Take Me Out to the Floating Ballpark

“Sites that once appeared to be great places to build a ballpark are now expected to be underwater.”

—Tampa Bay Rays President Brian Auld, on the predicament of trying to find a location for a new ballpark in the Tampa–St. Petersburg area, which is susceptible to rising sea levels. The Major League Baseball team is looking to build a new stadium but has already rejected two waterfront locations, partially because of potential problems with flooding and seawater inundation in the future. Vincent Lee of the global design and consulting firm Arup, which has worked on numerous stadium projects, noted that sports teams are increasingly considering climate change when searching for stadium sites. “It takes a long time to design large stadiums and get them approved, and they have a shelf life of about 50 years,” Lee said. “So when you look at the horizon for planning, design, construction, and expected shelf life, it puts you out into a massive uncertainty about what the world is going to look like, especially in coastal areas.” The Rays currently play at Tropicana Field, which opened in 1998. [Source: Climatewire]

Photo Credit: iStock.com/tinik

This content was taken from the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS), the flagship magazine of AMS. View this BAMS parcel and more!