TORONTO (AP) — One game is already lost, and today's meeting of the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals was in jeopardy after chunks of the retractable roof at SkyDome fell to the field.
"Some very big pieces of metal fell on to the field," Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey said Thursday. "We're very, very thankful there was no one on the field that could have got hurt."
The retractable roof was being opened when two of the three panels collided, causing two large tears.
The accident occurred at about 3:30 p.m. EDT, while some Royals players were taking extra batting practice.
Godfrey said about 10 pieces of the roof remain loose, and it would take at least 10 hours to secure them.
"We're hopeful that the repairs can be done in the next 10 hours, and hopefully tomorrow's 4 o'clock game will be played," Godfrey said. "I won't allow a game to go on unless people feel comfortable coming here."
The damage occurred during a routine test. A giant panel — one of three movable panels in the roof — jammed, causing another panel to ram into the stalled section. That ripped off some sheet metal and insulation, which fell to the ground .
"A control switch is supposed to shut off when the panels get too close, but for some reason the control switch did not shut off, and one panel collided with the other," Godfrey said.
Royals pitching coach Brent Strom was on the field when the collision occurred.
"It just didn't seem right. It looked like they were trying to close the dome and it was making funny sounds," Strom said. "I looked up there and stuff started to fall down. Then they stopped it, and then they started it again, and pieces started to fall."
About an hour later, Toronto general manager Gord Ash was on the field when one of the large metal sheets crashed to the turf in left field after twisting in the wind.
Godfrey was instrumental in construction of SkyDome, which opened in 1989 at a cost of more than $500 million. Labeled one of the wonders of the world, with its roof, built-in hotel and giant Jumbotron screen, many now consider it a white elephant.
"You've got 11,000 tons of roof up there moving, and even when you're closing it or opening it slowly, there's a lot of momentum, and if those control systems fail, you're going to have a little bit of a problem," said Norman Seagram, the president of Sportsco, which owns SkyDome.
The stadium has had three short rain delays for baseball, one bug delay, and now its first postponement