The Roof Is Open Right Now

[84BDsop]

OK, here comes the story. I have a friend that runs a hot air balloon company in the Stillwater MN. area. The night of the Drum Beauty show he flew over the contest and much to his surprise, it was really loud. Normaly at 2000 feet, all city noise is gone, but on this night he flew over 5-8 world class corps all warming up. He said he could not hear any horns, just drums and keyboards. He said he was too high to see the corps, but he said it was loud!! Freaked him out abit.

Wow....finally a GE box higher than old Mile High or Boisie!!

[oldsoprano]

I have a friend that runs a hot air balloon company in the Stillwater MN. area. The night of the Drum Beauty show he flew over the contest and much to his surprise, it was really loud. Normaly at 2000 feet, all city noise is gone, but on this night he flew over 5-8 world class corps all warming up. He said he could not hear any horns, just drums and keyboards. He said he was too high to see the corps, but he said it was loud!! Freaked him out abit.

From "combia1"'s review of the Stillwater show earlier in the summer:

SPIRIT OF JSU: ...the wind effects setting up Dust in the Wind were great. And the miced steel drum and pit that started the Dust in the Wind was my favorite musical moment of the night. Gorgeous.

Now, here is where the big GE moment happened. During Dust in the Wind, three hot-air balloons drifted over the stadium from behind the crowd. Can't imagine what the performers were thinking. During the big moments of the ballad, the balloons were now behind the corps, and one was coming down, and another was going up. It was VERY cool.

I wonder how loud the corps sounded to the people in the balloons?

Guess this answer's combia1's question!

[Matt_S]

Just wanted to add, apparently the roof is open for tonight's preseason game against the Eagles, as well.

[jamesjones0611]

It costs $30,000 to open the roof because the money required to re-air condition the entire facility, the electric power required to open the roof, and all of the other logistical things involved...it is a massive structure, and massive structures take a lot of money to move.

[PioneerWebmaster]

It costs $30,000 to open the roof because the money required to re-air condition the entire facility, the electric power required to open the roof, and all of the other logistical things involved...it is a massive structure, and massive structures take a lot of money to move.

Opening the roof requires virtually no energy, and actually generates power which can be used to then close the roof:

Each of the two roof panels has two cable drums over the two outboard rails and has four cable drums over the three inboard rails, for a total of 16 cable drums per roof panel. Each cable drum is driven by four 7.5-horsepower motors for a total of 64 motors per roof panel. The motors are controlled by sophisticated variable frequency drives that work together and ensure that all cable drums maintain the correct cable tension to share the roof loads equally. As the retractable roof panels roll downhill to the open position, the electric motors must restrain rather than drive the load, and in the process act as generators in order to keep it from running away. Each VFD is equipped with an integrated regenerative drive that turns the generated power back into regular 60Hz current and feed it back into the power grid. This system keeps the roof panels under control as they roll downhill to the open position, and provides a little extra energy, which can be used to drive the motors back uphill.

However, I would agree that the cost of cooling the stadium after having the roof open would carry a hefty price tag (although I've searched high and low for that figure and can't find it anywhere!). The only thing I've seen is that utilities for the stadium are in excess of $7M per year...