ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0With Tropicana Field reopening Monday, after being damaged in Hurricane Milton, Spectrum Bay News 9 Watchdogs are digging into mold reports, air quality tests and photos taken inside to answer the question: is it safe?<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Hurricane Milton badly damaged Tropicana Field in October 2024, most notably its vinyl roof
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The EPA says molds can grow anywhere as long as moisture and oxygen are present
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City officials hired a mold remediation company to clean the stadium, during and after construction
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Officials with the City of St. Petersburg say Tropicana Field is safe for fans to return<\/p>\n
To sum it up, city officials say the Trop is safe. More than 10% of the $57 million spent by the city of St. Petersburg at the home of the Rays was spent on remediation.<\/p>\n
In the latest round of tests, which just came back, the city’s mold inspector essentially said it\u2019s\u00a0good to go.<\/p>\n
Fans walking in on Monday will be entering a stadium that, the city says, has been tested, treated and, according to their experts, is safe. But getting to that point has been a major undertaking.<\/p>\n
When city crews made their way inside Tropicana Field, just two days after Milton\u00a0hit in October 2024 they found water everywhere: on the floors, in the ceilings, from section 300 down to the 100s.<\/p>\n
The responsibility, and multi-million dollar\u00a0cost, fell mostly to the city of St. Petersburg and Beth Herendeen led the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing\u00a0they did was get that roof matter down, and then separate the bowl from the concourses and other areas so that we didn\u2019t have further damage beyond what Milton did,\u201d Herendeen said.<\/p>\n
But without a roof, any\u00a0rain\u00a0potentially\u00a0brought in water.<\/p>\n
Like in late August 2025, when our meteorologists say\u00a0four inches\u00a0was recorded\u00a0downtown. Photos show\u00a0the dugout flooded, more than waist deep.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the pump system that we had\u2014a fairly\u00a0complex pump system\u2014just couldn’t keep up with that much water in that short period of time,\u201d said Herendeen.<\/p>\n
But the city got creative, using an industrial vacuum, to suck out thousands of gallons of rainwater.<\/p>\n
Every time water came in crews were in a race against time because, as the Environmental Protection Agency lays out in this guidance<\/a> on remediating commercial buildings, \u201cMolds can be found almost anywhere; they can grow\u00a0on virtually any organic substance, as long as moisture and oxygen are present.\u201d<\/p>\n The city paid a local company, Greenfield Environmental, to look for mold and test the air within the Rays offices, comparing the numbers to what\u2019s found outside.<\/p>\n Spectrum News obtained several tests taken from the fall (view August 2025 report here<\/a> | view September\/October 2025 report here<\/a>), and took them to Dr. Marie Bouregois, toxicologist at the University of South Florida to better understanding.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the action level is between 1,500 and 10,000 and one of the areas exceeded that but, for the most part, they were all, sort of, unalarming,\u201d Bouregois said.<\/p>\n