Rays to open parts of upper deck for Yankees series

ST. PETERSBURG -- Due to high interest, the Rays are opening portions of the upper deck at Tropicana Field for their three-game series against the Yankees from May 5-7.

The club said on Wednesday that “thousands of additional seats” in the 300 level will be made available for that series, which still had limited tickets remaining in the lower level. Those newly released tickets are now available, starting at $39, via RaysBaseball.com and the MLB Ballpark app.

“It’s been a thrilling and historic start to our 25th anniversary season, and fan interest and excitement continues to grow throughout the Tampa Bay region,” Rays chief business officer Bill Walsh said in a statement. “There’s especially high interest in this home series vs. the Yankees, and we’re looking forward to Rays fans packing Tropicana Field all weekend long.”

The upper deck at Tropicana Field has not been open to fans during regular-season games since 2018, as the Rays decided to close it heading into the ‘19 campaign. With the 300 level closed, The Trop’s capacity is 25,025.

The Rays entered Wednesday night’s series finale against the Astros having won 14 of their first 15 games at The Trop and 20 of 24 overall. They were drawing an average of 17,042 fans per home game, 25th in the Majors and up from 13,927 (28th in MLB) last season. There were 63,008 fans in attendance for last weekend’s three-game series against the White Sox at Tropicana Field.