeated the heavily favored New York Yankees in six games, winning the sixth game in Yankee Stadium . Shortstop Álex González helped the Marlins in Game 4 of the series with a walk-off home run in extra innings. Josh Beckett was named the Most Valuable Player for the series after twirling a five-hit complete-game shutout in Game 6. Skipper Jack McKeon became the oldest manager ever to win

13756-722: The Marlins finished with a 31–29 overall record and 2nd place in the NL East. In the Wild Card Series they swept the Chicago Cubs in 2 games. Miami loss in three games to the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS . On November 13, 2020, the Marlins became the first club in any American major-level sports league to hire a woman to an executive position when Kim Ng was announced as the team's general manager. In addition, she will also be MLB's first Asian American general manager. On February 28, 2022, it

13937-533: The Marlins had retired the number 5 in honor of Carl Barger , the first president of the Florida Marlins, who had died prior to the team's inaugural season. Barger's favorite player was Joe DiMaggio , thus the selection of number 5. With the move to LoanDepot Park , the team opted to honor Barger with a plaque instead, and opened number 5 to circulation. Logan Morrison , a Kansas City native and fan of Royals Hall-of-Famer George Brett (who wore that number with

14118-645: The Marlins the win. On May 9, the Marlins called up high-kicking southpaw Dontrelle Willis from the Double-A Carolina Mudcats and helped carry the injury-plagued Marlins with an 11–2 record in his first 17 starts. Miguel Cabrera (also from the Mudcats) filled in well, hitting a walk-off home run in his first major league game, against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Pro Player Stadium . Both Willis and Cabrera would later prove to be essential parts of

14299-408: The Marlins updated their black alternate uniform, changing the letters to white in order to improve visibility. They also introduced a new Miami blue alternate uniform, featuring the black "Marlins" lettering with white trim and red drop shadows. This was originally their Spring Training uniform, albeit with the "M" logo on the left chest. The Rays also have a geographical, interleague rivalry with

14480-409: The Miami Marlins. Tampa Bay currently leads the series, 81–60. The Marlins won the World Series in 1997 and 2003 , but both titles were followed by controversial periods where the team sold off all the high-priced players and rebuilt. Between 2003 and 2019, the team's two World Series runs also marked their sole postseason appearances. Their three playoff qualifications and seven winning seasons are

14661-550: The NL wild card. On October 15, the Marlins defeated the Chicago Cubs four games to three in the 2003 National League Championship Series , coming back from a 3–1 deficit. Game 6 saw the Marlins play a role in one of baseball's most infamous moments, the Steve Bartman incident . With one out in the eighth inning and the Cubs three runs ahead, Marlins second baseman Luis Castillo hit a pop foul

14842-893: The Oakland Athletics were the last team in the U.S. still sharing a stadium with an NFL team (the Oakland Raiders ), the Oakland Coliseum (now RingCentral Coliseum). This arrangement ended once the Raiders settled into the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2020, leaving no stadiums shared between NFL and MLB franchises. The Athletics officially announced they would begin their relocation process to Las Vegas by 2024. Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami . The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as

15023-528: The Party Deck has been sponsored by GTE Financial since the 2019 season. Rows are lettered starting closest to home plate and rise further away. Seats are numbered starting at the left side of the section. There are a total of 70 luxury suites with 48 accessible from the 200-level, while the other 15 are located on the 100-level. There are a total of 2,776 club seats at Tropicana Field. The Dex Imaging Home Plate Club features its own entrance, recliner seats, and

15204-541: The Rays announced that the upper deck tarps would be removed for the remainder of the postseason, starting with a Game 6 of the 2008 American League Championship Series . This increased the capacity of the stadium to nearly 41,000, depending on standing-room-only tickets sold. The first no-hitter pitched at Tropicana Field took place on June 25, 2010, thrown by Edwin Jackson of the Arizona Diamondbacks , who had been

15385-479: The Rays defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 4–3. The most recognizable exterior feature of Tropicana Field is the slanted roof. It was designed at an angle to reduce the interior volume in order to reduce cooling costs, and to better protect the stadium from hurricanes . The dome is supported by a tensegrity structure and is lit up with orange lights after the Rays win a home game. When the Minnesota Twins vacated

15566-512: The Royals), became the first Marlins player to wear the number. As of 2023, the Marlins are the only franchise with no retired numbers for former players, and while seven former players are in the Hall of Fame, none wear a Marlins cap on their plaque or have the Marlins listed as their primary team. After José Fernández 's death as a result of a boating accident on September 25, 2016, the Miami Marlins built

15747-544: The United States. Though hailed as revolutionary at the time, the Truman Sports Complex model of stadium design was widely ignored for the next 20 years, though the influence of both Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums were easily seen in venues such as Giants Stadium. The true end of the multipurpose era began in 1987, when Buffalo 's Pilot Field , a stadium built for the Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball team and

