Tampa Bay’s Love/Hate Relationship with Sports Venues

With the assessment that damage incurred from Hurricane Milton Tropicana Field will not be sufficiently repaired to accommodate the Rays in time to open the 2025 Major League Baseball season and questions arising about how to deal with that circumstance, it highlights once again the Tampa Bay Area’s complicated relationship with the 35-year-old facility.

“The Trop” has faced criticism over the years, for everything from its ringed roof structure impacting play to the location of the stadium itself. Yet for all the detractors, there are also those who appreciate its unique charms. But it’s not the only local sports venue that is both loved and hated…

Tampa Stadium

LOVE

• Nostalgia for the home of the Buccaneers, the area’s first major sports franchise and the team’s Creamsicle” era.

HATE

• The team sucked mightily throughout almost all of the Creamsicle era.
• Like, really, really sucked.
• Also, the seats were flat metal bleachers.

The Yuengling Center (formerly known as the Sun Dome)

LOVE

• Home of USF basketball.
• Used to have an inflatable roof, which was kind of cool in a retro 80s way.
• Hosted concerts by legendary performers like Elton John, Frank Sinatra and Tina Turner among others.

HATE

• For the most part, USF basketball is and has always been irrelevant.
• The inflatable roof was translucent which made it annoyingly bright inside when summer concerts began.
• Came thisclose to selling the naming rights to a predatory student loan company in 2007.

Amalie Arena (formerly known by a bunch of other names)

LOVE

• Home of the Tampa Bay Lightning (arguably Tampa Bay’s most popular and successful team), concerts and smaller scale monster truck events.
• Belief that owner Jeff Vinik is probably a good person.
• Spacious, comfortable, loaded with amenities.
• Relatively easy to get to and from.

HATE

• Sucks for monster truck events (exhaust fumes).
• The original name, The Ice Palace, was way better than any of the corporate-branded identities since then.

Raymond James Stadium

LOVE

• Home of the Buccaneers, USF football, the RealiaQuest Bowl and the good monster truck events.

HATE

• Tickets, parking and concessions; all really expensive.
• Nagging feeling that the Glazers, beneficiaries of all that revenue, are not very nice people.

Tropicana Field (formerly known as Thunderdome)

LOVE

• Home of the Tampa Bay Rays.
• Has… well, had… a roof, rendering typical Tampa Bay summer weather harmless with a constant temperature of 74 degrees.
• Is in St. Petersburg.
• Quirky.
• Conveniently located for people coming from Sarasota.
• Nostalgia for era when the Lightning played there.

HATE

• Not home of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
• Has (had) a roof, which is offensive to baseball purists who also don’t attend games at any of the traditional open-air minor league ballparks throughout the area.
• Is in St. Petersburg.
• Quirky.
• Who cares about people from Sarasota?
• Wah.
• Not aesthetically interesting.
• Wah.
• Thunderdome was a far more badass name.
• Wah.
• Snivel.
• Wah.
• Sob.
• Wah.
• Whine.
• Wah.