ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A detailed assessment of the hurricane damage to Tropicana Field concludes that the home of the Tampa Bay Rays is structurally sound and can be repaired for about $55.7 million in time for the 2026 season.
The 412-page report released Tuesday by the City of St. Petersburg, which owns the building, found that the basic structure of the domed stadium “does not appear to have been adversely affected” by Hurricane Milton's winds, which shredded most of its fabric roof.
“The primary structure is serviceable and capable of supporting a replacement tension membrane fabric roof,” said the report by Hennessy Construction Services.
Eighteen of the ballpark's 24 fabric panels failed when Milton roared ashore Oct. 9, the report found. There was also damage to interior parts of the Trop, as it's known for short, from rainwater and other storm-related causes. The ballpark opened in 1990 and has been the Rays' home since their inception in 1998.
Tropicana Field is already scheduled to be demolished when a new, $1.3 billion ballpark is finished in time for the 2028 season. With unforeseen costs to the city and Pinellas County from two hurricanes — vast amounts of debris removal, damage to parks and infrastructure — two of the main financial sources for the new ballpark could reconsider those plans or decide not to repair the Trop at all.
The St. Petersburg City Council will discuss the report at its Nov. 21 meeting.
“We have so much need across the city,” said council member Brandi Gabbard at a meeting last week. “I love the Rays. I love Tropicana Field. It’s not about not wanting to do this. It’s about a balance of priorities.”
The council recently approved $6.5 million to clean up the ballpark and protect it from any further damage, including waterproofing areas such as the press box, seating sections and scoreboard.
The city does have an insurance claim for the damage and repairs, but it includes a $22 million deductible and probably would only cover part of the overall costs. That means taxpayer dollars could have to be used.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said the city anticipates that insurance and Federal Emergency Management Agency funds will cover the bulk of repair expenses.
"We believe having our hometown team play in St. Petersburg as soon as possible is important for our community,” Welch said in a statement.
Matt Silverman, co-president of the Rays, said in a statement that the team “will continue to have discussions with the city about how to move forward.”
Since the ballpark under this damage and repair assessment would not be ready until the 2026 season, the Rays must find another place to play next year.
Major League Baseball wants the Rays to remain in the area near their fanbase if at all possible, with several Tampa Bay-area spring training sites suggested. These include ballparks in Clearwater (Phillies), Tampa (Yankees), Dunedin (Blue Jays), Sarasota (Orioles), Lakeland (Tigers) and the Rays' own spring training home in Port Charlotte. Most of these locations host minor league teams during summer.
The planned new Rays ballpark is part of a $6.5 billion project that will include affordable housing, a Black history museum, retail and office space, restaurants and bars. The project is known as the Historic Gas Plant District, which was once a thriving Black community displaced by construction of the ballpark and an interstate highway.
One option would be to delay the project by a year to accommodate the Tropicana Field repairs.
“The City plans to meet its obligations to ensure that the Rays can play in St. Pete, and the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District and the construction of a new stadium move forward,” Welch said.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
FILE - The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who served two Republican presidents as one of the country’s best known conservative lawyers and successfully argued on behalf of same-sex marriage, died Wednesday. He was 84.
The law firm Gibson Dunn, where Olson practiced since 1965, announced his death on its website. No cause of death was given.
Olson was at the center of some of the biggest cases of recent decades, including a win on behalf of George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida presidential election recount dispute that went before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Even in a town full of lawyers, Ted’s career as a litigator was particularly prolific," said Mitch McConnell, the longtime Senate Republican leader. “More importantly, I count myself among so many in Washington who knew Ted as a good and decent man."
Bush made Olson his solicitor general, a post the lawyer held from 2001 to 2004. Olson had previously served in the Justice Department as an assistant attorney general during President Ronald Reagan's first term in the early 1980s.
During his career, Olson argued 65 cases before the high court, according to Gibson Dunn. Those included the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 case that eliminated many limits on political giving and a successful challenge to the Trump administration's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
One of Olson's most prominent cases put him at odds with many fellow conservatives. After California adopted a ban on same-sex marriage in 2008, Olson joined forces with former adversary David Boies, who had represented Democrat Al Gore in the presidential election case, to represent California couples seeking the right to marry.
A federal judge in California ruled in 2010 that the state's ban violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court let that decision stand in 2013.
“This is the most important thing I’ve ever done, as an attorney or a person,” Olson later said in a documentary film about the marriage case.
He told The Associated Press in 2014 that the marriage case was important because it "involves tens of thousands of people in California, but really millions of people throughout the United States and beyond that to the world.”
His decision to join the case added a prominent conservative voice to the rapidly shifting views on same-sex marriage across the country.
Boies remembered Olson as a giant in legal circles who “left the law, our country, and each of us better than he found us. Few people are a hero to those that know them well. Ted was a hero to those who knew him best."
Olson's personal life also intersected tragically with the nation's history when his wife, Barbara Olson, died on Sept. 11, 2001. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
In recent years, his other high profile clients have included quarterback Tom Brady during the “Deflategate” scandal of 2016 and technology company Apple in a legal battle with the FBI over unlocking the phone of a shooter who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015.
Barbara Becker, managing partner of Gibson Dunn, called Olson “creative, principled, and fearless”
“Ted was a titan of the legal profession and one of the most extraordinary and eloquent advocates of our time,” Becker said in a statement.
FILE - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, left, talks with former Solicitor General Ted Olson, before President Bush delivers a speech on terrorism in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 6, 2006. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - Former Solicitor General Ted Olson testifies on a panel of experts and character witnesses before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on the final day of the confirmation hearings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Chad Griffin, right, president of the Human Rights Campaign, leaves the Supreme Court, with Jeff Zarrillo, left, and Paul Katami, second from left, the plaintiffs in the California Proposition 8 case, and their attorney Ted Olson, center, in Washington, June 20, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Former United States Solicitor General Ted Olson, center, speaks with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, right, before an installation ceremony for FBI Director Chris Wray at the FBI Building, Sept. 28, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
