Cup of Joe: Starkey on sports in 400 words or less (sometimes more)
I am saddened to report the following, but it’s true: By the year 2031, the majority of NFL teams will have a domed stadium.
It’s all about the revenue, of course (the answer to all your questions is “money”). And if you’re living in Denver or Washington, D.C., or any of the other cities planning to build multi billion-dollar mega domes, congratulations: Much of that revenue will be provided by you.
You didn’t think the filthy rich NFL owners were going to pay for their palaces on their own, did you?
In Denver, for example, it’s expected that taxpayers will contribute around $1.3 billion toward the cost of a $4 billion stadium with a retractable roof.
No more legendary snow games there.
The state of Kansas (not Missouri) will be kind enough to contribute the bulk of the cost for a new $3 billion domed palace for the Chiefs, who are crossing state lines.
Goodbye, Arrowhead Stadium.
It’s happening everywhere, and by 2031, 17 of the league’s 32 teams will be playing indoors, some via retractable roofs.
What about the Steelers? Will they ever have a dome? This is what team president Art Rooney II told the team’s flagship station WDVE-FM on Tuesday:
“Not in my lifetime. Football is an outdoor sport as far as I’m concerned. I think most Pittsburghers would agree. Nothing better than going out and seeing the game with the snow flying. It’s a lot of fun on those kinds of days.”
I agree with every syllable and half-syllable Rooney uttered. Football was meant to be played outdoors. Period. Part of the culture of the game is bad-weather fans from bad-weather cities making life miserable for opponents. Those games pop on TV, too. They are visually appealing.
Steelers fans seem to agree. The results of a quick mini poll I posted on X indicated as much.
Question: Do you want a domed stadium for the Steelers?
Voters: No! (nearly 80% voted that way).
Bad-weather games have a special place in NFL lore. A football team, and the stadium it plays in, should reflect the personality of a region. When I was a season-ticket holder in Buffalo a million years ago, we loved it when the Miami Dolphins visited for a snow game. No palm trees in Buffalo!
Would Jerome Bettis running over Brian Urlacher at the goal line have felt the same if it happened on indoor carpeting with the thermostat set to 72 degrees?
Of course not. It needed to happen in the snow and mud. It needed to happen in Pittsburgh the way Pittsburgh actually is, like the ‘70s Steelers smashing the domed Houston Oilers in the 1978 AFC Championship Game. The cover of Sports Illustrated had Terry Bradshaw sliding through an ice puddle under the headline, “Splash Down to the Super Bowl”
That’s football.
I get it. Building domes in Cleveland (soon enough) and Detroit and Minnesota and Denver and Kansas City keeps everybody comfortable and more importantly opens Niagara Falls-like revenue streams. It opens a 12-month events calendar that could include a Super Bowl, a Final Four and whatever else you can imagine.
But at what cost? Maybe Buffalo has it right with their new stadium: Fans will be protected by a steel canopy that covers nearly two-thirds of the stadium, but the field itself will be exposed to the elements.
Snow games will still happen. Weather good and bad will still be part of the game.
That is the way football was meant to be played.