There’s been a lot of talk about Major League Baseball and Omaha over the past week.
That’s because the Wall Street Journal ran an article December 6th titled, “The Major League Baseball Team That Lost Two Stadiums in the Same Hurricane.” That team is the Tampa Bay Rays, which according to the article, might end up playing its 2026 home games at Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field.
Earlier this year, Hurricane Milton ravaged Tropicana Field, the aging, indoor stadium that had been the Rays’ long-time home field. The hurricane destroyed the roof and did quite a bit of damage to other parts of the structure.
Fixing the stadium would cost tens of millions of dollars and take a lot of time. Normally, that wouldn’t be much of an obstacle, but plans were already in the works for the local government to build a brand-new $1.3 billion stadium. It was supposed to be done in 2028, meaning the Rays were supposed to finish out their Tropicana Field tenure over the next three years and then move into their palatial new home.
The hurricane put at least a temporary hiatus on the new stadium approvals, and now there’s no certainty a new stadium will be built in Tampa at all. If a new stadium is built, it might be 2029 before it’s ready for big league ballgames.
The Rays have found a temporary home field for the upcoming 2025 season – they’ll play in the New York Yankees’ spring training stadium, which conveniently is located in Tampa. Unfortunately, the stadium only seats 11,000 and also hosts a single-A team. It appears as if the Yankees are willing to let the Rays use their spring training stadium for one year and only one year.
If that’s the case, the Rays need to come up a plan now so they’re not homeless in 2026.
That’s where a certain quote in last week’s Wall Street Journal article comes into play: “One possibility, according to people familiar with the matter, could be playing at the site of the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.”
With a seating capacity of 24,000, Charles Schwab Field is the largest baseball stadium in America not to host a Major League Baseball team. And we know the stadium can handle Major League games, because it successfully hosted a regular season match-up between the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers in 2019.
While the talk about a Major League Baseball team spending one or two years in Omaha is quite exciting, this is far from a done deal. It’s very early in the process. In fact, Omaha has not yet had any conversations regarding the matter.
“We have not been approached yet, but we would be happy to talk with anyone about baseball in Omaha,” said Roger Dixon, president & CEO of Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority, which operates Charles Schwab Field.
Dixon did mention that he received word last year that the Oakland A’s were possibly interested in playing the 2025 season in Omaha, but that ball club decided to play in a triple-A stadium in Sacramento. The A’s are planning to move to Las Vegas, but a new stadium in Sin City is still a ways off. In the meantime, the A’s needed to get out of Oakland.
Turning our attention back to the Tampa Bay Rays, there are other obstacles that could foil Omaha’s dream of being a (temporary) Major League city. Would the Kansas City Royals object to another Major League team being located less than three hours from their stadium?
What would happen to attendance at Omaha Storm Chasers games? Local baseball fans would probably choose to attend big league games instead of triple-A games. Would someone have to compensate the Storm Chasers for a year or two of lost ticket revenue?
How would the NCAA feel about its College World Series venue hosting 81 professional baseball games? The Rays would have to play a few road series during the CWS. From a logistics perspective, Dixon was not worried about competing demands at Charles Schwab Field.
“We regularly work around multiple events at our venues,” he said.
Dixon admitted that much would have to happen before the Rays would temporarily relocate to Omaha, but it could make sense.
“It is possible,” he said. “Stranger things have happened.” Dixon also believes the Rays would be quite successful in Omaha for a year or two and would draw large crowds.
What are Omaha’s long-term prospects for a permanent big-league sports franchise? It would be a big challenge, probably a long shot. NFL and Major League Baseball franchises depend on large television markets. If you draw a 60-mile radius from downtown Omaha, the population is about 1.5 million. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s a lot smaller than other markets. The Kansas City metro area, for example, has 2.3 million, and it’s one of the smallest major league markets.
But let’s say Omaha does end up hosting the Rays for a year or two, and we knock it out of the park with game attendance. Might that catch the eye of an NBA or NHL franchise that may be more amenable to a smaller market? It would be fun to find out.
Photo credit: Visit Omaha