15928-666: The action if needed. Lang Park in Brisbane is currently (as of 2020) the only purpose-built rectangle stadium in Australia (with fixed seating) with a capacity exceeding 50,000. The first real departure from the multipurpose stadium design occurred in 1972, when the Jackson County Sports Authority in Kansas City, Missouri , opened the Truman Sports Complex , which houses Kauffman Stadium (named Royals Stadium at

16109-505: The area, due to its hot, humid summers and frequent thunderstorms. Construction began in 1986 in the hope that it would lure a Major League Baseball team to the facility. The stadium was finished in 1990. It hosted the 1990 Davis Cup Finals that autumn, as well as several rock concerts, but still had no tenants. The venue helped make St. Petersburg a finalist in the MLB expansion for 1993, but it lost out to Miami and Denver . There were rumors of

16290-402: The balls landed in the right field seats. Although Tropicana was purchased by PepsiCo in 1998, the company refrained from making any changes to the park’s naming rights, as the brand is popular among the local fanbase. The park was initially built with an AstroTurf surface, but it was replaced in 2000 by softer FieldTurf . A new version of FieldTurf, FieldTurf Duo, was installed prior to

16471-449: The baseball dimensions roughly symmetrical. Qualcomm Stadium's square-circle " octorad " layout was considered an improvement over the other cookie cutter stadiums of the time, and it was the last of the old multi-purpose stadiums to host a Super Bowl ( Super Bowl XXXVII ). More-modern multi-purpose stadiums have used more elaborate methods to accommodate multiple sports; Tottenham Hotspur Stadium , for example, uses two sets of turfs, one

16652-673: The best double play combos in the NL. The Marlins swept the San Francisco Giants 3–0 in the National League Division Series , and then went on to beat the Atlanta Braves 4–2 in the National League Championship Series , overcoming the loss of Alex Fernandez to a torn rotator cuff, and Kevin Brown to a virus. Brown's place was taken in Game 5 by rookie pitcher Liván Hernández , who struck out 15 Braves and outdueled multiple Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux to

16833-548: The best solution at the time. The first of these "cookie-cutter" or "concrete donut" stadiums was Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1961 (then known as District of Columbia Stadium); it was followed during the 1960s and 1970s by Shea Stadium in 1964, Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium and the Astrodome in 1965, Busch Memorial Stadium and Oakland Coliseum in 1966, San Diego Stadium in 1967, Riverfront Stadium and Three Rivers Stadium in 1970, Veterans Stadium in 1971, and

17014-466: The black alternate uniform contain "Marlins" and letters in black with red drop shadows and blue accents. The cap logo, used on the all-black cap, is a stylized "M" with a more realistic marlin on top. The Marlin logo also appears on the left sleeve. In 2021, the Marlins unveiled a City Connect uniform. The primarily red uniform with Miami blue trim paid homage to the Cuban Sugar Kings . In 2024,

17195-464: The case of Ireland, grounds built for Gaelic games are physically capable of hosting association football and the rugby codes without changing the seating configuration. Because the Gaelic games' pitch is rectangular and also longer and wider than that for football or either rugby code, the only changes required are the physical goals and field markings. However, opposition to those sports within large parts of

17376-655: The center of the field rather than towards the logical center of the game action (home plate for baseball and the 50-yard line for football). In the baseball configuration, most had symmetrical field dimensions. This detracted from the unique, individual identity enjoyed by the sport-specific "jewel box" stadiums with odd or asymmetrical field dimensions, and further supported the "cookie cutter stadium" nickname. The large capacities of multipurpose stadiums were usually more than adequate for football. However, baseball crowds tend to be much smaller than football crowds, resulting in baseball games at these stadiums being swallowed up in

17557-432: The city center with freeway access. Subsets of the multipurpose stadiums were the so-called "cookie-cutter stadiums" or "concrete donuts" which were all very similar in design. They featured a completely circular or nearly circular design and accommodated both baseball and football by rotating sections of the box seat areas to fit the respective playing fields. These fields often used artificial turf , as it could withstand

17738-457: The corners in 2006. The left field party section is available for groups of 75-136 people and named "162 Landing", in reference to Evan Longoria 's walk-off home run in the 162nd and final regular season game of the 2011 season that landed in that section, which clinched the American League wild card for the Rays. In 2017 the section was renamed after the Tampa sports bar, "Ducky's" that

17919-403: The drawbacks of air-supported domes in snowy locales. During the height of the multipurpose stadium construction era of the 1960s and 1970s, three baseball-only stadiums were constructed: Candlestick Park (1960), Dodger Stadium (1962), and Royals Stadium (1973; now Kauffman Stadium). Anaheim Stadium (now known as Angel Stadium ), although designed primarily for baseball, opened in 1966 with

18100-526: The earlier turfs, it has been seen as easier to build new stadiums for each sport rather than attempt to share an inflexible turf installation among multiple sports. Some 21st-century multi-purpose stadiums, such as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and State Farm Stadium , have developed a more elaborate method of placing an entire playing surface, such as a grass surface for association football and an artificial turf one for gridiron football, on one or more slabs (one at State Farm, three at Tottenham Hotspur) and towing

