TAMPA, Fla. — The tall building with its big glass windows sits between the main field at George M. Steinbrenner Field and the primary practice field. It’s new, and it boasts all kinds of amenities for New York Yankees players at spring training. There are lounges, a kitchen, a hydrotherapy room and a two-story weight room with an outdoor turf area.

The team said the structure occupies “previously unutilized lawn space” in a news release unveiling the renovations in mid-February.

Some fans said last week that space — a wide strip of grass that ran beside the practice field, allowing them to be closer to the action — was the biggest reason they traveled hundreds of miles from their homes to visit Yankees camp every year. Now that it’s been taken away, they said, they’re rethinking whether they’ll return.

“Our plans now are not to come back,” said Leah McKillips from Louisiana.

Another fan, Bill Rochelle from New Jersey, expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “There’s no incentive to come back.

“We come down here for player access, and then we enjoy a game. But once you take player access away, there’s no reason for us to spend all that money to come down here. We can take that money and put it into something else or go to a game at Yankee Stadium, but there’s no reason to travel into Florida to do that.”

“(We feel) kind of sold short,” said Mike Glick from Maryland.

For years, fans filled the area between the main field and the practice field. From behind a chain-link fence that extended from around third base down the left-field foul line, they watched as Yankees icons like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Aaron Judge went through pregame workouts. They also would watch from behind home plate and down a portion of the first-base line.

Often, fans, players and coaches would interact. They would wave. They would talk.

Sometimes, players would approach the fence for pictures and high-fives or to give autographs. But with the new building occupying that space, a handful of fans said they don’t feel the same intimacy that used to come with Yankees spring training. And that while they can still stand along the fence behind home plate and first base, the tall fences make receiving high-fives and autographs significantly more difficult, the fans said. Also, players enter and exit the field from deep in left field and are less likely to approach the fence along the first base line.

However, the Yankees’ plan was never to intentionally restrict fan access to players, a team spokesman said. Rather, he said, where the new building stands was just the most logical space for expansion.

“Our most pressing goal leading into the first day of camp was to have all of the renovation enhancements in place and operational for our players and field staff,” the spokesman added. “We recognize a larger footprint now exists because of the extensive renovations and has, in turn, impacted a portion fan foot traffic outside of Field 2. We plan to have internal conversations leading into the spring of 2026 centered around the potential creation of new spaces that will allow for additional player-fan engagement.

“The intimacy created between players and fans during spring training is what makes this time of the year so romantic, and our future efforts will be framed with that in mind.”

Judge, the Yankees’ star right fielder, said he’s tried to find ways to connect with fans this spring.

“They’re still behind home plate,” Judge said. “During (batting practice), there’s still plenty of time to go over and sign. Probably not getting the best signature. It’s tough signing through the wall. … For the kids, it doesn’t matter. Giving them a chance to spend time with you. Maybe the guys who are selling autographs are a little bit upset, but for me, it’s always been about the kids. Sharing a moment. Sharing a memory.

“For me, I go back and look at old autographs I got at a baseball game, I don’t even remember what the autograph looked like. Just spending that five seconds, 10 seconds with one of my favorite players, seeing that he cared enough to take the time to say hello and sign something, I think that was the most important thing.”

A fence along the team’s tertiary practice field at the facility was made accessible to fans when workouts began on Feb. 12 until the first spring training game on Feb. 21, but the field is mostly used for infield defensive work and pitchers fielding practice.

Michael Russel visited with his three sons before the Yankees hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 16. The Rochester, N.Y., resident said he used to visit Yankees spring training with his parents. That morning, Russel drove his kids about 90 miles from where they were staying in Orlando. When he noticed that fan access had been limited, he was disappointed.

“That sucks,” he said. “You always had access. The big thing was the access. You’d come and see whoever you wanted to see, and the players were out there all the time.”

Glick said he flew to Tampa with his son, Sam, for a “father-son trip” they had been making together for the last eight years. Sam Glick, who said he has baseballs signed by Yankees players Andy Pettitte, Dellin Betances, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks and Willie Randolph, said he saw the building for the first time and said to himself, “What the heck is this thing?”

“We walked all the way around and then you come to find there’s nowhere for the fans,” he said. “I can sit and watch them in the stadium, which I am, but what’s the difference being here versus in New York?”

“It’s one of the main reasons we came here,” Mike Glick said. “It’s the excitement for me when we’re here, especially when my son was younger, seeing him get an autograph. That’s the part that really connects you with the team. Now it’s just, ‘Thanks for coming, now you’ve got to go sit in the stands and watch us from afar.’”

Standing behind home plate, McKillips, 78, said she and her husband had been going to Yankees spring training for the last 15 years. She said she knew the team was building something that might cut into where fans would congregate the most, “but we didn’t know how drastic it would be.”

“We used to go on the other end and we used to have all this fun waiting for the players,” she added. “We brought our beach chairs. I would always come (at) 7, 7:30 in the morning (by) the dugout. I would watch the grounds crew. I think it’s made a lot of people angry out here.”

The renovations also allowed for 12,000 additional square feet of concourse space for fans atop the building where they could buy more concessions, the team said. But it also came after other restrictions to spaces that once had enabled more intimacy between fans and players, including the team eliminating fans’ ability to see into the team’s bullpens and MLB-mandated safety netting taking away more areas on the main field for fans and players to interact.

This spring, the Yankees sold four separate dates of what it called “The Inside Experience,” which for $500 per ticket included an on-field viewing of pre-game batting practice. Fans who paid the fee often stood in front of the fans watching batting practice from behind the chain-link fence on the practice field.

Rueben Grandal grew up as a Yankees fan in New Jersey but now lives about an hour away in Bradenton, Fla. He said that he and his son, Lorenzo, have begun traveling to spring training road games to see the Yankees. They bring with them a big white flag with navy pinstripes and a Yankees logo, hoping to spend a moment with players and get as many of them to sign it as they can.

Grandal was standing at the fence behind home plate. Not far to his left, a big gray metal door separated fans from the third-base dugout, where Yankees players and personnel shaded themselves from the sun.

“Every other ballpark, you’re able to get real close to the players, with respect, and get autographs,” he said.