The Carrier Dome: Retractable or Inflatable, That is the Question (UPDATED)

Update: Apparently Syracuse.com jumped the gun on this whole retractable roof idea. They posted the following correction on their story this morning...

Syracuse University officials said this morning that while all roof options are being considered, the focus of dome renovation plans has been on a fixed roof, not on a retractable roof. A syracuse.com reporter misunderstood information provided Monday by Chancellor Kent Syverud.

Original: As the plan for a new, state-of-the-art arena in Syracuse appears to be dead, concerns about the potential for a new & improved Carrier Dome are heating up.

Dave Tobin interviewed Syracuse University Chancellor Syverud about a few things and one of the topics included what's going to happen to the Dome. According to the Chancellor, there are three proposals on the table. They can replace the air-inflated roof with a brand new one, they can replace the inflatable roof with a retractable one or they can build an entirely new arena. This matches up exactly with what DOC Gross said back in December.

Without state funding, I'm not sure where the money is going to come from to build a new arena, so let's table that for the moment (SU sure can't afford to pay for it, and if they suddenly said they can, that raises a whole bunch other questions...).

The Chancellor didn't say which way he was leaning but did note that he's basically got 18 months left to decide.

We know Gross really wants the retractable roof and if I had to put money down, I'd say that's what we're going to end up with. Syverud told Tobin that he expects to see renderings for a retractable roof-topped Carrier Dome by end of the semester. Along with that, he still needs a costs estimate, which is going to end up somewhere between a new inflatable roof ($10M) and a new arena ("hundreds of millions of dollars").