Translucent Dome Stadiums Surge in the U.S.—What About South Korea?

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With professional baseball games being canceled en masse due to unprecedented heatwaves and heavy rains, fans are increasingly calling for domed stadiums. Amidst this trend, a new type of domed stadium is gaining widespread popularity in the United States. Rather than traditional enclosed domes or retractable-roof domes, "translucent-roof domes" are surging in number.

Reporter Bae Jeonghun investigated their pros and cons and the likelihood of them being built in South Korea.

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This is the new home stadium of Major League Baseball's Athletics currently under construction in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Its defining feature is a translucent roof made of a material called ETFE, which ensures natural lighting comparable to an outdoor stadium, while glass side panels provide sweeping views of the outside scenery.

ETFE boasts a light transmittance of over 90% while weighing a mere 1/100th of glass. This makes construction costs significantly lower than those of retractable domes, which require heavy metal roofs, supporting structures, and opening mechanisms, all while preserving natural sunlight and outdoor views.

SoFi Stadium, which will host the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Los Angeles and has hosted concerts by superstars like BTS, utilizes an ETFE roof. Translucent roofs are also scheduled to be used in several upcoming stadiums, including the new ballpark for MLB's Tampa Bay Rays being built in hurricane-prone Florida and the new home stadium for the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs.

A notable drawback of transparent roof stadiums is their relatively high maintenance costs.

Some experts suggest that building such a stadium in South Korea could be difficult due to the high costs associated with repairing roof defects caused by severe weather like typhoons, as well as running air conditioning and ventilation systems to prevent a greenhouse effect.

[Baek Won-kyung / Executive Director, Populous Korea (Sports Architecture Firm): In the U.S., even with some concerns over maintenance, they make the investment and effort just to provide that outdoor feel. But in reality, that is not a major issue in South Korea or Japan. (Transparent dome stadiums) are not easy to manage and cost significantly more....]

While the Cheongna Dome currently under construction and the Jamsil Dome scheduled to break ground next year have both been finalized with traditional steel-framed enclosed roofs, newly inaugurated Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo is reportedly prioritizing a retractable roof for the new dome stadium he is pushing for at the North Port site, while remaining open to reviewing other roof designs.

(Video Editing: Park Ki-deok, Design: Han Heung-soo, Footage courtesy of: Athletics, Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Rays, Hanwha Engineering & Construction, SSG, YouTube (@BuildCore))
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.