Why Chiefs Decided On Translucent Roof Instead Of Retractable Dome For New Stadium

The Chiefs' caller stadium will characteristic a fixed, translucent roof.

Chiefs and MANICA

It would look for illustration champion of some worlds for the Kansas City Chiefs’ caller home.

With a retractable roof, the Chiefs would get a dome, allowing them to big Final Fours and Super Bowls — but pinch an open-air action truthful that fans could bask crisp, autumn weather.

There, however, are respective reasons why the Chiefs intentionally went successful a different direction.

“Pretty early successful the determination process,” Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt said, “we decided to spell pinch a fixed roof.”

They made that determination aft investigating it thoroughly. They said pinch the Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons — each teams who person retractable roofs.

“I don’t want to put words successful their mouth,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said. “But it was beautiful clear it’s not worthy it.”

Those teams did not retract their roofs that frequently.

Having opened successful 2017, the Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium is the newest of those retractable-roof accommodation and considered a world-class venue.

The Falcons support the tile adjacent erstwhile it’s cold, the somesthesia is supra 80 degrees aliases location are precocious winds. As a consequence it has been unfastened astir 30% of the time.

Snow And Expenses

Retractable roofs person wholly different designs, enabling them to move, and that creates immoderate logistical issues.

“There are problems pinch retractable roofs.” Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd, said. “If you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it for aesthetics much than thing else.”

Across the entirety of a structural translucent screen for illustration the Chiefs are going with, the cablegram and truss support is fixed, but retractable roofs typically person building complete the sides and ends pinch the opening successful the center.

Because of that different measurement a retractable tile is system and supported, snowfall becomes a unsocial challenge.

A retractable tile would not only person to carnivore the weight of the snow, but location besides would person to a system to region it aliases melt it. That’s 1 logic why NFL teams that usage retractable roofs reside successful temperate climates.

Another rumor is the cost.

New York Mets proprietor Steve Cohen looked into a removable tile for Citi Field but said it would costs $800 million.

Since Citi Field was already built, the retractable tile would person had to beryllium retrofitted, making it much costly than building it from the crushed up for illustration the Chiefs could person done.

But creating a retractable tile still would person added hundreds of millions to the costs of the Chiefs’ caller stadium — whether it slid unfastened (like the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium) aliases was much of an aperture (like the Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium).

“They’re rather costly to build and maintain,” Ganis said.

Translucent Roof

Instead of a retractable roof, the Chiefs are opting for an enclosed 1 pinch 400,000 quadrate feet of translucent Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE). The Minnesota Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium besides features that fluorine-based, clear integrative arsenic a measurement to fto successful earthy ray from the outside.

In summation to letting ray in, the Chiefs wanted a translucent tile truthful they could proceed their pregame contented of section Whiteman Air Force Base jets cruising complete the stadium for the nationalist anthem. The caller stadium is moreover incorporating solid successful some extremity zones truthful fans tin spot the approach.

“We want it to beryllium arsenic transparent arsenic it perchance tin be,” Donovan said, “because flyovers are truthful important to our gameday experience.”

Although that should sphere a cool experience, a conception of Chiefs fans surely will miss a glorious autumn time sitting extracurricular — aliases moreover the camaraderie that comes pinch bundling up amidst friends and family during a wintry game.

The Chiefs memorably pummeled the Miami Dolphins, 26-7, successful the fourth-coldest crippled successful NFL history, arsenic temperatures reached minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit pinch a windchill of minus-27. The warm-weather Dolphins seemed ill-equipped to grip the adverse conditions of that wild-card crippled successful 2024.

It mightiness person been frigid, but it gave the Chiefs a immense home-field advantage — and fans a communicative to show their grandkids — en way to winning a 2nd consecutive Super Bowl.

“As romanticist arsenic that is,” Ganis said, “we’re astatine a different shape successful the industry.”