The area around Tropicana Field was abuzz with Tampa Bay Rays fans for the first time in over a year Saturday as the team took its first step toward returning home.
A storm-damaged Trop, with its new roof nearly complete, provides a symbolic backdrop for the new Rays Pop-Up Team Store across the street. The two-story building at 1101 1st Ave. S. in St. Petersburg’s EDGE District formerly housed a barbecue restaurant.
Fans browsed merchandise typically found in the official team store while listening to a live DJ and sipping drinks from a full-service coffee bar. The festive event also featured complimentary pastries, hot dogs and hamburgers, photo opportunities with mascots, games, prizes and starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot.
“This really is more than just a store – I think the celebratory atmosphere you feel here today is really reflective of that,” said Chief Business Officer Bill Walsh. “When we started talking about it, we realized pretty quickly that this is actually our first step towards getting back into Tropicana Field.”
The event began at 10 a.m. the morning after Halloween. Pepiot, 28, decided to spend it with a community that has embraced him since he joined the team in 2024.
Pepiot said he and his wife, Julie, “love living in St. Pete” and being part of the Rays. “The people are phenomenal and the fans are even better.”
“So, it’s the least I could do to come out and support,” Pepiot continued. “It’s really cool to be back in St. Pete; the crowd today has been unbelievable. It feels like coming back home again.”
The new store also symbolizes the team’s and the community’s adaptability and resilience. Hurricane Milton’s gusts decimated the Trop in October 2024 while many people within the organization were still reeling from Hurricane Helen’s storm surge.
The Rays had four days to transform Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field into a temporary home in March. They had a similar time crunch when moving everything out in late September.
Walsh said leadership realized in August that “pretty soon, we’re actually not going to have a home for the team store” throughout the holiday season. The city expects to complete storm repairs on the Trop next spring.
Walsh said the Rays began searching for a space in St. Petersburg that could host a store and special events, and “bring fans together.” He noted that they “didn’t look very far” as there were some “great options” across the street from the Trop.
PTM Partners, which built the nearby Moxy Hotel, owns the site that once housed Dr. BBQ. The development firm plans to demolish the 8,000-square-foot building and redevelop the property.
Walsh said PTM was “really supportive” and “helped us get in here very, very quickly.” The firm’s crews “cleaned the whole place out in a matter of weeks,” and the Rays relied on recently gleaned experience to quickly reimagine the space.
“We’re building reps, I think, of doing really hard things, really well,” Walsh said. “And we’re really proud of it. There are hard things to come, but I think all of this is conditioning.”
The Rays plan to capitalize on the building’s former life as a restaurant. Walsh said infrastructure remains to “do some fun and interesting things.”
He believes the sip-and-shop experience “melds well with the vibe on Central Avenue and the EDGE District.” The team will continue offering a complimentary coffee bar and pastries.
Walsh expects the store to operate throughout early 2026 and into the spring. That would leave little downtime before the April 6 home opener.
“For me, personally, it’s really special,” Walsh added. “I walked in here this morning and saw hundreds of people with the music going in the party atmosphere, and the hot dogs coming off the grill, and I got the chills.”
Seeing construction workers installing the Trop’s new roof paneling on a Saturday was also a welcome sight for the Rays. The team is having a season ticket sale, and Walsh noted that many people throughout Tampa Bay don’t realize that “we’re so far along.”
Walsh said the city “deserves a tremendous amount of credit for pushing that project forward,” and contractor AECOM Hunt is “doing tremendous work to get us in here and allow baseball to come home in 2026.”
Pepiot also appreciated the crowd’s “vibe and the buzz,” particularly considering “everything that happened a little over a year ago.” He said the new store symbolizes the franchise’s ability to “roll with the punches.”
“To be able to truly come back to our home over here, it’s going to be pretty special,” Pepiot said. “I’m sure it’s going to be a wild crowd when we play our first few home games back here. And, air conditioning.”
This content provided in partnership with StPeteCatalyst.com
