Hurricane Ian is causing sports weather-related postponements and venue changes in the southeastern region of the United States.
Hurricane Ian hit land on the West Coast of Florida on Wednesday night. It crossed the state and back into the Atlantic Ocean. The storm was downgraded from a category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm, but the New York Times anticipates when it curves back and hits the East Coast, it will be a Category 1 hurricane.
The storm has displaced thousands and inconvenienced far more. Sadly, the first deaths due to the storm have already been reported.
Sporting events being postponed and moved around is a secondary concern given the tragic loss of life, but leagues and teams are having to adapt in real-time with everyone else.
As it stands, plenty of games across college football, the MLB, and the NFL are in question. Here’s the latest on what we know in chronological order.
LAST UPDATED: 9/29, 2:11 PM ET.
South Carolina State at South Carolina: Hurricane Ian weather update
This game will be played on Thursday night instead of Saturday to play it before the storm hits land again. Again, it is projected to become a category 1 hurricane upon reaching land on the East Coast.
East Carolina at South Florida: Hurricane Ian weather update
This game moved to FAU’s stadium in Boca Raton. It’s scheduled for 1:30 p.m. now instead of 7 p.m. on Saturday. Originally, it was supposed to be played in Tampa Bay at Raymond James Stadium, one of two events put in question by the storm.
Eastern Washington at Florida: Hurricane Ian weather update
This was supposed to be played Saturday. It’ll be a rare Sunday college football game instead.
Wake Forest at Florida State: Hurricane Ian weather update
This game looks ready to go. The school announced it is confident in its ability to keep the game on as scheduled.
SMU at UCF: Hurricane Ian weather update
This game has been moved to Sunday.
New York Mets at Atlanta Braves: Hurricane Ian weather update
Early on in the storm path projections, it looked like Atlanta would get hammered. After landfall, Ian is going to go further north and completely skirt around Georgia.
It’ll be a little crisp at night, but the weekend days are highs in the 70s for Atlanta with a 10% chance of rain on all the days of this series.
It’s turning out just fine for this series which could determine who takes the NL East crown. Should be exciting.
Cleveland Browns at Atlanta Falcons: Hurricane Ian weather update
Simple one here. The Falcons play indoors at Mercedes Benz Superdome, so it would have taken a hard-hitting storm to threaten this. Not only that, but the storm will miss Atlanta entirely.
Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Hurricane Ian weather update
The Tampa mayor indicated she was doing everything she could with the NFL to keep the major Sunday night game in Tampa Bay. That promise was delivered on Thursday afternoon when the league announced the game would proceed as scheduled at Raymond James Stadium.
The league had tapped in US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis as a contingency location since the Vikings are away playing in London this week, but that won’t come to fruition.
The Buccaneers relocated to Miami earlier this week to avoid the storm’s path.