Super weird hypothetical question

Imagine the scenario where we do find or are clear on track to have an effective vaccine that can be administered to the masses in December/January (wishful thinking, I know, but this isn’t the point of this post). The powers that be see this coming and decide to push football to the spring so that fans can attend without worry so there is no money lost due to decreased or no attendance (which will almost assuredly happen no matter what if they play in the fall, so in some ways it makes financial sense to push the season back if you have a vaccine). January and February football at RES would be miserable weather-wise. I was a cast member of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics that were held in February, and that is the second coldest I have ever been in my life.

Now the strange point of my post…is there any way to put a temporary/removable covering over the stadium, like some sort of bubble (I know they exist on a much smaller scale). Something to keep in some of the heat and protect against some elements, but not a true dome or retractable roof. (Arrowhead stadium had a rolling roof concept at one point, but the estimated cost of that was $100 million). Not sure if it would economically feasible or even feasible on an engineering level.

Former engineer here and don’t have any strong knowledge or expertise in this area (although used to look at wind loads on large structures). I would think nothing that big would be cost feasible or temporary. I’m thinking some sort of membrane that could be ‘inflated’ like a large bubble, but something that size would be huge and have to have it pretty securely attached and sealed to pressurize the whole stadium to keep it ‘inflated’. For more solid structure, it is hard since you can’t have support columns easily available (would have to mostly have cantilevered beams). Or you could think a huge version of a Cirque de Soleil tent, but would need massive poles probably around the field (think Alamodome). But that would be expensive and/or not temporary.

What about heaters all over the place? In any case, this would be a clear advantage over the So Cal and AZ teams.

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just improper equipment/clothing :slight_smile:

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If the season was played in the winter/spring you can bet USC will weasel it’s way out of traveling to Salt Lake or Boulder when there might be a single snowflake in the air.

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Weaseling out of things is what separates us from the animals, except for the weasels.

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Oh, USC would be here for their scheduled game, it’s just that their game would be scheduled the last week of the winter/spring season, allowing them the best weather opportunity, in the same way they are always our 1st or at worst 2nd conference game now, played in September or early October, again, allowing them the best weather possibility.

In a regular year, you will NEVER see the league schedule USC into SLC in November, EVER!

I’ve made that same observation.