On Wednesday night, Hurricane Milton’s strong winds nearly blew off the entire roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, which had been set up for use by storm response workers.
Drones, television and still images from above St. Petersburg’s domed stadium showed winds of more than 100 mph tearing off large areas of the paneled roof.
Overheard video showed the stadium’s playing field and stands visible through the space where the panels once stood. It is not clear at this time whether there was any major damage inside the stadium.
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High winds also toppled a construction crane at 400 Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, about three-quarters of a mile from Tropicana Field, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries in that area of downtown St. Petersburg, the city said.
As of noon Tuesday, the Florida Department of Emergency Management said it had “established a 10,000-person base camp at Tropicana Field to support ongoing debris removal efforts and post-landfall response forces.” did.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the roof is designed to absorb winds of up to 110 mph. And workers and equipment were removed from Tropicana Field because wind gusts were expected to exceed that threshold, he said.
“They were relocated from the Tropicana because it became clear that something of that magnitude was going to happen far away,” DeSantis told reporters Thursday. “The national asset that was at Tropicana Field never existed.”
The stadium, which opened in 1990, is usually busy with playoff baseball games in October, but not this year.
The Rays finished the season with a record of 80 wins and 82 losses, marking the first time since 2017 that they finished a season with a batting average below .500. They missed the American League playoffs for the first time since 2018.
The club said there was no need to rush to assess the extent of the damage at Tropicana Field.
“Our priority is to support our community and staff. We are fortunate and grateful that no one was injured in last night’s ballpark damage,” the team said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
“We expect to be able to assess the true condition of Tropicana Field over the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, we are working with law enforcement to ensure the building is secure. ”
The Rays are scheduled to open the 2025 season on March 27th at home against the Colorado Rockies.
Contributed by John Filippelli.
