Torn tent gets new skin

The battered WestWorld tent in Scottsdale, Ariz., will be renewed in early October with new fabric.

Windstorms ripped a hole in the 120,000-square-foot tent earlier this summer, but officials said it would be a “waste of resources” to repair the torn fabric, which featured two large American flags.

The brightly colored tent caused a stir when it went up in 2005 to host the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction. Some complained that the 80-foot-tall tent went against the city’s 36-foot height limit, and others said the bright colors were an eyesore in an otherwise carefully planned community.

The tent’s new sandstone-colored fabric will not feature any American flags and will be installed at a cost of around $1.4 million. The city paid $2 million for the tent in 2005 and another $2 million for its installation.

The tent was meant to be a temporary solution until the city could build a new, multi-use events center, but the city council dropped the event building from the 2008 budget, and a new building could be several years away. The next event scheduled in the multi-purpose tent is the Scottsdale Home & Interiors Show in October.