Hurricane Milton raged across Florida yesterday, making landfall just south of Tampa Bay, sparing that metro area the worst of the storm surge. But while it’s hardly the most important thing about a storm whose damage is only just becoming apparent, Milton also did this to the Rays‘ stadium:
If you, like me, weren’t actually aware that the Tropicana Field roof was made of fabric stretched on a steel frame, our new 21st-century climate decided to make it clear to all. Only a couple of panels remain, with shreds of the rest now littering the field below in a scene reminiscent of the final days of the Pontiac Silverdome:
Ironically enough, the dome was set up with cots to be a shelter for first responders during the storm, which thankfully it wasn’t being used for yet at the time.
There’s been no response yet from the Rays or the city of St. Petersburg (the stadium’s owner) about how bad the damage is or how long it will take to repair. The internet is already joking about the Rays relocating elsewhere for the start of next season or just playing with no roof (okay, the latter was me). Updates once they become available, which may be delayed slightly by a crane falling on the Tampa Bay Times’ office building.
Smiths Ballpark is available, the University of Utah is only taking 34 dates, and only next year. St Petersburg has alot more to worry about now than a ballpark development.
It’s been a bad stretch for venues named Tropicana.
“According to the Rays’ media guide, the Trop ‘features the world’s largest cable-supported domed roof,’ which is ‘made of six acres of translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass and supports itself with 180 miles of cables connected by struts.’”
https://www.mlb.com/news/tropicana-field-roof-damaged-during-hurricane-milton
Fiberglass is a fabric? Fiberglass cloth is, but that’s a different thing, no?
Somehow the Trop has made it to 34 years old without anyone putting on the internet what its roof is (or was) actually made of…
I have a vague recollection of construction ongoing in 1990.
The stadium was built for whatever sports team that planned to call Tampa / St Pete home in the future (the rays didn’t move in until 1998, but they tried to lure various sports teams there – including the nfls raiders).
It was known at the time that the roof was some kind of fabric, reinforced with a vague something or another to give it the ability to stand up to extreme weather. (its possible that we were told it was fiberglass, but it was 30+ years ago and that detail is lost).
But the fact that it was fabric got lost along the way.
…And sure enough, the fabric held up well. Until last night.
They should move to Oakland for a year
Maybe the Rays will end up playing in Montreal after all.
According to what I could find, it took seven months for the Vikings to fix the Metrodome roof after snow caved it in in 2010.
That cost the insurance companu $18m. The whole stadium was gone three years later. Like buying all new tires for a car six months before the engine blows up.
So maybe a similar timeline here.
The Rays could maybe barnstorm around the various spring training stadiums in the area.
“The Rays could maybe barnstorm around the various spring training stadiums in the area.”
That would make sense. It’s not like they have a history of selling 30K tickets a night.
I assume there’s insurance involved, but if not, I’d hope they’d go topless for a couple of years until the new stadium is done. Either at a roofless Trop or the smaller sites in the region.
Keith: except the Trop has no drainage system since, you know, it had a roof…..
Drainage was cited by StL Dome officials when the motion was floated of removing some or all of the roof.
Wet/dry robo vacuums!
Thanks, good point.
Looks like the Rays need a new billion-dollar interim stadium until their newer billion-dollar final stadium is complete.
With the amount of damage in Florida from hurricanes, fixing the roof on a soon to be demolished baseball stadium should be a low priority. The Rays could also tour potential Southern MLB markets like Charlotte and Nashville for the next few years.
The Durham Rays would be grand – hit ray, win sashimi.
As much as I dislike the public funding of Sports stadiums. As much as I hate the culture of sports teams throwing away old places, instead of maintaining what they have, And as much as I dislike the fact that that no one listens to me about that…
The facts are the deal is done and the Rays will be in St. Pete for decades to come. The Trop is a perfectly acceptable place to pay baseball, it was comfortable to me and seats were cheap, and the AC good. All the jokes about it make no difference to me. That stadium was paid off.
However, what the damage to the Trop represented was the very first sign in the dark how much damage the storm was going to cause. And that is shocking and sad.
It wasn’t a design fault, maleficence human error or lack of care. It is simply a direct result of taking a Teflon coated fiberglass cloth and having it sit in 34 years of Florida UV radiation.
Despite my misgivings, apparently, I am going to be forced to help pay for a new stadium. Well, fine then. At least that means that I can say this:
The Tampa Bay Rays belong to Saint Petersburg now, for just about the rest of my lifetime. And all those other cities who express hopes to come in and steal our team away can find some other team to loot. When the rays take the field in March, it may not be at the trop, But you can bet it will be in Florida. And if you don’t like it, well, We don’t care.
All the jokes can wait. Especially this week.
And even after 34 years, I don’t think it would’ve occurred to anyone that the roof might need to be replaced, or even that it was something that might even need replacing at all. It had gone through so many other (albeit weaker) storms, both daily and tropical, that people just assumed it would always be there.
The rest of the structure looks like it held up fine at first glance, though that’s obviously better left for the engineers and inspectors to check…
I think it was known. There were some articles about it being well past its service life. But the general idea was to avoid doing it since the stadium would be replaced.
Curious (but not curious enough to look it up) about how the proposed site for the Rays new stadium held up after the recent storms………
Considering that the new site is in the Trop Parking lot, pretty well. On the whole, This storm went about as well for St. Pete as a storm with 120MPH wind gusts and 18 inches of rain in 4 hours could be expected.
The gods aren’t angry, we ripped the roof off so we could watch some Rays baseball!
I know people have their jokes about the Trop, but really it isn’t terrible as they constantly made it out to be. If nothing else, you knew going in that the game was going to be no matter the outside conditions, and that it was going to be cool, calm, and 72 degrees inside from the first pitch to the final out.
As for the possible temporary venues if the repairs don’t happen in time, or at all: don’t be shocked if they decamp to the Orlando area — specifically, the sportsplex at Disney — for up to one season.
Most of the spring training facilities in the Tampa Bay region (and the wider West Central and Southwest Florida regions) are also used for Single-A ball, with schedules that mostly overlap the MLB season. In theory, they could go to the 11,000-seat capacity in Tampa, next to where the Bucs stadium is… but even aside from the schedule complications, it’s not certain the Yankees (who own the stadium) would allow for a ground-share arrangement, and that the Rays themselves would want the optics of playing MLB games at a stadium named after George Steinbrenner.
This wouldn’t be a problem at the WWOS complex at Disney, where the Rays were actually forced to go to for spring training last year… because of hurricane damage at their normal facilities down in Port Charlotte. It’s not currently scheduled to host any spring training games or sessions, and also hasn’t hosted a minor league team for some time. And while this was from a while ago, they did play several regular-season series at the WWOS complex during the 2000s, including the year they won their first-ever pennant.
It’s a small-ish venue comparable to the other spring training ballparks in Florida; and even for a low-revenue, low-attendance team like the Rays, the resulting dent in attendance might prove to be considerable. But absent any other clear choices (no chance they would do a “barnstorming” type arrangement, for example), it could end up being the only viable one they have.
I Agree. People shouldn’t slag on the Trop’s catwalks while still loving Boston’s green monstrosity, the Pesky Pole, and Wrigley’s dangerous ivy walls.