St. Petersburg is shutting down a stretch of Central Avenue not once but twice this weekend, turning downtown into a World Series staging ground while the Tampa Bay Rays open the Fall Classic on the road. The city will close Central Avenue between 13th and 15th Streets from 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday for a pair of Rays Up block parties timed to Games 1 and 2 in Milwaukee.
Those road closures come straight from the city's own announcement, as reported by Florida Politics, which notes Game 1 falls on Friday night and Game 2 on Saturday night in Milwaukee. The block parties are designed to give fans a place to gather and watch the road games together before the series shifts home to Tropicana Field for Games 3, 4 and a potential Game 5. According to WTSP, fans who prefer a ballpark atmosphere can also catch a nearby watch party at Tropicana Field itself.
Posters, Pier Lights and a City Decked Out in Blue and Yellow
The city printed a limited run of commemorative posters to hand out at the parties, per the Florida Politics report, giving attendees a keepsake from the run. WTSP adds that The Greenhouse will distribute posters from noon to 4 p.m. on Friday, with more available at the Central Avenue block party itself during its 4-to-8 p.m. window both Friday and Saturday.
The St. Pete Pier has been lit in Rays colors since Wednesday night and will stay that way through the end of the Series, the same Florida Politics report states. The city is also asking local businesses and residential buildings to light up in blue and yellow or display messages of support, part of a broader push described in that coverage to make the Rays' run visible across downtown.
Getting to Games 3, 4 and 5 at the Trop
Once the series returns home, Game 3 is set for Monday, Game 4 for Tuesday, and Game 5, if necessary, for Wednesday, all with 8 p.m. first pitches at Tropicana Field, according to the Florida Politics report. The city has laid out a parking and transit plan to handle the crowds: on-site parking at the Trop must be 100 percent prepaid, and a new 540-space garage at 1301 Central Ave., directly across from Ferg's Bar & Grill, offers an additional option, per the City of St. Petersburg.
The city says its free Baseball Shuttle will run for every playoff game, starting at 5 p.m. and continuing after the final out roughly every 10 to 15 minutes, using buses and wheelchair-lift-equipped trolleys at no cost to riders. A separate report from FanRecap describes a different shuttle timetable, saying service would begin three hours before first pitch and run for two hours afterward at roughly five-minute intervals; the city's own posted schedule is the one above, and the discrepancy between the two accounts has not been resolved. PSTA has said it will add SunRunner buses to handle the extra demand around game nights, the city's post notes.
A Repaired Trop Ready for Its Biggest Stage
None of this would be happening at Tropicana Field at all without roughly $58 million in repairs that included installing 24 new roof panels, according to Bay News 9. The ballpark can hold 40,000 people, per WFLA, meaning the repaired roof will be tested by a full house for the franchise's biggest games in years.
A local tavern owner told Bay News 9 that having the Rays back in the Trop has been good for business, a sentiment echoed in the buzz building around Central Avenue's block parties. St. Petersburg and Tampa are also both planning parades if the Rays win the World Series, according to Tampa Bay Times reporting, though those plans remain contingent on the outcome in Milwaukee and beyond. It's not the first time the city has rallied around the Rays in unconventional fashion — back in 2020, St. Petersburg and Visit St. Pete/Clearwater set up roughly 400 socially distanced pods on Spa Beach for pandemic-era watch parties, a very different scene from this weekend's packed Central Avenue blocks.
