Sorry to hear it, hope no one is hurt, but is the thing ever used outside 10 BC Lions home dates in which it attains half capacity?

It sure did. Was just there as I work about 2 min walk away. Pieces of roof fabric are sitting on the ground on the south side. I saw a pic that a guy took on his cell phone. It blew out on the south side (he has a picture with the hole there) and then it collapsed. I've emailed him for the pic and I'll email it to you if he sends it.

It's actually used quite often...trade shows, rock concerts etc.

Repoertedly the roof only took about a minute to collapse.

Fortunately, no injuries reported.

"Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get."

-Robert A. Heinlein

Just a tad breezy in Van today?

It's actually not "completely flat" -- it's inverted. Pictures are at cknw dot com if anybody's interested.

BC Place lost its lid, I guess we can blame Global Warming or (Y2K) or what ever the next Band wagon brings to a town near you.
Football should be played outside but unfortunately CKNW radio sports reported the roof can't be replaced with a retractable roof as there is no drainage in the stadium. I guess we, here in Lotus Land, will have to endure our Pro sporting events in a hot humid pressurized air lock while the smart people stay outside enjoying the warming sun, weather its Global or not.

Also reported at the Proud To Be Canadian web site, too. (And noting how little coverage there was of it on CTV and CBC.)

over reaction

Its an air supported roof .it has deflated due to a tear.

Move along now, nothing to see here. I live a block away so my view has improved :)

cell phone video here

http://video.canada.com/VideoContent.aspx?&popup=1
Posted by: Fred at January 5, 2007 05:25 PM

CBC in Vancouver is a short block away from the dome and maybe another one minute walk from where the tear is.

Ya think somebody could have walked out a snapped picture.

Probably happened during one of many daily CUPE coffee breaks.

IIRC the roof had a projected lifetime of 20 years.

capt_bob - I think the technology exists today to put drainage in a stadium.

Guess the Monster trucks are off this year unless they can re-book into the coliseum (or whatever they are calling it now).

in the third photo on the CKNW site there is a large plume that looks like it is coming from BC Place.

False impression . . the camera angle just happens to line up with a central steam plant that provides hot water heating to many downtown Vancouver buildings . . . so no, BC Place is not on fire.

With all the rain & snow today, you couldn't start a fire in Vancouver with a blowtorch, a gallon of gas and truckload of tinder.

two down one to go.
snow loads are something Canajun engineers should be able to calculate.

This will probably mess up the Lions field goal kicker's average.

Maybe they could hold a Lieberal convention in there to re-inflate it?

Something tells me that the lack of drainage in BC Place is a bigger problem with no roof than a retractable one.

Fred: "... Ya think somebody could have walked out a snapped picture"

Picture is probably already snapped. Someone in Toronto most likely has to write/spin the article.

OK. Stadium officials just finished a news conference. Apparently a small tear developed in the fabric of the roof from the high winds here. That developed into a big, big tear. At that point stadium personnel commenced what they term a "controlled deflation" to let the roof down "gently". What they are most worried about now is the water damage fromm the heavy rains.

The Unions just hit paydirt...they get to fix their mistakes at time+material.

Are you certain that they're not photos of Jason Cherniak's petition?

They should hold a political convention inside, with all the greenhouse gases being exhaled they will have that roof reinflated in no time!!

Fred's right; we've had a load of snow today. I'm serious -- it's almost a whole two inches!

... rest of Canada, please try to control your laughter.

No biggie, how hard can it be to score a lid in B.C.?

/Heeheehee
//Dated reference, lost on teh younguns
///Dave's not here

Bruce, I didn't know BC Place had a "trap door" like an old pair of long johns. However, I wonder what the stadium officials are smoking if they say it was a "controlled deflation" to let the roof down "gently".
p.s. Never go hot air ballooning with these folks.

I doubt if snow had anything to do with it. The roof is a double layer design and they can and do force warm air into the void to melt snow.

