The use of the structural scheme of the covering is considered, which allows the use of a lightweight roof structure using modern composite materials. A comparison is made of two options for cable-stayed covering of the circus auditorium: with an orthogonal mesh of cables (according to a standard design) and with a mesh of cables formed by two groups of stabilizing cables. The possibilities of reinforcement with composite material are analyzed. Calculation and preliminary selection of cable-stayed sections were carried out. The graphs of the dependence of the conditional volume on the relative sag arrows are plotted, with the values of the coefficient kq. An optimization problem was solved to design the cable-stayed coating and determine its characteristics. As a result, optimal cable-stayed sections were obtained. The calculation shows the inexpediency of using a heavy roof structure for saddle cable-stayed coverings due to the exclusion of stabilizing cables from the operation with a large roof weight.