The Brewers’ roof is leaking. But it could be worse

By JR Radcliffe
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

When driving rain in the Milwaukee area caused roof leaks during the Milwaukee Brewers game Wednesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays, another Canadian baseball brand took notice.

A popular account on X dedicated to all things Montreal Expos playfully nudged the stadium’s problems, in the context of Montreal’s own history with a troubled roof.

“We have sent a notice to cease & desist to the Milwaukee Brewers,” wrote the account, which began in 2009 – five years after the Expos left town to become the Washington Nationals.

“Having rain fall inside a stadium with a closed retractable roof is the intellectual property of the Montreal Expos.”

Olympic Stadium, the facility that housed the Expos from 1977 to 2004, had no end of trouble with its roof, from fires to structural damage to, yes, leaks from tears in the roof.

First built for the 1976 Olympics, the stadium’s roof design bears little resemblance to American Family Field’s, other than it’s also retractable. It featured a retractable Kevlar membrane in the center and was elliptical in nature.

The province of Québec has committed $870 million to a new roof on the stadium, which still hosts concerts and some sporting events, with a four-year construction project ongoing.

When the Brewers stadium opened in 2001, it featured 12,000 tons of roof spread over seven panels (five retractable), controlled by an engine, that met in the middle in a fanning effect. The first-of-its-kind design in North America wasn’t meant to be airtight and has experienced water leakage in severe weather over the years, with reactive maintenance often done to repair areas vulnerable to leaks.

Montreal, of course, doesn’t actually have the market cornered on stadium roof issues. The Tampa Bay Rays returned to Tropicana Field this season after spending 2025 in the New York Yankees spring-training complex, the result of a shredded roof during Hurricane Milton in late 2024.

Wisconsin sports fans will also remember the roof collapse of the Metrodome, the former home of the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings, because of massive snowfall in 2010.

Though particularly severe weather has led to in-game roof leaks over the years, Brewers games haven’t been postponed as a result. One game was postponed by a power outage during the stadium’s inaugural season in 2001, and the team sat through a nine-minute rain delay in 2019 when a storm arrived quickly before the roof could be closed.

Flooding around the stadium on Wednesday, including enough to close Brewers Boulevard and a key exit leaving the stadium, had been cleared in time for Thursday’s day game back at American Family Field.