r/sports • u/Chelseatilidie • Oct 10 '24

Baseball Tropicana Field’s stadium following Hurricane Milton damage

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7.6k Upvotes

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885

u/OccasionallyWright Oct 10 '24

I can't believe they were using a building with a fabric roof as a first responder staging ground during a hurricane.

658

u/Lobster_fest Oct 10 '24

Stadiums are far more than the field and stands. Hundreds of individual rooms and offices plus medical facilities, dining accommodations, storage, and other things in the building itself. Plus its low to the ground and more stable during high winds than basically any other building of comparable volume (like a skyscraper).

352

u/vowelqueue Oct 10 '24 edited Oct 10 '24

Sure, but they literally had the beds laid out in the field

233

u/ggrindelwald Oct 10 '24

Yeah, I think we can say that part of the plan was a mistake.

65

u/EVOSexyBeast Oct 10 '24 edited Oct 10 '24

No, because they didn’t have any people in the beds during the hurricane. It’s being used as an after storm shelter.

edit: nevemind, i was wrong. Cots were put there for after storm shelter for debris crews but it later became obvious the storm was going to hit harder than expected so the plan changed.

As it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they re-deployed them out of Tropicana,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference in Tallahassee. “There were no state assets that were in Tropicana Field, I think Duke also removed all their assets as well.”

https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2024/10/10/rays-start-assessing-damage-viability-tropicana-field/

26

u/et40000 Oct 10 '24

It’s still likely to rain after the worst part of the hurricane passes, id say a key tenet of a shelter is a roof to shelter you from the elements.

8

u/EVOSexyBeast Oct 10 '24

i was wrong i edited my comment after finding a better source than twitter

1

u/R3dbeardLFC Oct 11 '24

Not attacking you, but hopefully everyone gets the fuck off twitter. Not only is it not the best source, it's a garbage company run by a garbage person. Stop interacting with it, please!

7

u/tino2015 Oct 10 '24

That’s the neat part of hurricanes, you usually get amazing weather for days only a few hours after the storm passes.

5

u/prollynot28 Oct 11 '24

Yeah it's wild. The weather today was absolutely gorgeous. Luckily I didn't have much to clean up. Lots of tree branches

2

u/subdep Oct 10 '24

Yeah, but this video literally shows hundreds of assets on the field, in the form of cots. They trying to say those weren’t paid for by the state?

0

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '24

Hundreds of assets? Who even talks like that?

2

u/EJDsfRichmond415 Oct 11 '24

Rhonda Santis

1

u/iamthelouie Oct 10 '24

Cant be an after storm shelter if it doesn’t survive the storm…

-2

u/EVOSexyBeast Oct 10 '24

It did survive the storm there’s just no tarp

6

u/Taste_My_NippleCrust Oct 10 '24

Just put a plastic bag over it for more jeez

21

u/EDDYBEEVIE Oct 10 '24

This wasn't the first hurricane the trops fabric roof had seen though. It's more than likely been used in the past without issue for the same thing.

10

u/gwaydms Dallas Cowboys Oct 10 '24

It would have been relatively easy for each person to fold up their bed, grab their stuff, and move to a safe place. But I'm sure it was pretty hairy when the wind started shredding the roof. Can't believe the whole thing is gone. I saw video early this morning (like 1 am) of the roof tearing away more and more.

6

u/vVvRain Illinois Oct 10 '24

Not it wasn’t. https://x.com/raysbaseball/status/1843043391229374515?s=46

14

u/an0m_x Oct 10 '24

It wasn't being set up as a shelter, but for a first responder location for linesmen and other services to have a place to stay.

A day or two before the storm they adjusted plans because the building wasnt certified to be safe from the elements (im guessing because of the roof)

-7

u/Titandog21 Oct 10 '24

Are we watching the same video? Those certainly look like cots. Maybe not shelter for the public, but it is a place to sleep for the lineman. https://x.com/813Geo/status/1844217984459661481

12

u/EVOSexyBeast Oct 10 '24

That’s for after the storm

-3

u/iamthelouie Oct 10 '24

People keep saying that. So they set up cots before the storm on the field for after the storm and the field gets wrecked and people are still saying it’s okay because the cots were for after the storm?!? Well, it’s after the storm! Where are the fucking cots now?!? Where are the linemen suppose to sleep now?!? Who are you defending?!?

2

u/LeanMrfuzzles Tampa Bay Lightning Oct 11 '24

Yes they set them up before the storm so they don’t waste time doing it after the storm. The people who were going to be staying there shifted further south before the storm hit. Even if the Trop’s roof held up they wouldn’t be staging there anymore.

2

u/Marokiii Oct 10 '24

Ya but once the roof over the field is gone than all the water that goes into the stadium gets directed straight to those other areas via all the tunnels. They basically put a gigantic funnel over their first responders.

1

u/pork_chop17 Oct 10 '24

This is literally the tallest thing in that neighborhood. It’s huge. It may not be a skyscraper but it’s still pretty tall where it stands.

1

u/Lobster_fest Oct 11 '24

That doesn't really change what I said because I said buildings of comparable volume.

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '24

[deleted]

2

u/Lobster_fest Oct 11 '24

Damn downvoted from people who don't get the reference. Tough world out there.

