Metrodome Roof Deflates Under Weight of Snow
CHICAGO — The roof of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis deflated early Sunday morning, leaving the scheduled football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Giants – which had already been postponed from Sunday to Monday because of the weekend blizzard – in further limbo.
The National Football League scrambled Sunday morning to determine where the game would be played. Late Saturday night, the game was delayed because of concerns that the snow on the dome roof could not safely be cleared by workers in high winds. Minnesota was hit with almost two feet of snow on Saturday.
Metrodome officials said they found tears in the roof on Sunday and that it was unlikely they could prepare the dome in time for a game on Monday.
Bill Lester, the executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, said the dome suffered damage to two of its triangle-shaped Teflon panels and that his crew was still assessing the situation. The roof is made up of 10 acres of Teflon-coated panels and weighs roughly 580,000 pounds.
The N.F.L. could move the football game to someplace like the University of Minnesota’s outdoor football stadium, although it too would have to be cleared of 17 inches of snow.
That could present further problems for the Giants, whose flight was diverted Saturday to Kansas City when snow closed the Minneapolis airport. Anticipating an indoor game, they likely did not bring cold weather gear to Minneapolis.
The game could even theoretically be relocated to a neutral site. It seemed unlikely that the game would be moved to New York.
In 2005, the N.F.L. moved the Giants’ game against the New Orleans Saints to Giants Stadium in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a highly unpopular decision because it gave the Giants an extra home game, even though the game was called a home game for the Saints.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that this was the third time the Metrodome roof has collapsed, most recently in 1983.
Steve Maki, the director of facilities and engineering for the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, told the Star Tribune that there were no structural concerns with the building, but that high winds prevented workers from removing snow before the roof fell in under the weight of it.
Asked early Sunday what the N.F.L.’s plans were, , Greg Aiello, the league spokesman, said, “Good question. Stay tuned.”
The Giants were scheduled to leave Kansas City late Sunday morning to arrive in Minneapolis for Monday’s game and were in a holding pattern while they awaited word from the N.F.L. about alternate plans.
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The football playing field has been known as Mall of America Field at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome since October 2009. Opened in 1982, it replaced Metropolitan Stadium, which was on the current site of the Mall of America in Bloomington and Memorial Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus. The Metrodome is home to the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, and is occasionally used by the Big Ten's University of Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team. The stadium was also the home of the Minnesota Twins from 1982 to 2009 and the Golden Gophers football team from 1982 to 2008.
The stadium is 28 years old, making it the ninth oldest stadium in the National Football League. Locally, its common nickname is simply The Dome. Over time it acquired other nicknames connected to its uniqueness.
The stadium is well known for its fiberglass fabric roof that is self-supported by air-pressure. This roof is also known to collapse in snowy weather. The Metrodome was also the second major sports facility to have a domed roof supported completely by air, the first being the Pontiac Silverdome. The Metrodome is similar in design to BC Place Stadium and the RCA Dome.
History
By the early 1970s, the Minnesota Vikings were unhappy with Metropolitan Stadium's relatively small capacity for football (just under 48,500). In addition, the stadium was not well maintained; broken railings and seats could be spotted in the third deck by the early 1970s. Supporters of a dome also believed that the Minnesota Twins would benefit from a climate-controlled stadium to insulate the team from harsh Minnesota weather later in the season.
Construction success of other domed stadiums, particularly the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, paved the way for voters to approve funding for a new stadium. Downtown Minneapolis was beginning a revitalization program, and the return of professional sports from suburban Bloomington was seen as a major success story. A professional team hadn't been based in downtown Minneapolis since the Minneapolis Lakers left for Los Angeles in 1960.
Construction on the Metrodome began on December 20, 1979 and was funded by a limited hotel-motel and liquor tax, local business donations, and payments established within a special tax district near the stadium site. Uncovering the Dome by Amy Klobuchar (now a U.S. Senator) describes the ten-year effort to build the venue. The stadium was named in memory of former mayor of Minneapolis, U.S. Senator and U.S. Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, who had died in 1978.
The Metrodome cost $68 million to build—roughly $2 million under budget, a rarity for modern stadiums. It is a somewhat utilitarian facility, though not quite as spartan as Metropolitan Stadium. One stadium official once said that all the Metrodome was designed to do was "get fans in, let 'em see a game, and let 'em go home."
