| 09 October 2009
Yes, the stadium where I saw a little good football, lots of bad football, some prodigious feats of drinking, a ton of bare-knuckle brawls and the occasional basketball game, the iconic, muffin topped, Teflon coated, Pontiac Silverdome, is finally up for auction.
All bids considered.
So if you actually bid, you might get lucky! (or unlucky, depending upon your point of view on old stadiums and the struggling city of Pontiac)
The good old days of Wrestlemania 3, and a full, boisturous Silverdome
The bad new days, all that's missing are tumbleweeds...
The Pontiac Silverdome, home of the Detroit Lions from 1975 until 2002, will be sold next month to the highest bidder, no matter the bid, as the cash-strapped city looks to offload the $1.5-million annual upkeep costs at the empty facility.
//snip//
The iconic building dominates the skyline of Pontiac, visible for several miles. Its namesake roof is made of fiberglass and suspended by positive air pressure in the building. With more than 80,000 seats, the building hosted a Super Bowl, an NBA All-Star game, a papal mass and Wrestlemania III.
Uh, Pontiac has a skyline? But I digress...
You know, there are people who still mourn Tiger Stadium, even though it was already out of date in the 50's, and had only 10K or so "good" seats. The rest had some sort of obstructed view. The bathroom situation was horrendous. Needed to use the restroom. You're going to miss 3 innings. Amenities were just as bad. Wanted a beer? You're going to miss 3 innings.
The place was considered sacred to some. But no one seems to mourn the Silverdome.
Why? The Lions, obviously. Not that the Tigers were world beaters for most of their time at Tiger Stadium, but they did win a few World Series. But there's more to it than the quality of the respective franchises.
Baseball fans tend to romanticize everything about the game, including where its played. Old school MLB teams tended to stay in their stadiums for decades, let alone those stadiums were idiosyncratic. (440 FT markers, for example) There were more opportunities to attend games as the old ballyards as well. It adds up to fans wanting to give stadiums hugs...as they did at Tiger Stadium during it's waning years. (I was at the game Tiger Stadium got a hug. I just walked by the members of the Tiger Stadium Fan Club, shaking my head.)
NFL fans tend not really care near as much about where the game is played, plus many of the old NFL stadiums were the much derided cookie cutters built in 70's and 80's. Who really misses the generic Riverfront or Three Rivers?
In the end, the Silverdome got a bad rap, mostly in thanks to their main tenant. It was the loudest stadium in the NFL. The majority of the seats were excellent, even the nosebleeds. It wasn't expensive. Beer was plentiful. The concourses weren't the widest, but you could get to the restrooms easily enough, and not miss too much football. There were acres of parking, and plenty of room for tailgating.
But it was also a generic dome, essentially a cement bunker with a fabric roof, the Lions played on a rug, the roof leaked, the drive could be a pain in the ass (especially if you were coming from south of Detroit) and, most importantly, the main product blew goats the majority of the Silverdome's existence. (though we saw some good seasons from the Pistons [sat in the nosebleeds all the time to watch those Thomas-Tripuka teams], 3 playoff appearances by the Detroit Express of the defunct NASL [who remembers Trevor Francis?], and, let not forget the late, great USFL title winning Michigan Panthers [who's a Novo Bojovic fan?).
Unfortunately, (or should I say fortunately, as the dome has been doing little but draining Pontiac's already near empty coffers) the Silverdome will likely end up a boring ass industrial plaza of some sort.
That's it, I've made up my mind. The Silverdome should be saved! I'm willing to make a bid!
Think a $300 bid would get me my own stadium?
Hey, it's $300 more than Pontiac has now!
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