Chiefs-Buccaneers game to remain in Tampa Bay despite Hurricane Ian

Despite the fact that Hurricane Ian dumped a lot of heavy rain and very strong winds on the Tampa area, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have announced that their Sunday Night Football game against the Kansas City Chiefs will be played — as scheduled — at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

In its official statement, the Buccaneers thanked the Miami Dolphins for giving them a place to practice after the team evacuated itself from Tampa earlier this week.

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the many thousands in the Southwest Florida region who have been severely impacted by Hurricane Ian. We are also very thankful that the Tampa Bay area was spared the most damaging consequences of this powerful storm. We have informed the NFL, after consulting with local and state agencies, that we are ready to play Sunday night’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium as originally scheduled.

We would like to thank all of the local government agencies and the thousands of emergency personnel who worked tirelessly over the past few days to ensure that our area would be ready to respond if needed. We would also like to acknowledge the Miami Dolphins organization for their assistance and hospitality in allowing us to use their practice facilities this week.

On Wednesday, we learned that if it could not be played on the Buccaneers’ home field, the NFL intended to move the game to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But Ian made landfall much further south than had been predicted, sparing the Tampa area from its full force.

Sunday’s weather forecast for Tampa calls for sunny skies, a high of 84 and a 6% chance of rain. Kickoff for the Chiefs-Buccaneers game is scheduled for 7:20 p.m. Arrowhead Time.