The Retractable Roof Stadium

The retractable roof Stadium has become a common feature with the new football and baseball stadiums today that we often take for granted.  No longer do clubs have to risk expensive cancellations of a game due to bad weather or having to play baseball indoors when the weather outside is absolutely beautiful.  In fact, only Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, Ford Field in Detroit, and the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans, US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis (although the large doors by the endzone can) are the only indoor baseball or football stadiums that do not have the ability to open the roof.

Origin

Civic Arena

Civic Arena - Pittsburgh, PA Civic Arena - Pittsburgh, PA

Believe it or not, but the first retractable roof stadium in the US was the old Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.  Yes, a hockey arena.  Why?  Well, it was originally built and opened in 1961 for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.  The Penguins began to play in 1967.  Although, I've heard from Pittsburgh residents that the acoustics of the venue really sucked.  It was probably a good idea they kept the roof closed in addition to the risk of ice melting thing.

Olympic Stadium

Olympic Stadium                                  

Olympic Stadium - Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Olympic Stadium in Montreal was built for the 1976 summer Olympics and the roof construction was a disaster.  Failure after failure led to the stadium being opened for the first 11-12 years of the existence of the facility without a retractable roof.  Once the roof was installed, it didn't even work half the time and it could not be operated in high winds.  Building management finally gave up and installed a permanent roof in 1998...then the Expos left for Washington DC in 2004...

Rogers Centre (Skydome)

Rogers Centre - Toronto, Ontario, Canada                    

Rogers Centre - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Rogers Centre (known as Skydome at the time) was really the first successful retractable roof in North America.  Opening in 1989, the fully motorized roof can be opened or closed in 20 minutes, which you will learn is an eternity compared to more modern facilities.

Modern Facilities

Chase Field

Chase Field opened in 1998 and uses a pair of 200 hp motors to open or close the roof in about four minutes.  I was able to actually take a sample video of this during one of my recent trips to the park:

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

This one is a doozy... the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA opens like a camera lens.  This design has never been built before on a large scale and ran into numerous problems, which caused the stadium opening to be delayed by about a month.  All the kinks have been worked out and it looks like they are ready to go for Atlanta United and the Atlanta Falcons to move in.

Seriously...watch this video.  It's absolutely absurd:

Where Can I Check Out One?

AT&T Stadium - Arlington, TX                        

AT&T Stadium - Arlington, TX


Excellent question!  StadiumScene.tv has all the information you need to plan your trip to visit one of these marvels of engineering.  Here are the following stadiums that have a roof that can open or close:

MLB

NFL

MLS

So what are your thoughts on the retractable roof?  Do you have a favorite?  Let us know in the comments!

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-D.J.


This post was proofread by Grammarly