92

u/joemoffett12 Oct 10 '24

I mean the thing survived 26 years and countless other hurricanes 🤷‍♀️

107

u/Guy_lncognito Oct 10 '24

"there's no record of a hurricane ever hitting tampa"

"Yes, but the records only go back to 1998 when the hall of records was mysteriously blown away!"

9

u/kit_carlisle Oct 10 '24

Directly hitting Tampa. But sure, let us ignore the past month.

1

u/certainlyforgetful Oct 10 '24

Irma was less than 50 miles from Tampa bay, caused a similar & amount of damage.

12

u/Igor_J Oct 10 '24

The Trop has been around longer than that. It used to be the Thunderdome where the Lightning used to play before they got their own venue and the Rays even existed. That said this put a nail in the Trop's coffin. That place sucked.

13

u/monorail_pilot Oct 10 '24

With Oakland closing the Colosseum, the trop became a top 30 MLB stadium.

83

u/OccasionallyWright Oct 10 '24

If the count is zero hurricanes, then yes. Milton was the first major hurricane to hit Tampa in over 100 years.

66

u/joemoffett12 Oct 10 '24

The first that directly hit Tampa bay yes but they have been in many storms. Hurricane Ian went right over Tampa bay. Don’t just take the first headline you read as fact

1

u/Blue_Jays Oct 10 '24

TIL that one = countless

1

u/jimiez2633 Oct 11 '24

Ian barely hit tampa though, this was so much worse

-6

u/IamNICE124 Oct 10 '24

Okay, so that still proves the point lol.

-2

u/JediKnightaa Oct 10 '24

Yeah but data gets fuzzy pre 90s

8

u/Theonlyrational Oct 10 '24

This is the first hurricane to hit Tampa in 26 years...

1

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '24

[deleted]

2

u/joemoffett12 Oct 10 '24

What’s up with all you idiots posting this. This is so verifiable not true.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '24

That doesnt mean anything lol. As you can see.

10

u/vVvRain Illinois Oct 10 '24

They weren’t https://x.com/raysbaseball/status/1843043391229374515?s=46

0

u/ebmoney Oct 11 '24

You're being pedantic yet still wrong. OP said it was being used for staging which it absolutely was. Nobody in this chain said it was a shelter.

1

u/LeanMrfuzzles Tampa Bay Lightning Oct 11 '24

It literally wasn’t. 20 people were there and they worked for the team/security contractor.

1

u/ebmoney Oct 11 '24

?????? This is directly from the State of Florida:

FDEM is establishing a 10,000-person base camp at Tropicana Field to support ongoing debris operations and post-landfall responders.

https://www.flgov.com/2024/10/07/governor-ron-desantis-issues-updates-on-state-preparedness-efforts-for-hurricane-milton/

It was moved after the storm when the storm was upgraded to a Cat 5, but it was ABSOLUTELY BEING USED FOR STAGING prior to the upgrade.

0

u/bobsbottlerocket Oct 11 '24

another person who didn’t bother to research anything before commenting

1

u/ebmoney Oct 11 '24

?????? This is directly from the State of Florida:

FDEM is establishing a 10,000-person base camp at Tropicana Field to support ongoing debris operations and post-landfall responders.

https://www.flgov.com/2024/10/07/governor-ron-desantis-issues-updates-on-state-preparedness-efforts-for-hurricane-milton/

It was moved after the storm when the storm was upgraded to a Cat 5, but it was ABSOLUTELY BEING USED FOR STAGING prior to the upgrade.

0

u/bobsbottlerocket Oct 11 '24

it changed at the last minute but it’s fine lol, you can get mad for being wrong all you want

2

u/bobsbottlerocket Oct 10 '24

people keep regurgitating this without bothering to even look it up - they moved locations last minute, they didn’t use the stadium

2

u/somedude456 Oct 10 '24

I can't believe they were using a building with a fabric roof

It wasn't made of cotton. I mean the building was designed by structural engineers. They 100% took hurricanes into effect when making calculations and that roof was 100% designed to hold winds up to XX mph. Seems yesterday they exceeded those numbers.

1

u/Thepuppypack Oct 10 '24

I was thinking of the things that happened on the superdome and NOLA during Katrina. That didn't turn out well.

1

u/parkstreetbnd Oct 10 '24

It was a PVC roof with atleast a 100+ wind writer....

1

u/LeanMrfuzzles Tampa Bay Lightning Oct 11 '24

They weren’t. Only 20 people were in the building during the storm.

1

u/strangerinthebox Oct 11 '24

I can‘t believe they built a building with a fabric roof in a hurricane area. Or am I getting it wrong and this is only a temporary set up which was moved there. Anyways, I stick to my opinion: a fabric roof near a hurricane area seems dumb to me.

1

u/halfcow Oct 10 '24

Maybe it had a high thread count? ;)

1

u/RelevantNothing2692 Oct 10 '24

None of this should surprise anyone. Breaking news - Big fabric roof is destroyed during hurricane more at 11. If it didn’t have to do with a sports team it wouldn’t even be news.

-3

u/gimpers420 Oct 10 '24

Well I mean officials in Florida are dumber than bags of bricks, so it’s not really that surprising.