They can melt off 15cm per hour and maybe today the fall was 5cm, although it was a wet 5cm.

The roof went up in 84 or 85 as I recall, so its well past middle age.

You're right, Texas...it DOES look like a pair of long johns. And considering that some interviewees on local radio claimed they had to run for their lives, I too wonder about the "gentle deflation".

In any event, they claim that a new panel will be flown in by perhaps tomorrow and the roof will be repaired within a week (we'll see about that). My guess is that it will take a lot longer to dry the place out...

...heard this years ago:

"BC Stadium is Vancouverites final admission that it rains there.

It makes me sad. I have lots of great memories from BC Place. If you have never experienced a full house at either a football game or one the numerous great concerts that have taken place, it is truly one you would never forget. I hope that it will be able to be "up" and running again soon. Glad that there was no one hurt!

///Dave's not here

Oh great, now I can't get that #@$%#$ C&C skit out of my head...

tomax7: I guess I shouldn't bring up Sister Mary Elephant either then... class, CLASS !!!!!!

Engineered in Canada and built with union pride...

"There is no debt so surely met
As wet to dry and dry to wet."

"Football should be played outside but unfortunately CKNW radio sports reported the roof can't be replaced with a retractable roof as there is no drainage in the stadium. I guess we, here in Lotus Land, will have to endure our Pro sporting events in a hot humid pressurized air lock while the smart people stay outside enjoying the warming sun, weather its Global or not."

As a former Sask roughrider fan I can tell you that its a hellova lot better in BC place when it rains*which is often) than in Sask in the snow(which also is often)

The roof had a 20 year gaurantee(lifespan?) and it is going to be the venue for the Opening (and closing?)Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics. So you can bet that the repair will be more than a patch. I'd wager that the roof will be replaced as the province won't chance another failure closer to, or during, the Olympics. And I'd also wager that insurance will cover most, if not all, of the damage.BC. Place Stadium is a good facility that still has lots of life left and this may have been an opportune time for this to happen. Its a godsend like the windstorm in Stanley Park that will allow the park board to do what they should have been doing but couldn't because of all the tree huggers.

Horny Toad

And dion wants wind power as an alternate energy.

Texas Canuck...now give me that knife.

"The roof had a 20 year gaurantee"

Like Healthcare, everyone thought the roof was fixed for a generation.

B.C. Place is no Montreal Olympic Stadium.

Until it can drop a multi-ton chunk of concrete to the ground, I'm calling it a mere piker.

No big deal, nothing that a little of the "handyman's secret weapon" can't fix.

Actually I think it would make the building truly Canadian to sew two big silver strips over the spots where the tears happened (however they actually fix it)

Hell, send in Red Green with his duct tape. He'll have it up and running again in no time.

:)

At 05:37 PM above, Fred wrote that "In the third photo on the CKNW site there is a large plume that looks like it is coming from BC Place. False impression ... the camera angle just happens to line up with a central steam plant that provides hot water heating to many downtown Vancouver buildings ... so no, BC Place is not on fire."

It's after midnight here now, and on the CBC news main web site page there's a glorius picture of a plume rising over BC Place. There's a screen snap of the CBC site available here: sagaciousiconoclast.blogspot.com/2007/01/cbc-news-2007-01-06.html

I'll say it again, the CBC are doom-mongers. They are not only wrong, their fradulent pessimism is a threat to the future of humanity.

BC should be thankful for small favors. What would happen if the weather and wind they are having happened in 2010. What if that tear happened at the games openings.
Then maybe all that bad stuff happening there is a message from above. Convert to conservatisim and tell the greens and ndp to gth.

"Engineered in Canada and built with union pride..."

BC Place Stadium is a copy of the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. It was built in 1983 for less than the originally estimated cost of 110 million dollars, which is unusual for large public construction projects. Since then there have been no major problems, and this roof tear isn't likely a major problem either.