18281-501: The early 2000s, also has had a role in the decline of the multipurpose stadium. While first-generation, short-pile turfs such as AstroTurf lent themselves well to multiple sports, this was not the case with FieldTurf and its competitors. Modern artificial turf requires a more permanent installation, including a sand and rubber base or infill that is not easily removed, and thus does not lend itself well to multipurpose stadiums. Because of such turfs' superiority in other features, compared to

18462-442: The environment. This was especially true if a baseball team were not doing particularly well either on the field or in the box office. This was another reason some baseball teams closed sections of the upper level during the regular season. Many multipurpose stadiums also had artificial turf playing surfaces, to ease the transition from baseball field to football field and vice versa. Most early installations of artificial turf such as

18643-480: The exception of Saskatoon), smaller stadiums (less than 13,000 seats) exist, which can be augmented with temporary seating to bring their capacities close to that of the smaller CFL stadiums. Most multipurpose stadiums that existed in North America overlaid one sideline of the football field along one of the baseball foul lines , with one corner of the football field being located where home plate would be. Because

18824-507: The fans closer to the field. This has created some difficulties with creating large athletics venues for major championships, as fans are less willing to accept the compromises required in the design of such stadiums, an issue that has bedevilled, e.g. the London Stadium since the 2012 Summer Olympics and was avoided in the commonwealth Games stadiums of 2000 and 2014 by returning the stadiums to football-only use, and in 2022 by having

19005-617: The fast food chain Checkers , tickets to the "Checkers Bullpen Cafe" included a free meal at the Checkers kiosk immediately adjacent to the section. As of 2008, both party sections featured all-you-can-eat buffets . In 2019, the Rays introduced the Left Field Ledge, a party section above the section of the 360 walkway behind left field, offering tables for groups of eight and patio boxes for groups of 12 to 24. The St. Anthony's Fan Care Clinic

19186-626: The fewest among MLB franchises. Despite never winning a division title, the Florida Marlins is the only team to make the playoffs and win a World Series in its first two winning seasons. Pitchers Catchers Infielders Outfielders Manager Coaches 40 active, 0 inactive, 0 non-roster invitees [REDACTED] 7-, 10-, or 15-day injured list * Not on active roster Suspended list Roster , coaches , and NRIs updated November 19, 2024 Transactions • Depth chart → All MLB rosters From 1993 until 2011,

19367-413: The field. People can go up to the tank to touch the creatures. Further improvements prior to the 2007 offseason, in addition to the new FieldTurf, include additional family features in the right field area, the creation of a new premium club, and several new video boards including a new 35 ft × 64 ft (11 m × 20 m) Daktronics LED main video board that is four times larger than

19548-446: The firm that installed the roof in 1990, it had outlasted its original service life by nearly a decade. On October 31, 2024 the St. Petersburg City Council voted on $ 6.5 million in remediation. A detailed assessment shows the stadium can be repaired for about $ 55 million and be ready in time for the 2026 season. On November 14, 2024, the Rays announced they would play all of their home games for

19729-417: The first "M" shaped similarly to the cap and sleeve logos. The home and road uniform feature black letters with silver trim, along with orange drop shadows on the numbers, while the alternate black uniform feature white letters with silver trim and orange numbers with silver trim and black drop shadows. The orange alternate uniform featured the team name in white with sky blue accents; however the abstract marlin

19910-403: The first of two national stadiums, Aviva Stadium , is shared by football and rugby union, although only rugby union has a club team, Leinster Rugby , that regularly uses the facility. The other larger national stadium, Croke Park , hosts three different sports regularly: gaelic football , hurling , and its women's equivalent, camogie . All three are gaelic games run by the same organisation,

20091-405: The first to be designed as a baseball park. As part of an agreement with park owner Miami-Dade County to use the stadium, the franchise also changed their name to the Miami Marlins prior to the 2012 season. With a record of 2,303–2,709 (.459), the Marlins have the lowest winning percentage and fewest postseason appearances (four) among active MLB franchises. Despite this, the Marlins won

20272-403: The fundamentally different sizes and shapes of the playing fields made them inadequate for either sport. When used for baseball, the lower-level boxes were usually set back much farther from the field than comparable seats in baseball-only parks because they swiveled into position for American football and association football. In the case of stadiums that hosted both baseball and Canadian football,

20453-462: The game 3–2 and eventually the World Series to the Phillies 4 games to 1. Since 2008, the top ⅓ of the upper deck seating has been tarped over, artificially reducing the stadium's capacity to 36,048 for the 2008 regular season. It was further reduced to 35,041 for the 2008 postseason, since the 300-level Party Deck had been reserved by Major League Baseball as an auxiliary press area. On October 14, 2008,

