Why should Houston finance the first football retractable?

[jamcracker]

The Texans stadium is billed (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/news/2000/10/26/texans_stadium_ap/) as the only football stadium with a retractable roof.

Why do you need a retractable roof for football? Football can be played in the rain. Houston is too hot for football, right?

Dallas, Tampa Bay, Miami all play in open-air stadiums that are hot at the start of football season. Dallas is particularly hot with that stupid-ass, breeze stifling, sunburning hole in the roof.

Isn't harsh weather an advantage to home teams with open-air stadiums? Playing in Buffalo or Green Bay in the freezing rain supposedly favors the home teams, right? Wouldn't our Texans be advantaged in the super humid-hot Houston weather?

So why a retractable roof? Build a dome or on open-air stadium for football. Just pick one.

Houston does experience big climate swings during the football season. The early season games would be miserably hot outdoors, whereas late season games are perfect for Houston's mild winters.

Is is worth an extra ~$100M for a retractable roof? ~$195M of the construction cost is coming from the Houston-Harris County Sports Authority.

[ROXRAN]

We should have one because it will keep my clothes from getting wet, if it rains. I don't want to sit in the damn rain!

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Sometimes you gotta do the next best thing!

[Jeff]

Because it is cool! It is the best of both worlds. Beautiful football weather gets an open roof. Ugly rain-soaked days get a closed roof.

How can ya' beat that?

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Mmmmmmm. Sacrelicious.

[TheFreak]

Bring back the Oilers.

[BrianKagy]

Remember the Titans.

[bobrek]

A retractable roof assures good weather for Super Bowls. Houston wants to get in the Super Bowl rotation, without a dome, it would probably not happen.

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[dc sports]

1) Houston Humidity can be horrible, and the stadium can't be designed to even take advantage of what natural air flow there is, like even Enron was.

2) They want it to be used for things besides football. Football is kind of a unique event, where many people are willing to brave the heat, rain, and weather. But, it's not good for other things like the Rodeo, which is held at one of the rainiest times of the year, concerts, etc. They want this to be a multi-use stadium, like the Astrodome, usable for a variety of events beyond football.

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Stay Cool...

[Rocketman95]

Screw Bud Adams

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"He was under more balls than a midget hooker."-Bobby Hill

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[Smokey]

Without Bud Adams we wouldn't have had football in the first place.

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[mrpaige]

The Rodeo is actually the main reason why there is a retractable roof. The Rodeo is a huge event in Houston, and that stadium would not be built without their participation. And the rodeo needs a roof. So, the choice is either retractable roof (so there can be a grass field and the elements for football games) or a fixed dome. There was no chance of a simple open-air stadium.

And having the roof does help in the Super Bowl department.

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Houston Sports Board (http://www.houstonsportsboard.com)
The Anti-Bud Adams Page (http://www.antibud.com)

[jamcracker]

Rodeo. Superbowl.

Build a really nice dome and have the rodeo and the Superbowl there.

Build a really nice open-air stadium and have the rodeo at the Astrodome.

It IS cool to have the only big retractable. We'll get Superbowls and Olympics, right?

Why should Houston finance the first retractable? We're not the first city to have large-scale indoor events (eg rodeo) in the same place as football. We're not the first city trying to attract Superbowls, Olypmics and attention. We're not the only football team building a new stadium.

How much extra does a retractable cost? >$100M, right? Ever wonder why nobody else ever tried or even thought about building this large a retractable?

[mrpaige]

Actually, Houston is the only city with a rodeo as large as Houston's. As the HCHSA officials noted, the Houston Rodeo is like the Superbowl every year.

The Houston Rodeo is also powerful within the city, so when they insisted on being included in a new stadium, there wasn't anyone who was going to say no.

So, the choice was fixed dome or retractable roof. An open-air stadium was not really an option realisitically.

And an offshoot of that is that the Super Bowl likely wouldn't come to Houston without a roof on the stadium. The cities that compete for Super Bowls either have a roof or better average January weather. So, a roof was again necessary.

You sound like you'd have preferred they build a fixed dome and play on artifical turf. To me, the extra cost of the movable roof is worth it over the fixed dome.

McNair looked into an open-air stadium and new fixed dome (as well as into just renovating the Astrodome) and came to the conclusion that the retractable roof stadium was the best option.

Considering that this decision was made over two years ago, it seems a little late to start complaining about it.

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Houston Sports Board (http://www.houstonsportsboard.com)
The Anti-Bud Adams Page (http://www.antibud.com)