The Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field was severely damaged on Wednesday night – and it might not be repaired anytime soon.
Amid the devastating winds from Hurricane Milton, which hit into Florida’s Gulf Coast and has left at least 13 people dead, the roof of the ‘Trop’ was ripped to shreds.
Now, the organization has said it may take weeks to fully assess the damage done to what the team calls the world’s largest cable-supported domed roof.
According to the team, the roof was designed to withstand wind of up to 115 mph.
‘Over the coming days and weeks, we expect to be able to assess the true condition of Tropicana Field,’ the Rays said Thursday.
The home of the Tampa Bay Rays has been left completely devastated by Hurricane Milton
‘In the meantime, we are working with law enforcement to secure the building. We ask for your patience at this time, and we encourage those who can, to donate to organizations in our community that are assisting those directly impacted by these storms.’
The team says that the panels of the roof are made of ‘translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass’ supported by 180 miles of cables connected by struts.
The stadium opened in 1990 at an initial cost $138 million and is due to be replaced in time for the 2028 season with a $1.3 billion ballpark.
However, there will surely now be repairs made earlier, as initial footage posted on social media showed huge holes in the domed roof , with material flapping in the vicious winds.
The team said no one was injured when the St. Petersburg ballpark was struck by the storm Wednesday night.
A handful of ‘essential personnel’ were inside Tropicana Field as the roof panels were blown apart, with much of the debris falling on the field and seats below.
The Rays aren’t scheduled to play in the ballpark again until March 27, when they are supposed to host the Colorado Rockies to open the 2025 season.
The Ray’s NFL neighbors, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, also saw their stadium flooded by Milton.
And Saturday’s scheduled NHL game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes has been forced to be postponed as well.
As of Thursday night, nearly two thousand gas stations are without fuel and over 3 million Floridians are without power.
Additionally, around 25% of the nearly 8,000 filling stations in the state are out of gasoline, with over 63% in Tampa and St. Petersburg, the hardest cities hit by the storm.
Hurricane Milton pounded Tampa this week as citizens are still dealing with the impact
The ballpark had initially been transformed into a base for first responders ahead of the storm
A flooded street with debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton is seen in Siesta Key, Florida
For as bad as the damage was, the situation at Tropicana Field could have been worse. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had said earlier in the week that there were plans for the ballpark to serve as a ‘temporary base camp’ to support debris cleanup operations and temporarily house some first responders.
‘They were relocated,’ DeSantis said Thursday morning. ‘Tropicana Field is a routine staging area for these things. The roof on that … I think it’s rated for 110 mph and so the forecast changes, but as it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they redeployed them out of Tropicana. There were no state assets that were inside Tropicana Field.’
Milton was downgraded to a Category 3 storm before it hit Siesta Key at around 8.30pm local time on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It then moved across Central Florida, bringing flooding and high winds, before traveling out over the Atlantic Ocean where it will dissipate.
