Will this week's game be postponed or moved due to Ike? [Yes]

[Warren]

This article talks about the stadium design and says that the roof was supposed to withstand winds up to 120 mph. The desire to make Reliant more of a multipurpose facility than a pure football field (it hosts more rodeo events per year than NFL games) seems to have a lot to do with why it wasn't set up to have an open roof indefinitely. The floor without the drainage system is probably a lot more useful for non-football events.

Rice Stadium may be the next best option but I don't think it's a real attractive one for the team. Even if every Reliant ticketholder gets a seat at Rice, Rice would clearly be a step down in quality for the fan -- sightlines, benches instead of seats, no luxury boxes (right?), fewer concessions and bathrooms, less parking and access for traffic, no video screens (right?) etc. The team would need to do something to make up the difference to the fans, not to mention the hit it would take in lost signage, video, and other in-stadium advertising revenue.

[HPF Bob]

The typical outdoor football field is built on a "crown" where the area between the hashmarks is higher up than the sidelines. That's so rain can flow down to the sidelines and provide better traction in the middle of the field.

In domed facilities, the crown is not needed so they were built without one, all the better to stage non-football events. I think that's the real issue here although I see it being a factor only if the game was played in a downpour. Excessive rains might also flood the field level seats closest to the sidelines.

But if the roof is the only thing wrong and the sod is portable, I just don't see why it would matter to the point of relocating the game. Football was designed to be played in adverse weather conditions.