The deflated bubble fell after nine years onsite.
Call it Mother Nature: 1, giant bubble: zero.
Last month’s blizzard meant game over for the inflatable bubble-like dome that encloses one of the turf fields at Sports Center of Richmond, a soccer complex off Overbrook Road, near the Diamond.
Accumulation and frigid temperatures from the two-day storm proved too much for the structure to bear. At around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 23, one of the seams in the dome’s Tedlar skin ripped, and down it came.
“It was surreal,” said SCOR owner Mark Grossman, who opened the complex just off Interstate 95 in 2006. “It went down so slowly, and it was quiet because there was no traffic on the highway. ‘Surreal’ is the only word for it.”
But Grossman isn’t wallowing in deflation. He still has two functioning fields at SCOR and is using the collapse as an opportunity to complete his original business plan for the complex by fast-tracking upgrades he’s been considering for years.
A view from inside the bubble, pre-collapse.
A plan is now in motion to build a permanent steel structure to replace the dome, giving SCOR two upgraded, fully enclosed fields.
“The plan is to build a steel structure that’s bigger and nicer,” Grossman said.
And while they’re at it, Grossman is going to upgrade SCOR’s third field, currently an uncovered outdoor field. It will get a pole barn that will allow it cover from precipitation while keeping its sides open to the fresh air.
The entire undertaking could cost about $2 million, Grossman said, and will bring the facility closer to his original vision for SCOR. Prodded by the dome’s collapse, Grossman said doing all the work at once seems to be the most prudent move.
“There’s no question that only having to mobilize once is a lot less expensive. So it kind of allows us to accelerate our plan,” he said.
Grossman recalled the dome’s demise in vivid detail last week.
He said he got the news via text message at 4 a.m. on Jan. 23 that the bubble was in trouble.
The structure had survived plenty of storms during the nine years it hovered over SCOR. Wind was always the biggest threat, and Grossman’s crew had a tried-and-true regimen to deal with the weight of the snow on the inflatable structure.
“The way you save a dome – and we’ve done it many times over the years – is you super-heat it. Turn it up to 75 degrees, get it as hot as you can so the snow will essentially slide off.
“It was doing its job perfectly until the ice came.”
What made last month’s storm different was not only the amount of snow, but the extended freezing temperatures. It essentially turned the accumulation on the dome into sheets of ice – and the rest is history.
The rip that brought the dome down.
Grossman, himself, never much liked the bubble. It was an affordable solution that allowed him and his investors to get SCOR up and running in 2006. He had always planned to have the facility’s turf fields under steel structures, a process he started in 2012 by building a new enclosed field and sports bar on the campus’s western end.
But since its collapse, Grossman said there has been some reminiscing about the inflated structure. A tear or two was shed by his crew after it came down, and a shot or two was toasted to pay respects.
“Some people are going to miss it,” he said. “We’ll have big pictures of it in the new structure.”
Grossman aims to get started on the improvements no later than May 1, with a goal of being up and running by September.
The new field will get a new entryway, doing away with the previous revolving door that was necessary to help maintain conditions inside the dome, and will have enhanced space for parties and other group events.
The work will be staged to allow SCOR’s various leagues to run as uninterrupted as possible. It has about 150 adult teams in its soccer leagues and another 150 youth soccer teams, in addition to hosting dodgeball, kickball, Wiffle ball, lacrosse and other sports.
But before the upgrades start, Grossman said they first have to do a temporary repair to patch the dome to be able to inflate it just enough to get in and see the condition of things underneath. Like a lost city buried under the deflation, Grossman said he thinks the soccer goals, scoreboards, benches and other gear seem fairly intact and salvageable.
“It looks like Atlantis underneath.”
The deflated bubble fell after nine years onsite.
Call it Mother Nature: 1, giant bubble: zero.
Last month’s blizzard meant game over for the inflatable bubble-like dome that encloses one of the turf fields at Sports Center of Richmond, a soccer complex off Overbrook Road, near the Diamond.