20634-399: The history of Major League Baseball . The disputed play involved a home run hit above the left field foul pole by Yankee Alex Rodriguez . The ball was called a home run on the field, but was close enough that the umpires opted to view the replay to verify the call. Later, the Trop saw the first case of a call being overturned by instant replay, when a fly ball by Carlos Peña originally ruled

20815-681: The home of the Montreal Alouettes football team and the Montreal Expos baseball team, and began serving as an alternate home to the Montreal Impact when that team entered Major League Soccer in 2012. Similarly, the open-air Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton was constructed for the 1978 Commonwealth Games and the 1983 Summer Universiade but has also become home to the Edmonton Elks of

20996-407: The home uniforms, teal was relegated to accent color status with black the primary lettering and pinstripe color. Silver accents were also added to the letters. A sleeved alternate pinstriped home uniform replaced the original sleeveless version, sharing the same design as the primary home uniform except with the "F" logo on the left chest. The "F" logo also took its place on the left sleeve in place of

21177-430: The interior and exterior design of the "classic" ballparks with the amenities of newer facilities; and "retro-modern" parks, which have modern amenities and "retro" interiors, but have modern exterior designs. The first "retro-classic" park in MLB was Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, which opened in 1992 and was based mostly on Pilot Field's design. The "retro-modern" park made its first appearance in 1994 with

21358-455: The interior. The walkway to the main entrance of the park featured, until the 2020 season, a 900 ft (270 m) long ceramic tile mosaic, made of 1,849,091 one-inch-square tiles. It was the largest outdoor tile mosaic in Florida, and the fifth-largest in the United States. It was sponsored by Florida Power Corporation , which is now a part of Duke Energy . The primary 100-level concourse

21539-503: The left sleeve. The Marlins wore three different cap designs, all featuring the "F" insignia in front of a leaping marlin. The all-teal home cap and the black-brimmed teal road cap were initially the primary headwear the team used, with the all-black cap as the alternate. By the late 1990s, teal was gradually de-emphasized and the Marlins wore black caps and undershirts for the remainder of the uniform's run. The Marlins introduced new uniforms before its second World Series-winning season. On

21720-513: The left- and right-field seats. In stadiums that were primarily football stadiums converted to baseball stadiums, the stands were at nearly right angles. This allowed the football field to be squared within the bleachers, but left the baseball configuration with many undesirable views farther away from home plate or facing away from the diamond, such as at the Kingdome, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and

21901-411: The length of a regulation American football field is 360 feet, longer than the roughly 330-foot average for foul lines in Major League Baseball, this requires an unusually long distance from the home plate to the fence along the foul line on which the football field is constructed, part of the football field to be constructed in foul territory (and the size of said territory to be increased accordingly), or

22082-409: The letter "S") in teal with black trim and letters were rendered in black with teal trim, along with teal pinstripes. The alternate home uniforms were sleeveless, and teal undershirts were added to the ensemble. The road uniforms featured "Florida" (with the marlin wrapped around the letter "F") in teal with black trim and letters were rendered in black with teal trim. The primary logo patch was placed on

22263-467: The location previously occupied by Everglades Brewhouse, which served several craft beers in addition to having a full liquor bar and opened two hours before first pitch. A "Fan vs. Food" challenge at Everglades was introduced in 2014, which consists of eating a 4-pound (1.8 kg) burger and a pound of french fries in under 30 minutes to win two future Rays game tickets and a T-shirt. Various other concession stands are located behind center field and along

22444-475: The lower boxes were set even farther back than their American counterparts, because Canadian football fields are 30 yards longer and considerably wider than their American counterparts. Likewise, attempts to build stadiums without support columns to obstruct spectators' views, as was the case with sport-specific "jewel box" stadiums, resulted in upper decks being placed very high above the field—as far as 600 feet away in some cases. Several teams closed off sections of

22625-457: The nation's history. Gaelic grounds can easily accommodate both as the typical Gaelic pitch, while similarly rectangular, is significantly longer and wider than the fields used for soccer and rugby union, which are almost identical in dimensions. Historically, however, the GAA has been reluctant to allow 'foreign' sports to use its facilities, although these objections were set aside both for the rebuild of

22806-408: The national athletics body as the sole primary tenant of a renovated stadium. Winter sports facilities, especially speed skating rinks , can be multi-purpose stadiums. Very often, a rink or two of approximately 61 by 30 meters—the regulation size of an IIHF ice hockey rink —are placed inside the oval. Sometimes the ice surface is even larger, allowing for both bandy and curling . In Ireland,

22987-472: The need to replace Tropicana Field as one of the primary obstacles to future MLB expansion . In 2023, the Tampa Bay Rays announced a deal with local politicians to build Gas Plant Stadium , a new stadium near Tropicana Field at an expected cost of $ 1.2 billion, half of which would fall on taxpayers. The St. Petersburg City Council blocked a proposal to allow St. Petersburg citizens to express their view on

