Schedule Nightmare: Rays' Final Home Game, Buccaneers' Home Opener Both on Sept. 21
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TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays are borrowing Steinbrenner Field in Tampa this season after Hurricane Milton destroyed Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg last fall. And part of that baseball gameday experience is using the parking lots at Raymond James Stadium across the street on Dale Mabry Highway.
Raymond James Stadium is the home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, of course, and when the league announced its 2025 schedule on Wednesday night, one day jumped out that will be a serious concern.
On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 21, the Rays will play their final home at Steinbrenner Field at 12:10 p.m. ET against one of their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox. The Buccaneers are scheduled to play their home opener on the same day, taking on the New York Jets at 1 p.m. ET.
That's going to be a logistical nightmare.
A Buccaneers home game, which hosts more than 65,000 fans, requires just about every possible parking spot within a mile of Ray-Jay. Throw in 10,000 more baseball fans trying to watch a baseball game across the street, and you've got a problem.
The Rays finish the season on the road, with three games at Baltimore Sept. 23-25 and then at Toronto Sept. 26-28. Should they make the major-league playoffs, it's unlikely that there will be a conflict with the Bucs because they only have one October home game, on Oct. 12 against the San Francisco 49ers. That's also a 1 p.m. ET Sunday game.
The Bucs do have a home preseason game on Aug. 16 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the Rays are on a two-week West Coast trip then. They actually play in San Francisco on Aug. 16.
Here is the complete Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2025 schedule. CLICK HERE
Tom Brew is the publisher of ''Tampa Bay Rays on SI'' and has been with the Sports Illustrated platform since 2019. He has worked at some of America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He owns eight sites on the "On SI'' network and has written four books.
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