ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A contest calling for creative uses for Al Lang Stadium during the Tampa Bay Rowdies's off-season has selected a winner: Domescape.
- Domescape creates virtual worlds beneath dome-shaped structures
- Rowdies Synapse Challenge accepted submissions through April 2019
- Al Lang Stadium could host test appearance of Domescape this fall
- More Pinellas County stories
The "Rowdies Synapse Challenge," sponsored by Synapse Florida, the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Tampa Bay Rays, accepted submissions through April 12, 2019. In the end, they chose the pitch for Domescape out for more than two dozen submissions because it was out-of-this-world in just about every sense of the term.
“We ended up choosing Domescapes as the winner because their solution was so far outside the box that it actually really could change what goes on in downtown St. Petersburg. It was so innovative. It was so different.” said Synapse President Brian Kornfeld."
But what is Domescape?
“It's a revolving festival that takes place during the four months of the off-season of the Rowdies,” says Domescape co-founder Nolan Christensen. “It consists of domes at various scales housing different types of events.”
What makes those events so different is that they are created in virtual reality. The idea, according to Christensen and co-creator Lance Moore, is to create several domes on the field, each one containing a virtual world in which anything could be imagined or created, like an event in the Roman Coliseum or a virtual walk through a digital wilderness.
Sound cool? It may be coming to Al Lang sooner rather than later. While Domescape is still in the virtual planning stage, it could make a test appearance at the stadium this fall.