The 1985 MLB All-Star Game, several games of the 1987 and the 1991 World Series, Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, and the 1998-99 NFC Championship all were held at the Metrodome.
The NCAA Final Four was held at the Metrodome in 1992 and 2001. Duke University was the winner on both occasions. The Metrodome has also served as one of the four regional venues for the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship in 1986, 1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 and most recently, 2009 . The dome has also held first and second round games in the NCAA Basketball Tournament in addition to regionals and the Final Four, most recently in 2009.
The Metrodome is the only venue to host a MLB All-Star Game (1985), a Super Bowl (1992), an NCAA Final Four (1992 & 2001), and a World Series (1987 & 1991). It has been recognized as one of the loudest domed venues in which to view a game, due in part to the fact that sound is recycled throughout the stadium because of the domed roof. Stadium loudness is a hot sports marketing issue, as the noise lends the home team a home advantage against the visiting team. The Metrodome is the loudest domed NFL stadium. During the 1987 World Series and 1991 World Series, peak decibel levels were measured at 125 and 118 respectively comparable to a jet airliner—both close to the threshold of pain.
Features
Since the stadium was built, the economics of sports marketing have changed. Teams are charging higher prices for tickets, and are demanding more amenities, such as bigger clubhouses and locker rooms, more luxury suites, and more concession revenue. To that end, pressure has been applied by team owners, media, and fans to have the State of Minnesota provide newer, better facilities to host the teams. The Metrodome has served its primary purpose, to provide a climate-controlled facility in which to host the three sports tenants in Minnesota with the largest attendance. The indoor venue is particularly welcome in the highly variable climate of Minnesota.
The Metrodome was widely thought of as a hitter's park, with a low (7 ft) left-field fence (343 ft) that favored right-handed power hitters, and the higher (23 ft) but closer (327 ft) right-field Baggie that favored left-handed power hitters.[ Because the roof is very nearly the same color as a baseball, and transmits light, the Metrodome had a far higher error incidence than a normal stadium during day games, so instead of losing a fly ball in the sun, as is common for non-roofed stadiums, fly balls could easily get lost in the ceiling. Unlike most parks built during this time, the Metrodome's baseball configuration had asymmetrical outfield dimensions.
It gave up even more home runs before air conditioning was installed in 1983. Before 1983, the Dome had been nicknamed "the Sweat Box." The Metrodome is climate controlled, and has protected the baseball schedule during the entire time it was the venue for the Minnesota Twins. Major League Baseball schedulers had the luxury of being able to count on dates played at the Metrodome. Doubleheader games only occurred when purposely scheduled. The last time that happened was when the Twins scheduled a day-night doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals on August 31, 2007. The doubleheader was necessitated after an August 2 game vs. Kansas City was postponed one day after the I-35W Bridge collapse in downtown Minneapolis.
The roof
The Metrodome roof.The Metrodome's roof is made of two layers of Teflon coated fiberglass fabric, and is an air-supported structure supported by positive air pressure. It requires 250,000 ft³/min (120 m³/s) of air to keep it inflated. It is reputed to be the largest application of Teflon on Earth
To maintain the differential air pressure, spectators usually enter and leave the seating and concourse areas through revolving doors, since the use of regular doors without an airlock would cause significant loss of air pressure. The double-walled construction allows warmed air to circulate beneath the top of the dome, melting accumulated snow. A sophisticated environmental control center in the lower part of the stadium is manned to monitor weather and make adjustments in air distribution to maintain the roof.
Because it is unusually low to the playing field, the air-inflated dome occasionally figured into game action. Major League Baseball had specific ground rules for the Metrodome. Any ball which struck the Dome roof, or objects hanging from it, remained in play; if it landed in foul territory it became a foul ball, if it landed in fair territory it became a fair ball. Any ball which became caught in the roof over fair ground was a ground rule double. That has only happened three times in its history - Dave Kingman for the Oakland Athletics on May 4, 1984,[13] University of Minnesota Gophers player George Behr and Corey Koskie in 2004. The speakers, being closer to the playing surface, were hit more frequently, especially the speakers in foul ground near the infield, which were typically hit several times a season, which posed an extra challenge to infielders trying to catch them. However, beginning with the 2005 season, the ground rules for Twins games were changed such that any batted ball that struck a speaker in foul territory would automatically be called a foul ball, regardless of whether or not it was caught. The roof is high enough that it has never been a concern for events other than baseball.
