Two MLB teams to play this season in minor league ballparks

[TheFugitive]

Spring Training 2025 is underway, and this year there will be not one but two major league franchises playing their seasons in minor league ballparks.

First the former Oakland Athletics, who have gotten approval to move to Las Vegas where a new retractable roof baseball stadium is being constructed on the site of the former Tropicana Casino. They are still clearing debris from the Tropicana demolition so the opening of the new ballpark is aways off.

Last year the Athletics played out their lease at the Oakland Coliseum, and they needed a place to play until their new stadium in Vegas is ready for occupancy.

The Athletics have decided to play in Sutter Health Park, a 14,000 stadium in Sacramento, California that is the home of the Sacramento River Cats, AAA farm team for the San Francisco Giants. The River Cats will still be playing there so this field is going to get a lot of use with either the Athletics or the River Cats playing a home game there nearly every day. 

Aside from wear and tear on the field surface one of the main issues they're likely to encounter is that Sacramento gets substantially hotter than the Bay Area 90 miles away.  Obviously this is an outdoor park with no roof, so some of the day games could be sweltering.

Also the new park in Vegas has encountered some construction delays so the Athletics could find themselves playing as many as THREE seasons in Sacramento.

At the other end of the country the Tampa Bay Rays were forced to scramble for a home stadium after Tropicana Field suffered serious damage in a hurricane a few months back.  Among other things the roof was ripped off, and various parts of the interior were flooded.  The Rays are looking to build a new ballpark anyway and there was some debate as to whether they should even bother fixing The Trop.  That work was just approved but for this season the Rays will be playing home games at Steinbrenner Field, an 11,000 seat ballpark in Tampa where the New York Yankees play spring training games and where the Yanks, Class A minor league affiliate calls home.  The Yankees have trained in Tampa for a long time, and it could be argued that there are many more Yankees fans there than Rays fans.

It is now estimated that repairs to Tropicana Field will be completed by the start of next season so the Rays should only have to spend one season as tenants of the Yankees.