Behind the effort to rebuild Tropicana Field's roof

An old look at Tropicana Field because after Hurricane Milton tore apart the Trop's roof, getting the Rays home took an enormous team effort. And now with game one of the World Series tonight, what a chapter in that comeback. So we want to welcome live on to Fox Tampa Bay Live a very special man who was a part of that process, David Paragallo, the specifications communications manager for US projects with the Serge Ferrari Group, which helped create the new roof. And David, how are you? Thank you so much for being with us here. Hello, Regina. How are you doing today? I am so good. I am honestly so honored to talk to you because I keep telling this story because it's something that will be ingrained in my mind forever. When Hurricane Milton came through, I was reporting out in the field. I was assigned to the St. Pete Pinellas County area, and that was one of the first notifications that we got, that the roof was ripping off the trop. And I mean, it was flying all over the highway. We were dodging it on I-275. So to look back at that and then look at what amazing memories have been created in the trop this season, I mean, what does that mean to you to just be a part of that refurbishing process, and then seeing a World Series team play under it. Well, that was a long way. As soon as we watched the news in the past about the roof being damaged by the hurricane, we started to get messages asking us about, mainly saying, what are we gonna do now? What are they gonna do now with the roof? As you know, there were many alternatives like waiting for the new stadium to be built or is that can be that repair can we rebuild the roof with our clients uh so that was a that was a very interesting exercise because every single day was an emergency that everybody involved not only me and our company uh was um was trying to do our best to be ready for the first game of the season and we did So we are very proud of what we did and the work we did with the city, the fans, the team, and everybody involved in Tampa. Yeah, and I mean, I have to ask you, and then forgive me if this is a loaded question because I can't imagine what this process is like. But I mean, what went wrong here? Was it just that it was old, it couldn't sustain those hurricane force winds at that speed? Or when you looked at these images, what went through your head? Well, when you look at the images, the first thing you have to know is that, okay, when was this roof installed? And that was more than about 20 years ago or so. And then you say, okay, it's not old enough. I mean, this fabric solution are designed and engineered to last more than 20 years. But, and this is the most important thing that I wouldn't call it a failure. I just would call it as a, at that time when that roof was designed, weather condition was maybe different. The wind speed that the engineers work and they were given was something that maybe today is not enough. So that is that the original roof 20 years ago was on our roof. But it doesn't mean that we are not concerned because at the end of the day, you don't care who was the company that built that 20 years ago. You see a fabric failing, and the fabric didn't fail. The engineers did their job, and everybody did what they had to do at that time. And so now the new roof is engineered, and it's engineered in America, by the way. So this is American engineering. So it's top engineering that you are having right there in your roof. And that was designed as today requirements. And we are an international company, so you experience a hurricane. But some other countries might experience snow where there were no snow before. Suddenly you get rain in a desert where you were not used to having that. So everything that was designed 20 years ago might not work today, not because of a failure, but because design condition were different. So I noticed when, honestly, it was flying off the roof and we were driving, I didn't realize it. It almost appeared soft, if that makes sense. What are those panels? I guess my question is, what is the roof made out of? Yeah, and that's a very important point. As you can see, the new roof, it's also fabric. So as you can see, it's the solution that it needs to be applied for this kind of project. It is a fabric. I have a piece right here with me. I don't know if you can see, but it's really thin, yeah. So imagine this very thin piece of fabric has to remain there now for the next 20, 25, 30 years. So it's a very high technology, it's a very light structure. And the positive thing about hurricanes damaging this fabric, because they will, what is positive about damaging a roof is that fabric can fly away and it will not damage the structure itself. It will not damage people, because as you can see, it's a fabric. And it's totally different when you have a heavy roof, a really heavy roof. When it collapses, you will be damaging anything that's underneath. And also, you might hurt some people or something around the stadium, because they will be flying away with the hurricane. In this case, you get a piece of fabric. So it's also safe to have this kind of roof, and hopefully it doesn't collapse never again. But if any time because of the weather conditions 20 years later they change, at least you have safety that all these pieces will fly away and will not damage anything. And you have the possibility to replace the roof like we did, but a very low cost comparing of building a new stadium or a completely new design. Yeah, David, I could ask you a million questions. We could talk forever, but one of my biggest questions was about time. I remember you spoke with my colleague this time last year about how a project like this really would have needed about three years and you guys did this in a matter of months. How was that possible? What was that like for you? That's a very good question because we're very proud of what we did. In that conversation, we said three months because it's what we took to produce the fabric in Germany. It's made in Germany. You have a German roof in your facility, but we have local clients. So we did the roof in about three months, which was very, very, very quick because that was about 450,000 square feet of fabric. But then, of course, you have to add additional months to manufacture the panels and then a couple of months of shipping and then installation. So it's more than we did in three months, but then you add a little bit more. However, the results, it was amazing. We had to deliver again before the first game of the season, and we did it in advance. And we knew because your colleagues and everybody in Tampa was telling us we need to bring the team back home before the first game. So we are really happy that we could deliver that and hopefully that was a little help to succeed on the performance of the team today. I know, I was gonna say, did you sprinkle something in it? Does it have good luck in it? Yes, I think we did something special before shipping, so you can get a little good luck. We normally love sports because it's our main field. And when the team that's playing under our roof makes us very, very happy. So we are very happy with the success. And David, I have to ask you, because I remember when you spoke to our team last year you mentioned that you hadn't obviously followed Rays baseball before this project. Did you ever get to go to a game under the roof that you created? No, I didn't and because I didn't find the time. I've traveled a lot because my consultancy is not only the USA, it's also Latin America and our company's Europe. So I'm always traveling. So I didn't have the chance to be there yet. That's okay. But why don't we maybe, we find, I mean, I can make it to Tampa, and I can answer all your question about the roof, but you have to answer all the question I have about the game. I got you, I got you. We can win-win situation where we both can learn on this, yes. We'll help each other out, we'll help each other out. This has been such an incredible conversation, David, again, I could talk to you for hours. What does it mean to you to see a World Series championship on Monday get played under the roof that you were a part of making? Yes, I'm happy and I'm proud of it. Let me show you this. I hope you can see it on screen. Look at that. I hope they gifted that to you. I have it in my office to remind me every single day that anything is possible. So it was possible to deliver on time for us, and I'm pretty sure that it will be possible to be the next champions for this beautiful game that I'm still learning. And again, I need someone to teach me under our roof more about this beautiful game that I'm kind of still a little bit ignorant about it, so. Don't worry, you got plenty of baseball experts here in Tampa Bay. You just let us know when you are coming and we will get that squared away. David Paragallo, we appreciate you so much. Thank you for everything you did, you and your team did, to help get a team that was playing at a minor league field for a year. You helped the Rays get back home, and I'm sure they will be forever grateful for that. Thank you so much for coming on here and talking about it. It was my pleasure. Thank you so much, David. Have a wonderful day. We'll talk soon. We'll see you in Tampa. We'll see each other. Thank you, Regina. Thank you. So guys, this is the wonderful part about Fox Tampa Bay Live is we just get to talk to incredible people that have done incredible things like helping Tropicana Field get back to feeling like her old self.