Rays making 5,000-plus upper-deck seats available

The nosebleed seats in the upper deck of Tropicana Field will no longer be draped in blue when the Tampa Bay Rays come back home -- whether that's for Game 6 of the American League Championship Series or Game 1 of the World Series.

With demand for Rays tickets now running high, the team has decided to remove the tarp that covered the highest upper-deck seats all season, freeing room for another 5,762 paying customers. Tickets were slated to go on sale Wednesday to fans who won the chance to buy them in a postseason ticket lottery. Any leftover tickets will go on sale Thursday morning on the team's Web site.

"This was our decision and based on the input and feedback from the fans," Rays president Matt Silverman said, according to the Tampa Tribune. "We want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy this."

The upper-deck seats were covered in part because they're not exactly the best seats in the house. Tropicana Field's infamous catwalks block the view of the field for a number of those seats.

"Some are obstructed-view, some don't have seatbacks, and they're pretty high up," Silverman said, according to the Tribune. "But you're in the ballpark and you're there making a difference to the team."

The Rays had previously said they would remove the tarp only if they reached the World Series, when Major League Baseball would require them to make all seats available, the Tribune reported.

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