The roof at Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, sustained major damage because of high winds associated with Hurricane Milton, which made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm.
Pictures and video on social media showed most of the fabric covering the domed roof torn off.
Capt. Garth Swingle of St. Petersburg Fire Rescue told ABC News that there has been contact with the people inside and that they are safe. It wasn’t immediately known whether there was damage inside the stadium.
No injuries at the stadium were reported. 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. The facility was set up to host 10,000 people, with cots arranged on the playing surface.
But those plans were changed as the storm neared, amid concerns that the roof simply would not survive Milton’s wrath.
“They were relocated,” DeSantis said at a Thursday morning news conference. “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.”
The roof is made from ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a polymer that is stronger than glass but significantly lighter. The metal frame appeared to be unscathed.
According to the Rays, the Trop was built to withstand winds of up to 115 mph. The roof is supported by 180 miles of cables connected by struts in what the team calls the “world’s largest cable-supported domed roof.”
The stadium opened in 1990 and initially cost $138 million. It is due to be replaced in time for the 2028 season with a $1.3 billion ballpark.
DeSantis said Thursday that Milton was a significant storm but not “the worst-case scenario,” telling reporters that the worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet.
“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” DeSantis said. “The storm was significant, but, thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario.”
Although the deadly storm surge feared for Tampa appears not to have materialized, the situation in the area was still a major emergency. The city itself saw flooding, and St. Petersburg recorded over 16 inches of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding there as well as other parts of western and central Florida.
About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By late Wednesday, the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of about 105 mph and storm surge warnings were in effect for parts of Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic coastlines.
Concerns over the storm and its effects on Florida led to the cancellation of Friday’s preseason game in Orlando between the Magic and the New Orleans Pelicans, the NBA said. Orlando played at San Antonio on Wednesday night and was scheduled to return to central Florida on Thursday. A team spokesperson said the Magic now will stay an extra day in San Antonio before departing Friday.
The NFL’s Jaguars modified their London travel plans Thursday because of the storm, pushing their departure from Jacksonville to later in the evening. The team also is moving Thursday practice by several hours.
Countless college and high school sporting events in Florida also have been canceled or postponed because of the storm, which forecasters said is likely to bring drenching rain across a wide swath of the state.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
