Concerns over Hurricane Milton and its effects on Florida forced the cancellation of Friday’s preseason game in Orlando between the Magic and the New Orleans Pelicans, the NBA said.
The game will not be rescheduled.
Orlando was playing at San Antonio on Wednesday night and was scheduled to return to central Florida on Thursday. Those plans are now in flux because of the storm, which forecasters say was set to make landfall somewhere on the Gulf coast of Florida sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday.
The Magic-Pelicans game is the second NBA preseason matchup to be affected by Milton. A game scheduled for Thursday in Miami between the Heat and Atlanta Hawks was postponed until Oct. 16 because of storm concerns. Also called off earlier this week: a rescheduled NHL preseason game on Friday in Tampa between the Lightning and Predators — one that was originally set to be played last month and was postponed because of Hurricane Helene.
“Stay safe Florida!” former Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos, who is entering his first season with Nashville, posted on social media Wednesday. “Thinking about all the amazing people in the Tampa area right now.”
Countless college and high school events in Florida also have been canceled or postponed because of the storm, which forecasters say is likely to bring drenching rain across a wide swath of the state.
For now, two planned exhibitions by Simone Biles and other Olympic gymnasts — part of the “Gold Over America Tour,” the acronym not coincidentally spelling out GOAT in a nod to Biles’ status as the consensus Greatest Of All-Time in the sport — this weekend are still on. The tour is scheduled to come to Sunrise, the home of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, on Friday and then move to Orlando on Saturday.
Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, which is north of Miami, is scheduled to resume live racing on Friday. Saturday’s college football game with Cincinnati going to Orlando to face UCF is still on, and the Memphis-South Florida game in Tampa was rescheduled earlier this week to be played Saturday.
UCF and USF officials have both said further decisions will be made, if necessary, once the storm passes.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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