23168-421: The nickname "Mr. Marlin." Gary Sheffield and Bryan Harvey represented the Marlins as the club's first All-Star Game selections, and Sheffield homered in the Marlins' first All-Star Game at-bat. The team finished the year five games ahead of the last-place New York Mets and with an attendance of 3,064,847. In that season, the Marlins traded young set-up reliever Trevor Hoffman and two minor-league prospects to

23349-601: The notable exception of Toronto). Instead, stadiums were built primarily for Canadian Football League (CFL) teams and to host multiple-sport events, such as the Winter Olympics , Commonwealth Games , and Pan American Games . Three of Canada's largest stadiums from this era and type feature domed or retractable roofs : namely BC Place in Vancouver, SkyDome/Rogers Centre in Toronto, and Olympic Stadium in Montreal. BC Place

23530-494: The opening of Jacobs Field, now known as Progressive Field , in Cleveland . Many football teams that shared a stadium with a baseball team had their stadiums converted into football-only facilities shortly after the baseball tenant left, while other football teams followed their baseball counterparts and had new football-only stadiums constructed. The widespread adoption of FieldTurf , and similar modern artificial turfs beginning in

23711-416: The original AstroTurf was nothing more than carpet on top of concrete with little padding, material that was easy to apply and remove. Such types of removable artificial turf caused frequent injuries to players and eventually made free agents wary of signing with teams whose home fields had artificial turf. During the first month of the football season, the playing field included the baseball infield soil that

23892-595: The original video board. The 2007 renovation also added built-in HDTV capabilities to the stadium, with Fox Sports Florida and WXPX airing at least a quarter of the schedule in HD in 2007 and accommodating the new video board's 16x9 aspect ratio. On September 3, 2008, in a game between the Rays and the New York Yankees , Tropicana Field saw the first official use of instant replay in

24073-461: The outer rim of the stadium along the base lines, collected in three concourses named Center Field Street, First Base Food Hall, and Third Base Food Hall. These stands frequently change from season to season, are often named after or maintained by stadium sponsors, or are themed after notable Rays figures, such as the Rocco Ball Deli, themed after former Rays player and coach Rocco Baldelli , which

24254-546: The oval configuration for cricket and Australian rules football and a rectangular configuration for rugby and association football, and in the case of Singapore's National Stadium, an athletics configuration as well. Association football stadiums have historically served as track and field arenas, too, and some (like the Olympiastadion in Berlin) still do, whereas a newer generation frequently has no running track, in order to allow

24435-516: The park on March 31, 1998, when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays faced the Detroit Tigers , losing 11–6. Luis Gonzalez of the Tigers hit the first home run at the stadium, followed by Wade Boggs hitting the first Devil Rays homer later that game. Boggs would also hit a home run for his 3,000th hit at Tropicana Field in 1999. Boggs' historic home runs are commemorated with golden seats and plaques where

24616-814: The permanent homes to any club teams, but are used primarily for international competitions and major tournament finals, mostly for association football and rugby (though Wembley has regularly hosted American football). In South Africa, Soccer City and Ellis Park Stadium have hosted rugby union and football, while Moses Mabhida Stadium has hosted football and cricket. Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi , in India hosts cricket and football. Eden Park in New Zealand hosts rugby union and cricket. Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand , has hosted both rugby codes, cricket, association football, and Australian rules football. Architects from

24797-422: The portable sections would be placed in the western quadrant of the stadium and serve as the third-base half of the infield. In the football configuration, these would be placed in the northern quadrant of the stadium (covering what is used as left field in the baseball configuration) to allow for the football field to be laid out east–west. This had the advantage of improving sight lines for both sports while keeping

24978-548: The possibility of a renovation by 2026. After Tampa was awarded the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Rowdies in the 1970s, St. Petersburg decided it wanted a share of the professional sports scene in Tampa Bay . City officials decided early on that the city would attempt to attract Major League Baseball . Possible designs for a baseball park or multi-purpose stadium were proposed as early as 1983. One such design, in

25159-452: The possible use of the stadium for Major League Soccer or international soccer, which has similar field dimensions to American football. Fields that are suitable for soccer are almost always equally suitable for either rugby code ( rugby union or rugby league ), and the 2031 Rugby World Cup is expected to employ the same stadiums as the NFL and MLS. Outside North America, the term is rarely used, since association football (i.e., soccer)

25340-427: The primary logo. Road uniforms again featured "Florida" but shared the same script look and color scheme as the home uniform (with an underline after the letter "A"). White accents were added to the letters. In addition, the Marlins began wearing a black alternate uniform, featuring the same "Marlins" script but in silver with teal, black and white accents. Both alternate uniforms lacked the front chest numbers. In 2010,

25521-598: The process, the Suncoast Dome was renamed the ThunderDome. Because of the large capacity of what was basically a park built for baseball, several NHL and AFL attendance records were set during the Lightning and Storm's tenures there. Finally, in 1995, the ThunderDome received a baseball team when MLB expanded to the Tampa Bay area. Changes were made to the stadium and its naming rights were sold to Tropicana Products , which renamed it Tropicana Field in 1996. The relocation of

