Tampa Fla. – Tampa Florida (AP) – “Extreme Makeover: Baseball Edition” is about to be released.
When Tampa Bay players leave Field Steinbrenner after the end of the Spring Training House of the New York Yankees on March 23, their staff will launch a 120 -hour transformation of the stadium for the Rays season in exile from exile Tropicana field damaged by the storm.
By the time the Rays return for their first March 28 match against Colorado, more than 3,000 unique signs and advertising boards will have been installed. The letters of “Yankees” 10 by 9 feet on the first and third base stalls will have been covered with ray brands, along with the intertwined “NY” that hangs from the ceiling in the center of the Club house. The equipment store will have been emptied of scratched equipment and refrained with ray clothes.
A metamorphosis that even Statcast cannot measure.
“Build the plane while flying it,” said Bill Walsh, Business Director of the Rays. “Sometimes, very exciting and sometimes, obviously simply incredibly frantic and stressful.”
Tampa Bay is one of the two major league teams whose games at home will be in smaller leagues this year. He Athletics moved to Sutter Park in West Sacramento, CaliforniaFor at least three seasons, while a planned structure is built in Las Vegas.
After playing inside in the trop in St. Petersburg since the franchise went to the field in 1998, the Rays needed a rent after Hurricane Milton started the roof panels on October 9.
Concluding that the stadium could not be repaired quickly, Tampa Bay found an office site near the Trop two weeks later and announced an agreement on November 14 to Play games at home 2025 in Steinbrenner FieldThe Spring Training Base of Free Air Capacity 11,026 of the Yankees through the bay in Tampa. The site of any postseason house game remains uncertain.
These temporary excavations will feel like a Players Palace. A two -year renewal designed by Gensler and executed by Turner Construction Co. transformed the Casa de la Quality Club House of Motel to four seasons.
The player and the staff of the staff doubled at 50,000 square feet. There is a two-story weight room with floor by roof and garage door, inner and outer stretching areas, a ping-pong table, a barbershop, eight beds in a coaches area, massage rooms and a swimex along with hot and cold baths with televisions at the water level, a red light therapy of sauna and four batting houses. Each player of players has a safe with the USB and USB-C ports. There is a 70 -seat meetings room, six private offices and 12 desks for additional personnel.
A custom -made open kitchen is close to a picnic patio of 2,400 square feet with 18 dinner tables and a long counter.
“I could totally see a wedding,” said Matt Ferry, director of Yankees baseball operations.
Andy Pettitte, former Yankees and now spring training instructor, recalled how the food table was in a corner of the Club house near the showers when the stadium opened in 1996.
“It’s crazy, it’s so beautiful,” Petitte said after a dip in the cold tank. “When I went up, it was taboo to be in the coaches’ room.”
The Steinbrenner Field regular season team are the Yankees class A tampa tampa, which will dress 1.2 miles by car to the team’s minor leagues complex in Dale Mabry Highway and will play games at home in field two, a diamond practice behind the Steinbrenner first base team.
New York spent the last two offenses renewing the Casa Club of origin.
“The industry owes Hal Steinbrenner a true debt of gratitude,” said Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred about the Yankees owner. “He literally put dozens of millions of dollars to improve the Steinbrenner field and the first people who will really use it during any period of time are the rays of Tampa Bay.”
The statue of George Steinbrenner and the retired numbers that commemorate Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other greats of the Yankees near the entrance must remain intact along with the name of the deceased owner about the video fierce.
All the other signage is configured to change: the new ones would extend from a mile from side to side. Five companies, 50 installers and at least 80 rays employees will carry out the conversion.
A method will be found to cover the floor tiles that lead to the bathrooms of the Club House that spell: “The Bronx” and “New York”. It was not clear if the rays can cover the tapestry paper near the showers aimed at creating the illusion of landscapes seen from a meter of speed. While the Casa Club is prepared for spring training with 51 posts along the walls that surround the room and 28 in the center extend in four pods, the rays thought it could be too difficult to eliminate unnecessary spaces in the middle.
“We did not do as much brand as we wanted because the Rays are going to cover most,” Ferry said.
The Yankees staff will remain in their offices on the fourth floor, but the team will use the visitors club on the third base when the Rays receive New York from April 17 to 20 and August 19 to 20. The additional construction is being financed by the rays.
What had been the visiting trainers room opened to the main part of the costumes and in the equivalent of musical chairs, the training tables moved to the baseball storage area. The referee room became the manager’s office, which was redone in the space of the House Club, and the referees moved to a trailer outside the stadium. Max’s Cafe, which had been used for multimedia meals, will be the food area of the visiting equipment.
A security room became the video review room and a humidor was built for the baseball balls of the tunnel spinning among the shelters. Monitoring and repetition technology was installed.
The seat inventory will change the ticketmaster to tickets.com and additional luxury suites will be created beyond the current 13. The food will be provided by Legends Hospitality, co -owner by the Yankees parent company, instead of Levy Restaurants, Tropicana Field Concessionaire since 2018.
“We absolutely have a little day by day, in some cases time times per hour for several facilities,” said Walsh, who learned from the experience of Change the spring training site 2023 of the team After damage to Port Charlotte caused by Hurricane Ian.
Absence of ceiling figures to be disruptive in an area that had a Registration 80.29 inches of rain last yearAccording to the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration, including 82% from June 1 to October 15. The tarpons had eight games delayed by the rain before the game or in the game plus four cancellations, three postponements, four suspended games and one that shortened.
Tampa Bay’s schedule was adjusted to have 19 of his first 22 games at home and then 16 of 19 on the road from June 24 to July 13 and 19, 22 from July 25 to August 17.
“We are going to play outdoor baseball in Tampa Bay for the first time during the regular season and people have been talking about this for decades,” Walsh said. “In our DNA it is a bit agitator and try to find opportunities through challenges and do things differently. And this is certainly doing things differently.”
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