Roof repairs mean fan-favorite Chase Field ritual is back for 2025
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Good news for fans attending games at Chase Field this season -- the ballpark¡¯s retractable roof is on target to be fully functional for the March 27 home opener against the Cubs.
For the past two years, the team has not felt comfortable opening and closing the roof with fans in the ballpark due to a cable issue. That meant that club executives had to decide whether the roof would be closed or open before the gates to the ballpark opened.
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It took away the team¡¯s ability to close the roof if an unexpected storm came through town. That happened during an exhibition game at the ballpark last March when a sudden rainstorm caused the first rainout in the stadium¡¯s history.
It also meant that over the past two years, the team could not offer its usual Friday night fireworks once summer hit because the roof needed to be closed for the game.
Since the Diamondbacks began play in 1998, the pregame opening of the Chase Field roof in April, May -- and sometimes early June when temperatures allowed for it -- was accompanied by music and was part of the ballpark experience.
That will return in 2025.
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¡°Obviously the opening of the roof has always been a ceremonial part of our pregame,¡± D-backs team president and CEO Derrick Hall said. ¡°It¡¯s important to be able to open it up in the summertime on a Friday night for fireworks, which we have not been able to do. We haven¡¯t been able to make last-minute decisions about opening or closing the roof based on weather conditions, either. For so many reasons, we need it to be operational, and we just haven't been able to utilize it like we have as part of the game experience. This year, we¡¯ll be able to.¡±
The catchment system will act as a safety measure should something happen with the cables, which Hall said was unlikely.
¡°It's like huge, heavy metal plates that would catch anything,¡± Hall said. ¡°Now, we still don't think that we were at risk of anything falling, but we wanted to add it as a precautionary measure to make sure we¡¯re being as safe as possible.¡±
Construction on the catchment system began following the Rate Bowl college football game played at Chase Field on Dec. 26.
The installation is expected to be complete and functional by mid-February.