25702-428: The public in the debate using several community meetings. For the 2019 season, Tropicana Field closed its upper decks, as part of efforts and renovations to "create a more intimate, entertaining and appealing experience for our fans". This reduced the stadium's capacity to around 25,000–the lowest in the league. The team's average attendance in the 2018 season was only just over 14,000. From December 2020 to April 2021,

25883-401: The reconfiguration process more easily, or be removed for non-sporting events. Furthermore, many of these stadiums were either enclosed domes (where natural grass could not grow without sunlight) or located in cold-weather cities (where undersoil heating was expensive and unreliable) and before the development of hybrid grass and improved natural grass cultivation techniques, artificial turf was

26064-416: The roof flapping in the wind, growing until large sections of the roof were missing. The field level was hosting a base camp for first responders for before and after the storm; at the time the roof ripped, there was nobody on the field, and the Rays clarified that the stadium wasn't being used as a shelter during the hurricane, as a planned precaution of that scenario. According to a principal engineer with

26245-414: The same location where Tropicana Field would ultimately be built, called for an open-air stadium with a circus tent-like covering. It took several design cues from open-air Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri , including fountains beyond the outfield wall. Ultimately, city officials decided that a stadium with a fixed permanent dome was necessary for a prospective major league team to be viable in

26426-590: The same sight-line problems for football, rugby league, and rugby union as an athletics venue would. Playing sports with rectangle-shaped pitches on larger ovals often means fans can be as much as 30 metres (98 ft) or more from the sidelines. Both Stadium Australia in Sydney and the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne have retractable seating, to be able to change from an oval to rectangle shape and bring fans closer to

26607-471: The slab(s) in and out of place for each sport. Because of the expense of using this method, it is generally only used for the highest-level professional sports. The Miami Marlins moved to Marlins Park , a new retractable-roof stadium in Miami, in 2012. Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) was then renovated to eliminate its baseball functionality, making it a football-only stadium. With the Marlins' relocation,

26788-461: The specific way they accommodate court sports. Both the Super Arena (used mainly for basketball, volleyball, mixed martial arts , and professional wrestling events) and Paris La Défense Arena (home of rugby union's Racing 92 ) feature movable seating blocks that allow each facility to serve as an appropriately sized venue for either field or court sports. In 2014, Singapore's new National Stadium

26969-493: The stadium also had four tiers of seats, luxury boxes , a facade facing the street, and a roof, whereas the northern half of the stadium used a simpler two-tiered seating configuration. During reconstruction, the athletics track was removed, and the north half of the stadium was demolished, reducing the capacity to 49,000 when it reopened as Turner Field . Because of the former track area, the field of play , particularly foul territory , although not large by historical standards,

27150-461: The stadium feel too enclosed, and cut off panoramic views of the stadium's aesthetic surroundings (waterfront, skyline, mountains). The suburban locales of many multipurpose stadiums (as well as other sport-specific stadiums also built there) were also a focal point of criticism. Choosing a suburb over a city core was meant to take advantage of lower land values and new freeways. Suburbs were often poorly serviced by public transit, and when coupled with

27331-597: The stadium hosted the professional wrestling promotion WWE , broadcasting its shows from a behind closed doors set called the WWE ThunderDome . Due to the start of the 2021 Tampa Bay Rays season , the promotion relocated to Yuengling Center in Tampa . On January 26, 2021, seven different proposals to redevelop the Tropicana Field site were unveiled, both with and without a new stadium. The Gas Plant Stadium project

27512-442: The stadium subsidy in an advisory referendum. Much of the translucent, fiberglass roof membrane of Tropicana Field was destroyed by Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024. The stadium had been set up to serve as a base for relief workers. Due to the plans to break ground on a new stadium for the Rays, the future of the stadium is undetermined; the Rays plan to play their 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, with

27693-475: The stands. This made the football viewing farther away, and in some cases partially obscured as in Candlestick Park. In the case of Qualcomm Stadium, it was constructed with half of the field-level seating being permanent (built of concrete, in the southern quadrant of the stadium), and the other half portable (modular construction using aluminum or steel framing). When the stadium was configured for baseball,

27874-515: The suburban stadium was not located in the municipality that the team purportedly represented, and in some cases the stadium was over a state border. An instance of this was Giants Stadium , which primarily hosted football, but was also an association football stadium at times. Its primary tenants, the New York Giants and New York Jets , were nominally based in New York City, but Giants Stadium

28055-527: The tank. Before that, only two Rays players hit a home run that landed in the tank: * Denotes walk-off home run . In addition, only five players hit home runs into the tank playing for opposing teams: Behind center field on the stadium's ground level near the main rotunda entrance is a two-story full-service restaurant and recreational area called BallPark & Rec, opened in 2018. The restaurant's second floor features an outdoor area with lawn games, as well as an indoor arcade area. This restaurant took over