Deflations
Five times in the stadium's history, heavy snows or other weather conditions have damaged the roof and caused it to deflate. On November 19, 1981, a rapid accumulation of over a foot of snow caused the roof to collapse, requiring it to be re-inflated. It deflated the following winter on December 30, 1982, again because of a tear caused by heavy snow. This was four days before the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the last regular season game of the 1982 NFL season. That same winter, on April 14, 1983, the Metrodome roof deflated because of a tear caused by heavy snow and the scheduled Twins' game with the California Angels was postponed. It was the only postponement in Metrodome history until 2007. On April 26, 1986, the Metrodome roof suffered a slight tear because of high winds, causing a nine-minute delay in the bottom of the seventh inning vs the Angels. Most recently, the roof collapsed on December 12, 2010 when the Twin Cities received more than 18" of snow in 24 hours, necessitating the relocation of a Minnesota Vikings game against the New York Giants originally scheduled to take place in the Metrodome later that day (which had already been rescheduled for Monday night due to the Giants being stranded in Kansas City).
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The football playing field has been known as Mall of America Field at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome since October 2009. Opened in 1982, it replaced Metropolitan Stadium, which was on the current site of the Mall of America in Bloomington and Memorial Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus. The Metrodome is home to the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, and is occasionally used by the Big Ten's University of Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team. The stadium was also the home of the Minnesota Twins from 1982 to 2009 and the Golden Gophers football team from 1982 to 2008.
The stadium is 28 years old, making it the ninth oldest stadium in the National Football League. Locally, its common nickname is simply The Dome. Over time it acquired other nicknames connected to its uniqueness.
The stadium is well known for its fiberglass fabric roof that is self-supported by air-pressure. This roof is also known to collapse in snowy weather. The Metrodome was also the second major sports facility to have a domed roof supported completely by air, the first being the Pontiac Silverdome. The Metrodome is similar in design to BC Place Stadium and the RCA Dome.
History
By the early 1970s, the Minnesota Vikings were unhappy with Metropolitan Stadium's relatively small capacity for football (just under 48,500). In addition, the stadium was not well maintained; broken railings and seats could be spotted in the third deck by the early 1970s. Supporters of a dome also believed that the Minnesota Twins would benefit from a climate-controlled stadium to insulate the team from harsh Minnesota weather later in the season.
Construction success of other domed stadiums, particularly the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, paved the way for voters to approve funding for a new stadium. Downtown Minneapolis was beginning a revitalization program, and the return of professional sports from suburban Bloomington was seen as a major success story. A professional team hadn't been based in downtown Minneapolis since the Minneapolis Lakers left for Los Angeles in 1960.
Construction on the Metrodome began on December 20, 1979 and was funded by a limited hotel-motel and liquor tax, local business donations, and payments established within a special tax district near the stadium site. Uncovering the Dome by Amy Klobuchar (now a U.S. Senator) describes the ten-year effort to build the venue. The stadium was named in memory of former mayor of Minneapolis, U.S. Senator and U.S. Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, who had died in 1978.
The Metrodome cost $68 million to build—roughly $2 million under budget, a rarity for modern stadiums. It is a somewhat utilitarian facility, though not quite as spartan as Metropolitan Stadium. One stadium official once said that all the Metrodome was designed to do was "get fans in, let 'em see a game, and let 'em go home."
The 1985 MLB All-Star Game, several games of the 1987 and the 1991 World Series, Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, and the 1998-99 NFC Championship all were held at the Metrodome.
The NCAA Final Four was held at the Metrodome in 1992 and 2001. Duke University was the winner on both occasions. The Metrodome has also served as one of the four regional venues for the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship in 1986, 1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 and most recently, 2009 . The dome has also held first and second round games in the NCAA Basketball Tournament in addition to regionals and the Final Four, most recently in 2009.
The Metrodome is the only venue to host a MLB All-Star Game (1985), a Super Bowl (1992), an NCAA Final Four (1992 & 2001), and a World Series (1987 & 1991). It has been recognized as one of the loudest domed venues in which to view a game, due in part to the fact that sound is recycled throughout the stadium because of the domed roof. Stadium loudness is a hot sports marketing issue, as the noise lends the home team a home advantage against the visiting team. The Metrodome is the loudest domed NFL stadium. During the 1987 World Series and 1991 World Series, peak decibel levels were measured at 125 and 118 respectively comparable to a jet airliner—both close to the threshold of pain.
