Broncos new stadium: What Denver can learn from 5 NFL retractable roofs
What started as a few flakes drifting through the air turned into a whiteout.
It’s been four months since the wintry AFC Championship Game, when nearly 2 inches of snow fell at Empower Field. The Broncos never scored after halftime. The Patriots managed a short field goal.
That proved just enough in a 10-7 heartbreaker that sent New England to the Super Bowl and Denver to the offseason. The defeat summons an intriguing what-if scenario: Would the outcome change with a retractable-roof stadium?
“The NFL does have guidelines or rules around the home teams selecting or choosing what they’re going to do with their roof, and when they can open or close it. So, we’d obviously comply with that,” Broncos controlling owner Greg Penner said after the season. “In this case, we would have likely closed it ahead of time given both the temperature and the potential precipitation. That being said, who knows if that would’ve had any outcome on the game? Either way, this would have been more around what was going to be good for the fans.
“It was pretty rough.”
The Broncos will fix that problem in 2031, when the team anticipates opening a new privately financed stadium and mixed-use entertainment district.
“We’re evaluating retractable-roof options,” Penner said.
Here is what the Broncos can learn from five current NFL stadiums with retractable roofs.
NRG Stadium (Houston Texans)
Year opened: 2002
Stadium cost: $352 million
Retractable roof design: NRG Stadium includes a 180,000-square-foot roof split between two panels that separate at the 50-yard line. It is controlled on a traction drive system on a pair of flat rails that open or close in about 12 minutes.
Notable: NRG Stadium made history as the first NFL home stadium with a retractable roof. But it now requires a whopping $116 million in repairs. The Texans are publicly committed to staying in Houston. The stadium will receive significant upgrades as a 2026 FIFA World Cup host site, but the facility needs $2 billion in overall upgrades that aren’t happening anytime soon.
State Farm Stadium (Arizona Cardinals)
Year opened: 2006
Stadium cost: $455 million
Retractable roof design: State Farm Stadium features a 100,000-square-foot opening that is closed with two retractable roof panels. It is operated by cable drives anchored near the 50-yard line of the building structure. It opens in about 11 minutes.
Notable: It was the first NFL stadium with a retractable roof and a roll-in natural-grass field. The Cardinals roll the playing surface in and out of the stadium on steel wheels. The Broncos plan to have a natural-grass playing surface at their new stadium in 2031.
Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis Colts)
Year opened: 2008
Stadium cost: $720 million
Retractable roof design: Lucas Oil Stadium has a side-opening roof made from two panels measuring 160 feet by 600 feet. They climb a 13-degree slope along five rails to close at the peak in about 11 minutes.
Notable: The Colts have opened the roof in about 30% of all their home games. Lucas Oil Stadium has longevity as a key resource for the league. It hosts the NFL Scouting Combine. The stadium is planned for about $9.4 million in improvements for 2026.
AT&T Stadium (Dallas Cowboys)
Year opened: 2009
Stadium cost: $1.5 billion
Retractable roof design: AT&T Stadium features two massive retractable panels — measuring 256 feet by 410 feet — that are covered in a “translucent tensile fabric membrane.” A precision rack-and-pinion drive system allows the roof to open in about 12 minutes.
Notable: There have been just three Cowboys home games played with the roof open dating back to 2022. A piece of metal fell from the roof before a Cowboys game in 2024. Team owner Jerry Jones also refuses to close blackout curtains on windows above the west end zone — with players sometimes blinded by light during the game.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta Falcons)
Year opened: 2017
Stadium cost: $1.6 billion
Retractable roof design: Mercedes-Benz Stadium includes eight triangular “steel petals” that are “designed to resemble a camera shutter.” They rest on eight pairs of tracks that form an oval at the opening that measures 125,000 square feet.
Notable: It took almost a year after the stadium opened for the retractable roof to be in operation. The design complexity required additional engineering to make it work reliably. The Falcons played only two home games with the roof open last season.