Hurricane Milton shreds roof of Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The extortion panels implicit the location of baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays were ripped to shreds aft Hurricane Milton came ashore successful Florida connected Wednesday night, bringing upwind gusts exceeding 100 mph and flooding parts of the state.

It was not instantly wide if determination was harm wrong Tropicana Field, located successful St. Petersburg. Television images showed the swaths that service arsenic the domed building’s extortion were wholly tattered, giving a wide enactment of show to the lights that were connected wrong the stadium.

There were lone indispensable unit wrong the ballpark Wednesday night, each of them harmless and accounted for, the Rays said. It was not being utilized arsenic a structure and nary archetypal responders were being staged there, the squad said, adding that nary authoritative determination astir harm tin beryllium made until the tempest passes and conditions are safe.

The squad antecedently said that Tropicana Field features the world’s largest cable-supported domed roof, with the panels made of “translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass” supported by 180 miles of cables connected by struts.

The extortion was designed to withstand upwind of up to 115 mph, according to the Rays. The stadium opened successful 1990 and initially outgo $138 million. It is owed to beryllium replaced successful clip for the 2028 play with a $1.3 cardinal ballpark.

An NBA preseason crippled successful Orlando betwixt the Magic and the New Orleans Pelicans, scheduled for Friday, was canceled adjacent earlier Milton deed the state. The crippled volition not beryllium rescheduled.

Orlando was playing astatine San Antonio connected Wednesday nighttime and was scheduled to instrumentality to cardinal Florida connected Thursday. Those plans are present successful flux due to the fact that of the storm, which made landfall adjacent Siesta Key, Florida. It forced the airports successful Orlando and Tampa to adjacent and it wasn’t wide erstwhile it would beryllium harmless for the Magic to instrumentality home.

“There’s ever things bigger than the crippled of hoops and that’s what we person to support our position on,” Magic manager Jamahl Mosley said. “Knowing that there’s families and homes and situations that are going done a pugnacious clip close now, we request to beryllium mindful of that and conscious of it.”

The Magic-Pelicans crippled is the 2nd NBA preseason matchup to beryllium affected by Milton. A crippled scheduled for Thursday successful Miami betwixt the Heat and Atlanta Hawks was postponed until Oct. 16 due to the fact that of tempest concerns. Also called disconnected earlier this week: a rescheduled NHL preseason crippled connected Friday successful Tampa betwixt the Lightning and Predators — 1 that was primitively acceptable to beryllium played past period and was postponed due to the fact that of Hurricane Helene.

“Stay harmless Florida!” erstwhile Tampa Bay prima Steven Stamkos, who is entering his archetypal play with Nashville, posted connected societal media Wednesday. “Thinking astir each the astonishing radical successful the Tampa country close now.”

Countless assemblage and precocious schoolhouse events successful Florida besides person been canceled oregon postponed due to the fact that of the storm.

For now, 2 planned exhibitions by Simone Biles and different Olympic gymnasts — portion of the “Gold Over America Tour,” the acronym not coincidentally spelling retired GOAT successful a motion to Biles’ presumption arsenic the statement Greatest Of All-Time successful the athletics — this play are inactive on. The circuit is scheduled to travel to Sunrise, the location of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, connected Friday and past determination to Orlando connected Saturday.
Gulfstream Park successful Hallandale Beach, which is northbound of Miami, is scheduled to resume unrecorded racing connected Friday. Saturday’s assemblage shot crippled with Cincinnati going to Orlando to look UCF is inactive on, and the Memphis-South Florida crippled successful Tampa was rescheduled earlier this week to beryllium played Saturday.

UCF and USF officials person some said further decisions volition beryllium made, if necessary, aft the tempest harm is evaluated.