PonyFans.com

from the Dallas Morning News:

Deep within a multimillion-dollar contract to renovate Dallas' Cotton Bowl is an easily overlooked item that may resurrect an otherwise defunct idea from last decade – doming the stadium.

The $30,000 study would investigate options for covering the Cotton Bowl with a permanent roof or something semi-permanent, such as an inflatable, retractable or removable dome.

The Dallas City Council is scheduled to vote today (Wednesday) on the contract, which taps Atlanta-based Heery International Inc. to coordinate the estimated $45.5 million in Cotton Bowl design and construction work. The vote was scheduled to come the day after Dallasites were expected to approve $30 million in Cotton Bowl renovation bond funding to augment millions of dollars that the city and State Fair of Texas already have fronted.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... bc373.html

I'm not really knowledgeable in this type of thing, but...

an inflatable dome?? Does that sound weird to anyone else?? Or am I just unaware of this type of stadium structure that probably exists at half of the domes around the country? I'm picturing an enormous bounce house being blown up every week for game day....

SMUtrojanFAN wrote:I'm not really knowledgeable in this type of thing, but...

an inflatable dome?? Does that sound weird to anyone else?? Or am I just unaware of this type of stadium structure that probably exists at half of the domes around the country? I'm picturing an enormous bounce house being blown up every week for game day....

There are a few different methods of inflatable domes. A giant condom (in essense) that covers the perimeter and gets inflated with air, has doors and stuff built into the sides. (I totally just got this thread deleted) Or a giant raft (kind of) anchored to the edges of the stadium, filled with air. You know those pool floats that look like tubes stuck side by side? Imagine that with the ends of the tubes anchored to the stadium edge.

Domed football sucks! If Green Bay doesn't need one then neither do we.

There are some schools that have inflatable domes. When I was researching AD last spring, I read that Northern Iowa has one.

Isn't the Detroit Lions stadium inflated?

I am editing myself. The current Lions stadium is not inflatable (Ford Field). The previous stadium (The Silverdome) was.

SMU Football Blog wrote:There are some schools that have inflatable domes. When I was researching AD last spring, I read that Northern Iowa has one.

http://unipanthers.cstv.com/facilities/ ... -dome.html

Three times in its history the dome encountered major structural difficulties. On November 9, 1975, a mechanical failure in the fan system during a thunderstorm resulted in the slow deflation of the dome. When the fabric began to sag, water built up in those areas, causing the material to rip. The roof was reinflated after repairs later that month. Another strong thunderstorm was the cause of the second deflation of the Dome. On June 30, 1977, high winds, rain, and a power failure caused the dome to deflate and later tear. And again, on December 9, 1994, an accumulation of water from melting snow and ice on the roof caused the material to tear along a seam. Strong winds then ripped a triangular hole in the material, which resulted in deflation.

Other Inflatable Domes:

Syracuse - Carrier Dome
Minneapolis - H.H.H. Metrodome
St. Cloud State University - Husky Stadium (Winter Months Only)
Indianapolis - RCA Dome
Detroit - Silverdome (torn down)

The RCA Dome in Indy is inflated. As you pass from outside to inside, one can hear the air being shot upward.

The basketball practice facility at TTech is the same way. I remember being at a camp there 20+ years ago and a coach had to use a microphone to be heard while talking 20ft away from the group due to the sounds of the pressurization equipment.