Quote:
Originally Posted by bnk
Retractable roof? Un heard of in this city. If Solder field was retractable we would have had the Olympics and super bowls and winter convention space.
No one is smart enough to put a retractable dome in Chicago, it makes too much since. Even though Milwaukee figured out how to do it years ago.
Too bad it will still be too small for any real sport though.
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Most retractable roof stadiums in the US (and Europe, Japan, etc) are oversized, taxpayer-funded albatrosses. For all the money spent on a retractable roof at Miller Park, it has exactly ONE public event scheduled this winter, which is a 5K
in the parking lot. They do host concerts (next one is April) but Wrigley also host concerts without a roof.
Seriously, these roofs run into the hundreds of millions. I don't see how they make business sense unless you have a bunch of free money to burn.
This whole stadium idea seems pie-in-the-sky unless and until Sterling Bay lands a major Amazon-esque tenant, and the retractable roof is just a sweet nothing that Gloor mentioned to build hype.
I could see demand in Chicago for a small outdoor stadium, for a minor-league soccer team, high school sporting events, and other community uses (tennis tournament?)