It is no secret in the Philadelphia community that there’s no better place to be on a muggy summer evening than in the seats of Citizens Bank Park rooting on the Philadelphia Phillies. That being said, Phillies fans are among the most well-traveling fan bases in all of baseball. Tune into any away broadcast and you are likely to see those familiar red pinstripes, cream-colored, or powder blue jerseys sprinkled throughout every stadium from Boston to Los Angeles.
For 2025, there are two away series’ in particular that baseball enthusiasts will want to consider traveling to. In May, the Phillies will play in two stadiums for the first time in regular season history: George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., and Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, CA. The stadiums act as temporary homes for the Tampa Bay Rays and the Athletics as the two organizations find themselves stadium-less in 2025 for differing reasons.
How Did We End Up Here?
The Athletics’ move from Oakland to Las Vegas has been well-publicized. While the A’s lease with the city of Oakland over the use of The Coliseum ran up in 2024, the A’s new stadium in Las Vegas is likely not to be ready until 2028 at the earliest. So, the A’s find themselves homeless for the next few years, officially being known as simply the “Athletics” until they move into the fabled desert city.
With no home, the Athletics reached an agreement to play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Ca., until the completion of their stadium. The Park is currently home to the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Renovations are underway to make the Triple-A facility a more amenable home for Major League Baseball in the meantime.
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays’ home, Tropicana Field, sustained heavy damage during Hurricane Milton in October. In all likelihood, repairs to Tropicana Field will take until 2026 to be completed. The situation is made even more tenuous by the fact that the Rays were set to move out of the stadium once they finished building a new stadium, which was proposed at $1.3 billion. The Rays, the city of St. Petersburg, and MLB are working through the ramifications of repairing the Trop and the creation of a new stadium, with the future of Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay now in jeopardy.
In the interim, the Tampa Bay Rays will play within the city limits of Tampa for the first time in the 2025 season. Ironically they will do so in the Spring Training home of the New York Yankees, their largest rival in the American League East, George M. Steinbrenner Field. Amongst other options for the Rays was BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, the Phillies’ Spring Training home.
Traveling to Tampa
Of the two new locations on the baseball stadium bucket list, Steinbrenner Field is the most familiar to the Phillies. A miniature version of Yankees Stadium, Steinbrenner Field was built in 1996 and hosts the Yankees for Spring Training and houses their Single-A affiliate team, the Tampa Tarpons. Directly across from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Phillies have played many Spring Training games at Steinbrenner Field.
For the Rays, this will be their first season in the franchise that they have not called Tropicana Field home. Tropicana Field actually predates the Rays by a few years, opening up as the Florida Suncoast Dome in 1990. Before becoming the home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in their inaugural 1998 season, the stadium played host to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a few years before the opening of the Ice Palace (now known as Amalie Arena) in 1996.
Moving into Steinbrenner Field may prove to be a small litmus test to the theory that the Rays’ poor attendance numbers are partially due to the location of Tropicana Field, being cut off from much of the Rays’ fan base in the city of Tampa by the Tampa Bay, with only a few bridges to handle the massive loads of traffic across the Bay Area. The Rays were the host of the third-lowest average attendance across MLB in 2024 with 16,515 fans per game. Moving into Steinbrenner Field, with a maximum capacity of 11,026 people will hopefully result in many sellouts for the Rays as they play on the Tampa side of the Tampa Bay for the first time.
For the Phillies fan interested in adding a potentially rare Major League stadium to their list, the Phillies will travel to Tampa for a three-game midweek series on May 6-8. Start times for the series are TBD at the time of publication.
An Uncommon Trip to the West Coast
While Steinbrenner Field will be the second-ever home stadium for the Rays, Sutter Health Park will be the fifth home and fourth city for the Athletics, the sojourners of Major League Baseball. The Athletics were originally the Philadelphia Athletics, calling Columbia Park their first home before moving into Shibe Park in 1909. They would stay in Shibe Park, later known as Connie Mack Stadium until the Athletics left Philadelphia for Kansas City in 1955.
While in Kansas City, the Athletics called Municipal Stadium their home, which was built on the site of Blues Stadium previously, home of AA Kansas City Blues and the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs. Not in Kansas anymore, the Athletics moved right into the Coliseum for their first game as the Oakland Athletics in 1968. Now, until they move into their sixth stadium and fifth city in Las Vegas, the Athletics will call Sutter Health Park their home.
Overlooking Downtown Sacramento from the western side of the Sacramento River, Sutter Health Park has a capacity of 14,000. Though small just like the Rays’ situation, 14,000 will likely be ample attendance for the Athletics, who have ranked the lowest across Major League Baseball in attendance for years, most recently averaging 11,386 fans per game in 2024. Those numbers will likely not change until the Athletics move to Las Vegas.
A further trip for the average Phillies fan, any Phillies fan looking to travel over Memorial Day weekend should consider this West Coast trip an option. The Phillies play the Athletics in Sacramento from Friday, May 23 to Sunday, May 25. The first two games of the contest will start at 10:05 P.M. EDT while the Sunday getaway game is scheduled for 4:05 P.M. EDT.
Two Potentially Fun Trips For Phillies Fans
With the modern scheduling mechanics of Major League Baseball, the Phillies play every team at least once per year, meaning they travel to every team at a minimum once every other year. Given that frequency, for the Phillies fans out there who have it on their bucket list to visit every Major League stadium, you have the chance to add two additional slots to your card by traveling with the Phillies in May to Steinbrenner Field and Sutter Health Park.
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
