Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, features a retractable roof.
Despite the roof, the team’s spring training game against the Cleveland Guardians was rained out on Monday night, with the Cactus League game called after six innings due to rain.
Wait, a game in a stadium with a roof got rained out?
How is this possible? Could this happen again? What is being done to prevent this?
Here’s everything we know about the Chase Field roof at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ MLB ballpark, ahead of Opening Day on Thursday, March 28.
The crew detected a potential issue with the integrity of the cables and declared a policy requiring the roof to stay open or closed while fans were present as a preventative safety measure due to the cables.
A broken cable might threaten fans at the ballpark.
The problem has not been resolved, resulting in a rainout on Monday night because the stadium roof was open and could not be closed while people were present.
In 2022, Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall stated that there was no risk of the roof collapsing.
“It’s almost like a bungee-type rope,” Hall added. “Could it snap and collapse, striking a fan? They just don’t know how far it can go down. They do not want to take the chance. But it’s not like the roof may collapse.”
The roof issue has caused the club to cancel some of its popular fireworks performances in the past, as the roof was closed due to hot weather and could not be opened after a game with supporters present.
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The Diamondbacks have guessed right with the weather the past two seasons, having the roof closed or open based on the forecast.
Until Monday night, that is.
There’s always the possibility that a sudden monsoon storm could hit the area around the stadium during games in the future.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said on Monday night that the game might have still been played had it been a regular season game, but the teams and umpires wanted to play it safe during the spring training game.