28236-416: The time of opening) and Arrowhead Stadium . The Truman Sports Complex was the first example of multiple stadiums being built for specific sports at the same time. The designers, Kivett and Myers, were then absorbed by Kansas City architecture firm Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum to become HOK Sport + Venue + Event (now the independent firm Populous ), which went on to design many professional sports venues in

28417-451: The trend of personal transportation shifting from public transit to private cars in the mid-20th century, meant that many of the stadiums of that period (multipurpose or sport-specific) were surrounded by large parking lots. In some suburban locales, hospitality, entertainment, and shopping facilities were often non-existent due to lacking the supporting population or due to municipality zoning restrictions. Suburban stadiums fell out of favor by

28598-402: The turf to bounce many of his long throws to first. The concrete or painted concrete façades of many stadiums of that era (multipurpose or sport-specific) were criticized by architects as uninviting. Most such stadiums were built in the relatively plain brutalist and international styles popular at the time, which fell out of fashion in the 1980s. Furthermore, the "concrete donut" design made

28779-557: The upcoming meeting on the road and playing the home game during the latter meeting. An example of the former happening was in 1997 when the Florida Marlins played game 7 of the World Series at home on Sunday, October 26, which moved the Miami Dolphins game against the Chicago Bears to Monday night. An example of the latter happening was in 1989 when the San Francisco Giants hosted a postseason game on Sunday, October 8, against

28960-488: The upper level and only sold them during the playoffs, as they were too far away to be of any use during the regular season. For football, the seats nearest the field were set farther back than at football-only stadiums to accommodate the larger baseball field. In some cases, the seats closest to the field, normally prime seats for baseball, were almost at field level for football. In general, spectator sight lines were not optimized for either sport, i.e., seats were angled towards

29141-514: The venue now known as Hard Rock Stadium . For stadiums such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum , where the Los Angeles Dodgers played their home games from 1958 through 1961 while awaiting completion of Dodger Stadium , this also had the undesirable effect of having unusually short foul lines, making it easier to hit so-called " Chinese home runs ". Baseball stadiums that were converted to football stadiums had more of an obtuse angle between

29322-400: Was also a big issue since the MLB postseason overlaps with the NFL regular season. If a baseball team advances in the postseason to the point where it is scheduled to play a postseason game on the same day the football team plays a home game, adjustments had to be made, such as having the game moved to Monday night or – if a division opponent were scheduled – have the game sites switched, putting

29503-623: Was also renovated with additional seating, including a 4,500-ton, three-tier movable grandstand to accommodate both baseball and football configurations. Mile High Stadium was home to the AFL / NFL Denver Broncos and the MLB Colorado Rockies franchises. For the 1996 Summer Olympics , the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) built the temporary Centennial Olympic Stadium in

29684-440: Was also used for baseball. The original Yankee Stadium was designed to accommodate football, as well as track and field (Yankee Stadium popularized the warning track , originally designed as a running track around baseball fields), in addition to its primary use for baseball. In addition to baseball, Fenway Park and Braves Field would host college football and several professional football teams (all of whom relocated within

29865-470: Was announced Derek Jeter stepped down as CEO of the Marlins. On September 30, 2023, with the Marlins 7–3 win in Pittsburgh, the Marlins clinched their fourth postseason berth, making Kim Ng the first woman GM in MLB history to lead a playoff team. The Florida Marlins debuted wearing three different uniforms. The primary and alternate home uniforms shared the same design: "Marlins" (with an underline after

30046-459: Was awarded an expansion franchise in the National League (NL) for a $ 95 million expansion fee and the team began operations in 1993 as the Florida Marlins . MLB had announced a few months earlier that it intended to add two new teams to the National League. It was a foregone conclusion that one of them would be placed in Florida; the only question was whether Huizenga would beat out competing groups from Orlando and Tampa Bay . Orlando waged

30227-504: Was changed to the ThunderDome until the team moved to their new home in downtown Tampa in 1996. In October 1996, Tropicana Products , a fruit juice company then based in nearby Bradenton , signed a 30-year naming rights deal. Tropicana Field's location and design (especially the ceiling catwalks) have been widely criticized, and it is often cited as one of the worst stadiums in Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball itself has cited

30408-441: Was criticized for leaving spectators exposed to the elements, and for the long distance between the stands and the pitch resulting in poor visibility. This was because the athletics track, which was seldom used, was constructed around the outside of the pitch, while views from the lower tier were also restricted due to the positioning of advertising boards. These factors contributed to low attendances; only 237 spectators showed up for

30589-422: Was demolished so that a football-specific replacement could be built on the site as part of Portugal's bid to host Euro 2004 . German stadiums such as the AWD-Arena , Commerzbank-Arena , MHPArena , RheinEnergieStadion , AOL Arena , and Zentralstadion also underwent reconstruction/renovation to remove the running track an thus become football-only venues. Several of these projects were done in preparation for

