Tampa Bay's Stadium Falling Apart

http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGBEH6HRLAE.html

Chunk Of Raymond James Collapses

By ALAN SNEL [email protected]
Published: Jul 1, 2005

TAMPA - First the sun- faded pink seats, now a falling chunk of panel - it's been a tough year for not only the Buccaneers but also for Raymond James Stadium.
The Tampa Sports Authority, which manages the Bucs' home field, was scrambling this month to cope with the collapse of a 28-foot-long chunk of panel from the underside of an upper-deck overhang.

Rain earlier this month led to water leaking through the upper deck and saturating the panel, which tore off its screws and collapsed on seats in the lower bowl June 11, said Mickey Farrell, sports authority operations director.

As a result, the sports authority plans to consider spending as much as $600,000 to repair the damage, Farrell said. The $600,000 would include $200,000 for scaffolding, he said.

The repair work would include replacing all 30 such soffit panels around the stadium before the Bucs' Aug. 20 preseason home opener against Jacksonville, Farrell said. Each panel is 40 feet long.

The sports authority board plans to meet at 3 p.m. today to consider recommendations by the stadium architect, HOK.

The sports authority plans to hire LVI Services of Tampa to remove the panels and also pick a company to replace the panels with new ones that are more resistant to water, Farrell said.

He expects the repair work to be done by Aug. 15. Farrell said there were no events in the stadium until the Aug. 20 game.



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that's some funny shit...

 

It's not the first collapse in that stadium

 

3 weeks ago they got the best endzone pads of any team in the NFL though.

 

Imagine the logistical nightmares they would have faced if this had happened during the season. They are very fortunate this happened during the offseason.