PDA

View Full Version : Bubbles won't burst Broncos



Lonestar
05-07-2009, 02:40 PM
Bubbles won't burst Broncos, CU use air-supported domes without trusses by Mike Chambers The Denver Post , The Denver Post


When the Front Range weather is at its worst, two local Football teams typically move to indoor practice facilities similar to the one that collapsed Saturday during a Dallas Cowboys rookie mini-

camp in Irving, Texas.
As the Cowboys learned, the confines of a large, flexible, framed dome can be one of the worst places to be during a nasty storm. Twelve people were injured from falling trusses in Saturday's collapse, caused by 70-mph winds.

The Broncos and Colorado Buffaloes also move to indoor "bubble" facilities during inclement weather. But unlike the 80-foot-high, framed structure used by the Cowboys, the Broncos and Buffs don't have to worry about falling metal, aluminum or steel trusses.

The Broncos' rented facility, the 14-year-old Sports Dome at South Suburban Family Sports Center, and the 2-year-old on-campus bubble at CU are "air-supported structures" designed to deflate slowly. No overhead beams or any solid materials support the 75-foot-high Buffs bubble, and only inch-wide cables are used to stabilize the 40-foot-high structure at Family Sports Center.

The Broncos abandoned their team-owned bubble after a microburst of wind ripped it open during the first day of training camp at the renovated Dove Valley in 2003. No one was inside at the time, and if there had been, former general manager Ted Sundquist said he doubts anyone would have been hurt unless one of the cables snapped.

"Because of age, it needed to be replaced, and the most cost-effective way of doing things was to go down to Family (Sports)," Sundquist said.

The NFL team began using the nearby Sports Dome the next year.

As for CU, "We don't have any metal or steel to fall down," said Tom McGann, director of operations for CU athletics. "Ours is all air-supported. If a microburst came in and hit our bubble, it would just depress in that area, expand in other areas, and go back to equilibrium when the burst was done. We don't have anything to fall down, other than the lights. There are no steel trusses, and we can bend with the forces, where the (Cowboys') facility couldn't."

McGann said the CU facility, built by St. Louis-based Arizon Structures in summer 2007, is rated for 110 mph wind bursts for 10 seconds, and it has withstood 80 mph wind gusts in the past year.

The dome is deflated after spring practice and blown up in late September. Arizon also builds closed-frame domes and open-sided tension structures.

The Sports Dome at Family Sports was purchased by the South Suburban Parks and Recreation District out of bankruptcy in 2001. It was built in 1995 by Canada's Yeadon Fabric Structures in Guelph, Ontario.

"Our facility is totally inflatable," South Suburban communications director Teresa Cope said. "There are some cables on the top of the dome that help stabilize while inflated, and one that runs on the inside perimeter. Should the dome ever deflate, it would deflate slowly, and people would have time to move to the perimeter and the cable would help hold up the balloon long enough for people to find the exits."

Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9545068/Bubbles-won't-burst-Broncos,-CU-use-air-supported-domes-without-trusses-