30770-444: Was larger than most MLB stadiums of its era. After the 2016 season, the Braves moved to the new SunTrust Park , and Georgia State University purchased Turner Field and surrounding parking lots for a major campus expansion project. As part of this project, Turner Field was reconfigured as Center Parc Stadium , a downsized rectangular stadium that is now home to the university's football team . The first multipurpose stadium in Canada

30951-476: Was located atop the letter "I". Letters were black with silver trim, while sky blue drop shadows were featured on the numbers. The Marlins primarily wore all-black caps, though for a brief period they wore alternate all-orange caps. The Marlins released updated logos and color schemes, replacing orange and silver with bright Caliente red, Miami blue and slate grey. Home and road uniforms contain 'Miami" and letters in black with red drop shadows and blue accents, while

31132-456: Was multipurpose in practice, being convertible between football and baseball. Home of the Minnesota Vikings through the 2013 season, it was also home to the Minnesota Twins until 2009 and the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team (NCAA) until 2008 as well as the Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team (NCAA) until 2012. The Metrodome has been demolished, with U.S. Bank Stadium , built mainly for professional football but able to convert to

31313-435: Was neither in New York City or even New York State . Instead, it was in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey . As a result, then-Governor Mario Cuomo would not attend any games at Giants Stadium (instead choosing to attend the home games of the Buffalo Bills as they were "New York State's only team" in the NFL). A similar criticism applied to Giants Stadium's replacement, MetLife Stadium . Association football

31494-431: Was open for the 2018 season until Baldelli was hired by the Minnesota Twins in 2019. Current and former concessions include the Taco Bus, the Wine Cellar, The Carvery, Pipo's, Papa John's Pizza, Fish Shack, Everglades BBQ, a full service liquor bar, Bay Grill and the Craft Beer Corner featuring many local craft brewery's including Big Storm Brewing, Cigar City, Green Bench, Sea Dog and 3 Daughters. Green Bench Brewing offers

31675-406: Was opened. It can convert between an oval for cricket, rectangle for rugby and association football, and a running track for athletics. Kalinga Stadium is a multi-purpose international sports complex in Bhubaneswar , Odisha , India . Construction was begun in 1978. It is best known as the home ground of the Indian Super League football club Odisha FC since that club's inception in 2019 . It

31856-411: Was perceived as an especially bad fit for this type of stadium because, in the United States, the sport does not draw as many fans to games as American football or baseball (with the exceptions of Atlanta and Seattle ), resulting in the stadium being filled to only a fraction of its capacity. This, combined with a desire for more compact, intimate stadiums akin to those of European football clubs, led to

32037-773: Was renamed "The Heater" in 2008. Multi-purpose stadium In North America, multipurpose stadiums were primarily built during the 1960s and 1970s as shared home stadiums for Major League Baseball and National Football League or Canadian Football League teams. Some stadiums were renovated to allow multipurpose configurations during the 1980s. This type of stadium is associated with an era of suburbanization , in which many sports teams followed their fans out of large cities into areas with cheaper, more plentiful land. They were usually built near highways and had large parking lots , but were rarely connected to public transit . As multipurpose stadiums were rarely ideal for both sports usually housed in them, they had fallen out of favor by

32218-452: Was renovated to a baseball-only facility in 1997, three years after the Rams' departure for St. Louis. Similarly, Candlestick Park was renovated into a multipurpose stadium in 1970 to accommodate the San Francisco 49ers ' move from Kezar Stadium and converted to football-only after the San Francisco Giants moved to their new ballpark in 2000. Candlestick Park was demolished in 2015. Another baseball stadium, Denver's Mile High Stadium ,

32399-611: Was replaced as manager midway through the 1996 season by director of player development John Boles . Following an 80–82 record in 1996, former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland was hired to lead the club heading into 1997. In 1997, the Marlins finished nine games back of the Division Champion Atlanta Braves , but earned the wild card berth. Veteran additions such as LF Moisés Alou , 3B Bobby Bonilla , and trade-deadline additions Darren Daulton and Jim Eisenreich added experience and clutch hits. Talented young stars Luis Castillo (2B) and Édgar Rentería (SS) comprised one of

32580-411: Was the Montreal Olympic Stadium , which was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics and initially had functions to host events of different sports and types. However, the project became obsolete over time and the stadium lost its original functions, becoming a "white elephant". The first successful such stadium was the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton , which was built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games and

32761-516: Was the home ground of the I-League club Indian Arrows from 2018 until 2022 . Its main stadium is configured for football and athletics , with an 8-lane synthetic athletics track surrounding the football pitch. Field hockey , tennis , table tennis , basketball , volleyball , wall climbing , and swimming are accommodated elsewhere within the complex. While multipurpose stadiums were intended to easily accommodate both American football and baseball (and in some cases, association football),

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