Accumulation and frigid temperatures from the two-day storm proved too much for the structure to bear. At around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 23, one of the seams in the dome’s Tedlar skin ripped, and down it came.
“It was surreal,” said SCOR owner Mark Grossman, who opened the complex just off Interstate 95 in 2006. “It went down so slowly, and it was quiet because there was no traffic on the highway. ‘Surreal’ is the only word for it.”
But Grossman isn’t wallowing in deflation. He still has two functioning fields at SCOR and is using the collapse as an opportunity to complete his original business plan for the complex by fast-tracking upgrades he’s been considering for years.
A view from inside the bubble, pre-collapse.
A plan is now in motion to build a permanent steel structure to replace the dome, giving SCOR two upgraded, fully enclosed fields.
“The plan is to build a steel structure that’s bigger and nicer,” Grossman said.
And while they’re at it, Grossman is going to upgrade SCOR’s third field, currently an uncovered outdoor field. It will get a pole barn that will allow it cover from precipitation while keeping its sides open to the fresh air.
The entire undertaking could cost about $2 million, Grossman said, and will bring the facility closer to his original vision for SCOR. Prodded by the dome’s collapse, Grossman said doing all the work at once seems to be the most prudent move.
“There’s no question that only having to mobilize once is a lot less expensive. So it kind of allows us to accelerate our plan,” he said.
Grossman recalled the dome’s demise in vivid detail last week.
He said he got the news via text message at 4 a.m. on Jan. 23 that the bubble was in trouble.
The structure had survived plenty of storms during the nine years it hovered over SCOR. Wind was always the biggest threat, and Grossman’s crew had a tried-and-true regimen to deal with the weight of the snow on the inflatable structure.
“The way you save a dome – and we’ve done it many times over the years – is you super-heat it. Turn it up to 75 degrees, get it as hot as you can so the snow will essentially slide off.
“It was doing its job perfectly until the ice came.”
What made last month’s storm different was not only the amount of snow, but the extended freezing temperatures. It essentially turned the accumulation on the dome into sheets of ice – and the rest is history.
The rip that brought the dome down.
Grossman, himself, never much liked the bubble. It was an affordable solution that allowed him and his investors to get SCOR up and running in 2006. He had always planned to have the facility’s turf fields under steel structures, a process he started in 2012 by building a new enclosed field and sports bar on the campus’s western end.
But since its collapse, Grossman said there has been some reminiscing about the inflated structure. A tear or two was shed by his crew after it came down, and a shot or two was toasted to pay respects.
“Some people are going to miss it,” he said. “We’ll have big pictures of it in the new structure.”
Grossman aims to get started on the improvements no later than May 1, with a goal of being up and running by September.
The new field will get a new entryway, doing away with the previous revolving door that was necessary to help maintain conditions inside the dome, and will have enhanced space for parties and other group events.
The work will be staged to allow SCOR’s various leagues to run as uninterrupted as possible. It has about 150 adult teams in its soccer leagues and another 150 youth soccer teams, in addition to hosting dodgeball, kickball, Wiffle ball, lacrosse and other sports.
But before the upgrades start, Grossman said they first have to do a temporary repair to patch the dome to be able to inflate it just enough to get in and see the condition of things underneath. Like a lost city buried under the deflation, Grossman said he thinks the soccer goals, scoreboards, benches and other gear seem fairly intact and salvageable.
“It looks like Atlantis underneath.”
Hopefully, part of the upgrade at the outdoor field will include some basic safety improvements to the knee-walls which comprise the perimeter of the outdoor soccer field. Indoor soccer games can be very physical, and play around the walls can resemble hockey. Those walls are capped with a metal track within which the glass panels are secured. There is no padding whatsoever on the walls or the metal cap. During a game, while he was playing a ball near the wall, my son was shoved from behind and his head bounced off the metal cap. He suffered a severe concussion.… Read more »