The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the NFL have agreed to a partnership that will allow football stadiums to assist during disasters, according to The Washington Post. Specifically, the participating stadiums could be turned into emergency shelters, temporary hospitals, or other venues needed during such events. This agreement was formalized by FEMA and the NFL by signing a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday at the league headquarters in New York City with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell present.
So far, MetLife Stadium (home of the New York Jets and New York Giants), Acrisure Stadium (home of the Pittsburgh Steelers), Lumen Field (home of the Seattle Seahawks), and Raymond James Stadium (home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) are the four venues that have signed on. SoFi Stadium (home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers) is expected to join soon.
The stadiums would be available year-round, and the cost of operating the temporary shelters in the case of a federally declared disaster would be negotiated between local, state, and federal government officials, per The Post.
The NFL is said to have approached FEMA about this idea nearly three years ago. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell noted that New York City used stadiums as temporary hospitals and vaccination sites during the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped spark this idea.
“It just made perfect sense,” said Criswell. “We have all of these existing venues. How do we better coordinate during these blue sky days to better understand what they bring to the table and what we can use them for in the future?”
This agreement comes nearly two decades after the Superdome, the home of the New Orleans Saints, served as a makeshift emergency shelters for folks in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. This initiative also comes as Florida braces for Hurricane Helene, which was upgraded Wednesday to a Category 1 storm.
