St. Pete police prepare for World Series

Welcome back. St. Petersburg police say more than 100 officers, including some undercover, will be working when the World Series comes to Tropicana Field next week. As city leaders just wrapped up a briefing on security and traffic ahead of game three, FOX 13's Matthew McClellan is live on this story for us this morning, live at St. Pete Police Headquarters. This is a big operation, Matt. Yes, it is. So police are saying right now that traffic is the thing that's going to be the biggest issue when these games come home. They're asking fans to get here early on Monday. In fact, they're going to be opening up the gates at the trap three hours before first pitch. And police are warning that it could take quite some time to get out of here after the game. We know more than 100 officers are going to be working while still keeping enough police available to answer calls elsewhere in the city, of course. And there will be uniformed and undercover officers, we're told, along with state and federal partners. Police are going to use drones to watch traffic and pedestrian flow. Canine teams are going to check the stadium before the games. Mayor Ken Welch says more than 100,000 people could visit St. Pete during the World Series. But for Welch, having baseball back on this stage also carries a significant, a different significance. After the hurricanes two years ago, badly damaged the Trop and thousands of homes and businesses. The real celebration is how far this community has come back in two years. You know what the Trop looked like two years ago. It looked like a sci-fi film. And a of folks wondered if we'd ever have baseball back in St. Pete or in Tampa Bay. And I think in a lot of ways, if we hadn't had a team that looked at this, you know, did all the math on it and said, yeah, we can get this done, Mayor, in a global enterprise, you know, the panels were made in Germany, put together in China, shipped here. You saw them go up two at a time. You saw workers 200 feet above the Trop doing that work every day. This This is a story of resilience, and it's a story we ought to tell everywhere. So that's what I'm excited about. Now the focus turns to getting tens of thousands of people in and out safely. Police say pedestrians are gonna get priority as crowds leave the Trop, giving you a live look at the shuttle map here. So drivers should expect delays after the game. And one money saving tip from the chief, he says they're seeing parking around the stadium averaging about $150. So he says that some downtown parking is available for around 25. can take a shuttle from there. That is the pro tip from the chief of police. Take the shuttle, pay less for parking downtown. Game three, Monday night, but of course, game one tonight in Milwaukee. Back to you. All right, Matt McClellan, live for us this morning. Matt, thank you.