Rain delay: $720 million stadium, 10-cent roof.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Citings

YOU CAN FORGIVE football fans in Indianapolis for dropping their nachos when they learned about a glitch in the shiny new Lucas Oil Stadium the city built for the Indianapolis Colts: The facility isn't waterproof. That came as a surprise, because Colts owner Jim Irsay insisted his new stadium include one of those fancy retractable roofs all the other football owners seem to be getting. The roof added another $15.7 million to the price tag, which had already grown from $500 million when initially sold to the public to more than $720 million by the time the building was completed.

The city hadn't even finished paying for the Colts' prior home, the tax-funded RCA Dome, before talk about a new stadium began several years ago. Not wanting to let a pro franchise skip town under his watch, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson cobbled together a deal under which the city would impose a new tax to pay the vast majority of the project's cost, provided the Colts put up a small stake to show the city their loyalty.

To build the new stadium however, the city had to break its lease with the Colts to tear down the old one...