Even if it’s only briefly, the Bucs will have a new neighbor in 2025.

The Tampa Bay Rays announced Thursday that they will be playing their 2025 home games at Steinbrenner Field, which of course is right across the street from the Bucs’ home, Raymond James Stadium.

Steinbrenner Field, originally known as Legends Field, is the spring training home to the New York Yankees and home to the Tampa Tarpons, the Yankees’ Single-A affiliate in the Florida State League.

The Rays’ announcement ends their search for a temporary home, which is needed due to the damage that Hurricane Milton did to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The October storm shredded the stadium’s roof and caused millions of dollars in damage to what has been the Rays’ home since 1998.

Barring some shenanigans from Pinellas County officials, the Rays should be returning to the Trop in time for the 2026 season before the expected opening of the team’s new stadium on an adjacent site a couple of years later.

Bucs And Rays Will Be True Neighbors – Even If Only For A Brief Time

The Bucs and Rays, along with the Lightning, Rowdies, Sun and others, have always been proud representatives of the “Team Tampa Bay” brand. The Bay Area’s sports franchises always come together to show their support of each other, and it’s not at all uncommon to see players from the Rays, Lightning and other teams at Raymond James Stadium for Bucs home games.

Over the years, the Rays have had the likes of Mike Evans, Calijah Kancey, Graham Barton and other Bucs throw out the ceremonial first pitch before games. And just a couple of months ago, the Bucs had representatives from the Rays, Lightning, Rowdies and Sun serve as their Captains of the Krewe for the 2024 season opener against the Commanders.

While there’s long been a history of cross-town support between these franchises, two of them will be legitimate neighbors now for the first time. With the Rays right across Dale Mabry and just steps away from Raymond James Stadium, they’ll be next door to the Bucs during the 2025 season.

To be clear, there isn’t a whole lot of overlap between the MLB and NFL seasons. But the NFL preseason and the start of the regular season overlap with the final two months of the MLB regular season in August and September, plus there’s the MLB Postseason that carries through October as the NFL season continues. Other than that, there could be some potential overlap between an NFL Draft party at the stadium in April and a baseball game across the street.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield Photo by: USA Today

Time will tell whether the Bucs have any overlapping home dates with the Rays in August, September and potentially October in 2025. Given the move from Tropicana to Steinbrenner, the Rays may see their 2025 schedule tweaked a bit, and the Bucs won’t know their finalized schedule until May 2025. There are other cities that deal with some overlap every year, but this would be a first for these two squads.

There have been plenty of days over the years that featured Bucs and Lightning home games on the same day, though that’s a different story considering Amalie Arena is six miles away from Raymond James Stadium. With Ray Jay and Steinbrenner Field sharing Dale Mabry, it’s fair to wonder whether any overlapping home dates between the two teams will make for later start times for the Rays.

Perhaps a 1:00 p.m. kickoff for the Bucs and a 3:10 first pitch for the Rays on a given Sunday would allow enough time for fans to get into Ray Jay before fans start arriving to Steinbrenner. Bucs fans would then presumably be out of the area by the time the Rays fans would be filing out of their game.

There will surely be plenty of logistics to be solved, and many of them may not come until the NFL schedule is released next May. But for the time being, it’s pretty cool for the Bucs and Rays to be neighbors – even if it’s just for a few months.