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Feb 19, 2025

Hurricane tested aging Tropicana Field roof. Denver airport tents are also nearing limits | Business | denvergazette.com

As Hurricane Milton passed over Florida as a Category 3 storm, eyewitness videos flooded social media showing the rooftop of the Tampa Bay Rays home stadium shredding in the wind. By Thursday morning,

As Hurricane Milton passed over Florida as a Category 3 storm, eyewitness videos flooded social media showing the rooftop of the Tampa Bay Rays home stadium shredding in the wind.

By Thursday morning, much of Tropicana Field’s dome roof was gone.

Aerial drone footage revealed wispy white strands hanging off the rooftop’s cable spines. Looking from outside, the Major League Baseball team’s infield was surrounded by hundreds of cots meant for storm responders (they were redeployed to another location before landfall) and large swaths of fabric spread out across stadium seats.

But isn't there something a little familiar about the stadium's translucent and fabric-life roof, Denver?

Well, it might be because it's the same material used for Denver International Airport’s iconic tent rooftop. It's also used for the white canopy built in 2014 outside of Denver’s Union Station.

Tropicana Field’s dome was made with six acres of “Teflon-coated fiberglass” and built to withstand up to 115 mph winds, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times. DIA's tents are also made with woven fiberglass fabric coated with polytetrafluoroethylene, or Teflon, an airport spokesperson told The Denver Gazette.

The baseball dome roof was more susceptible to damage because of its old age, a stadium engineer told The Athletic.

The stadium and airport roofs are made with a durable material, but like everything, it has its limits.

DIA's roof — a few years younger than the Trop — is nearing the end of its shelf life. Because of that, airport officials have been working on a plan to replace the tents this decade.

The airport is "hoping" to implement the roof replacement plan before 2030, a DIA spokesperson told The Denver Gazette.

The material is made of ultrafine glass fibers, woven into a mesh fabric and then coated with polytetrafluoroethylene, or the more commonly known brand name Teflon, the same chemical covering for many nonstick cookware items.

It was first used for the Apollo moon mission spacesuits after a tragic test exercise for Apollo I had a fire killing three astronauts, according to NASA, pushing the space agency to look for safer outerwear materials.

It led the space agency to a budding material invented by Dupont, now known as Teflon-coated fiberglass. NASA found it “durable, strong, lightweight, flexible, and noncombustible” with the ability to withstand temperatures around 650 degrees Fahrenheit.

The airport's tents can withstand temperatures between -100°F and +450°F, a DIA spokesperson told The Denver Gazette via email. It can also be easily cleaned with rainwater and isn't susceptible to ultraviolet radiation damage.

While NASA no longer uses the material for its space suits, it has since become a popular choice among architects.

Especially for transportation hubs, stadiums and convention centers, according to NASA.

The material has added benefits for buildings such as being “stronger than steel” but remaining lightweight, letting natural light pass through while keeping heat out and having flexibility to create dramatic shapes.

The airport's tents covering Jeppsson Terminal is frequently listed as one of the examples showing the capabilities of a Teflon-coated fiberglass roof, including by NASA.

DIA’s tent roof was designed to resemble Colorado's Rocky Mountains and Native American teepees in the state's Great Plains. The roof is about 240,000 square foot in size and covers about four football fields, according to the airport. It's held up by 34 masts.

Despite the material’s durability, Hurricane Milton is a reminder that fiberglass rooftop fabrics are not impenetrable to extreme weather.

Denver isn’t at risk of getting hit by a major hurricane like Florida is. But Denver is prone to windstorms, blizzards and heavy hail.

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In 2003, a March blizzard left a 40-foot gash in a tent top due to heavy snow, forcing evacuations in that part of the main terminal.

The material has a life expectancy around 30 years though there are many projects that have lasted long after that, according to a DIA spokesperson. Others estimates have expectancy closer to 25 years.

Tropicana Field's roof was 34-years-old and never replaced, according to The Athletic's report. No replacement was set as a new baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays is scheduled to be built in time for 2028 Opening Day.

The Denver airport began looking into replacing the tent roof's covering five years ago, the spokesperson added, as it's reaching the end of its projected expectancy. DIA opened three decades ago in 1995.

The airport is working on calculating scheduling and replacement costs, drafting preliminary project plans, testing materials and seeking capital funding, according to the spokesperson.

"DEN has been working with our vendor to create initial execution plans and refine rough order-of-magnitude pricing and we’re currently hoping to implement a full tent replacement before 2030," according to the statement.

By 2030, the current roof would be older than Tropicana Field's roof is today.

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