Venue News & Notes: London Gets an Inflatable Roof

One of the venues for London’s Olympics in 2012 will have a sloping, inflatable roof and will be designed so it can be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere. The water polo arena will rise from the main pedestrian entrance to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. It will seat 5,000 spectators and will be wrapped in a silver membrane, with special PVC padding in the roof to give extra insulation and cut condensation. Building work is due to begin next spring and is expected to take a year. The venue will have a competition pool, which will be 37m in length and 23m wide, and a smaller warm-up pool. It is intended to be taken down once the Games are over and relocated…

…The latest and last expansion of Alabama’s Bry­ant- Denny Stadium has added room for 9,683 more fans at Alabama foot­ball games. It also has added more challenges to maintaining the grass field. Less sunlight on the turf is one problem. Less air circulation is another thing. The latter issue is one that more fans can fix. Four fans that will create an artificial breeze, that is. “We’re waiting delivery on some large fans, like you see on golf courses, for air movement,” said Scott Urbantke, Ala­bama’s director of athletic grounds. “We’re going to try that approach to create some wind for ourselves, to stimulate growth…”

…Boise State Athletic director Gene Bleymaier has unveiled plans for the expansion of Bronco Stadium, the building of a new football complex and Donna Larson Park. The project will cost the school more than $100 million. First addressed was the newly purchased property formerly home to East Junior High, newly named Donna Larsen Park. This will be home to Ed Jabcoby Track, which is currently circling the football field. Also located there will be places for track and field events and a multi-purpose field that can be used for Boise-area football games. Rows of bleachers will be placed on both sides of the track with a seating capacity of 2,500 each.