The owners and tenants of Tropicana Field, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton, have been working for five months to make the heavily damaged home of the Tampa Bay Rays fit for MLB games. facing a short grace period.
On Wednesday night, Hurricane Milton’s strong winds blew off nearly the entire roof of St. Petersburg-owned Tropicana Field, which was scheduled to be used by storm response workers.
Rescue and cleanup efforts remain at hand in the Tampa Bay area, and the city of St. Petersburg is far from making a decision on how to repair its dilapidated stadium, officials said Friday.
“Once the assessment of the situation is complete, the city will work with the Rays to determine the best options,” City Councilwoman Gina Driscoll, whose district includes Tropicana Field, said in a statement to NBC News on Friday.
Rays representatives could not be reached for comment Friday.
The prospect of installing a new roof at Tropicana Field comes at a difficult time for local governments, which are already working on building a new Rays stadium in time for the 2028 season.
That means the investment made in Tropicana Field now will only be used by the Rays for three more seasons.
The best comparison for the situation at Tropicana Field may be the December 11-12, 2010 snowstorm in Minneapolis that caused the roof of the Metrodome to fall.
It cost about $18 million at the time to repair the Minnesota Vikings’ ceiling by July of the following year. Factoring in inflation and the additional costs of rushing Tropicana Field to get it ready for the 2025 opening, a direct replacement could cost at least twice what the Metrodome billed.
But Emily Guglielmo, a California-based structural engineer, said she believes there may be lower-cost alternatives for St. Petersburg and the Rays to consider.
“We live in a time of rapid technological change in this field,” said Guglielmo, chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ seismic committee and a member of the organization’s wind safety committee.
“So we expect a variety of manufacturers to come out with interesting products that we want you to consider.”
As soon as the images of the suddenly open-air Tropicana Field hit the news, dozens of engineers, architects, and contractors from across the United States and around the world would have raced to the drawing board.
Guglielmo said, “There will soon be some very interesting, innovative and economically driven conversations about what opportunities exist for fast, cheap and safe alternatives.”
The Rays are scheduled to open the 2025 season on March 27th at home against the Colorado Rockies.
Representatives for Geiger Engineers, the company that installed the stadium’s roof, did not respond to messages from NBC News seeking comment Thursday. A representative on Friday said the company would not discuss the matter.
However, in an interview with the New York Times, Geiger Engineers executives appeared to shift the blame for the roof destruction to the stadium’s owners and operators.
The roof was “long past its intended useful life,” David Campbell, president of Geiger Engineers, told the newspaper. Trop roofing materials have a lifespan of 25 years. Tropicana Field opened to the public in 1990 and still has its original roof.
