One of the concerns for the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros this offseason was a bad weather potentially impacting work on the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, but Hurricane Matthew had a minimal impact on the facility.
Astros President Reid Ryan says the facility is still scheduled to open this spring, and that the hurricane was too far from the ballpark to cause any major damage. Construction was delayed a day. From the Houston Chronicle:
“We got really, really lucky,” Ryan said. “It ended up being 50 miles more to the north really where it started to hit and get bad. We dodged a major bullet.”….
“Everything’s on schedule,” Ryan said. “Even had we had a direct hit, I don’t know unless we had significant damage that we really had anything to worry about.
“But it’s always concerning. We always said the one thing that could get us off track would be a big hurricane and here came a big hurricane. But luckily it was north and we had really no major issues.”
As noted, the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches is slated to open in 2017 as spring home of the Nationals and Astros. But this really means the ballpark needs to be completed in January, well before players report in February.
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