ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — The St. Petersburg City Council voted Thursday to approve a plan to repair the roof of Tropicana Field.
The roof was ripped off of the building during Hurricane Milton. Repairs to the roof will cost more than $22 million.
Thursday morning, council members were briefed about the repairs before their vote.
"The main issues that we were working through over the last couple of months, really has been an intense collaborative effort with the Tampa Bay Rays and Major League Baseball, to make sure putting back this material was going to be acceptable to the team," said Raul Quintana, who is the architect for the city of St. Petersburg.
Members of the public blasted council members for even considering making repairs to the stadium.
"It's a shameful embarrassment that the mayor and this council have wasted untold amounts of time, money, and attention groveling to a Wall Street billionaire who has never shown anything but contempt for this area," Jeremy Tolberg said.
However, council members said they are bound by the contract with the team to make the repairs.
"This is our contractual obligation that frankly we all inherited," Council member Brandi Gabbard said.
The contract with the team requires the city to maintain the stadium to major league standards.
When the roof was damaged by Hurricane Milton, many other parts of the facility were also damaged.
The executive offices of the team were damaged too. Gabbard said while the contract requires the city to make repairs to the stadium, it does not require the city to make repairs to team offices.
"I want to be very clear on that, I want to see no package come before us that has a complete remodel of those offices," Gabbard said.
Council members approved the plan to rebuild the roof. Preparation for that work is expected to begin in June.