Features
Since the stadium was built, the economics of sports marketing have changed. Teams are charging higher prices for tickets, and are demanding more amenities, such as bigger clubhouses and locker rooms, more luxury suites, and more concession revenue. To that end, pressure has been applied by team owners, media, and fans to have the State of Minnesota provide newer, better facilities to host the teams. The Metrodome has served its primary purpose, to provide a climate-controlled facility in which to host the three sports tenants in Minnesota with the largest attendance. The indoor venue is particularly welcome in the highly variable climate of Minnesota.
The Metrodome was widely thought of as a hitter's park, with a low (7 ft) left-field fence (343 ft) that favored right-handed power hitters, and the higher (23 ft) but closer (327 ft) right-field Baggie that favored left-handed power hitters.[ Because the roof is very nearly the same color as a baseball, and transmits light, the Metrodome had a far higher error incidence than a normal stadium during day games, so instead of losing a fly ball in the sun, as is common for non-roofed stadiums, fly balls could easily get lost in the ceiling. Unlike most parks built during this time, the Metrodome's baseball configuration had asymmetrical outfield dimensions.
It gave up even more home runs before air conditioning was installed in 1983. Before 1983, the Dome had been nicknamed "the Sweat Box." The Metrodome is climate controlled, and has protected the baseball schedule during the entire time it was the venue for the Minnesota Twins. Major League Baseball schedulers had the luxury of being able to count on dates played at the Metrodome. Doubleheader games only occurred when purposely scheduled. The last time that happened was when the Twins scheduled a day-night doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals on August 31, 2007. The doubleheader was necessitated after an August 2 game vs. Kansas City was postponed one day after the I-35W Bridge collapse in downtown Minneapolis.
The roof
The Metrodome roof.The Metrodome's roof is made of two layers of Teflon coated fiberglass fabric, and is an air-supported structure supported by positive air pressure. It requires 250,000 ft³/min (120 m³/s) of air to keep it inflated. It is reputed to be the largest application of Teflon on Earth
To maintain the differential air pressure, spectators usually enter and leave the seating and concourse areas through revolving doors, since the use of regular doors without an airlock would cause significant loss of air pressure. The double-walled construction allows warmed air to circulate beneath the top of the dome, melting accumulated snow. A sophisticated environmental control center in the lower part of the stadium is manned to monitor weather and make adjustments in air distribution to maintain the roof.
Because it is unusually low to the playing field, the air-inflated dome occasionally figured into game action. Major League Baseball had specific ground rules for the Metrodome. Any ball which struck the Dome roof, or objects hanging from it, remained in play; if it landed in foul territory it became a foul ball, if it landed in fair territory it became a fair ball. Any ball which became caught in the roof over fair ground was a ground rule double. That has only happened three times in its history - Dave Kingman for the Oakland Athletics on May 4, 1984,[13] University of Minnesota Gophers player George Behr and Corey Koskie in 2004. The speakers, being closer to the playing surface, were hit more frequently, especially the speakers in foul ground near the infield, which were typically hit several times a season, which posed an extra challenge to infielders trying to catch them. However, beginning with the 2005 season, the ground rules for Twins games were changed such that any batted ball that struck a speaker in foul territory would automatically be called a foul ball, regardless of whether or not it was caught. The roof is high enough that it has never been a concern for events other than baseball.
Deflations
Five times in the stadium's history, heavy snows or other weather conditions have damaged the roof and caused it to deflate. On November 19, 1981, a rapid accumulation of over a foot of snow caused the roof to collapse, requiring it to be re-inflated. It deflated the following winter on December 30, 1982, again because of a tear caused by heavy snow. This was four days before the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the last regular season game of the 1982 NFL season. That same winter, on April 14, 1983, the Metrodome roof deflated because of a tear caused by heavy snow and the scheduled Twins' game with the California Angels was postponed. It was the only postponement in Metrodome history until 2007. On April 26, 1986, the Metrodome roof suffered a slight tear because of high winds, causing a nine-minute delay in the bottom of the seventh inning vs the Angels. Most recently, the roof collapsed on December 12, 2010 when the Twin Cities received more than 18" of snow in 24 hours, necessitating the relocation of a Minnesota Vikings game against the New York Giants originally scheduled to take place in the Metrodome later that day (which had already been rescheduled for Monday night due to the Giants being stranded in Kansas City).
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