Sports Arenas - Remnants of an Era

Sports arenas all over regularly draw tens of thousands of spectators to watch their favorite sports team, listen live to iconic artists and witness historical events.  They are vast achievements to the cities they are in.  But as all great things, these monuments one day reach their end.  Due to the economy, relocation, or other reasons many stadiums become abandoned waiting to be demolished or are left forgotten, standing empty as an eerie ruin.

Some of the most notable crumbling venues are Tiger Stadium, Astrodome, Washington Coliseum, and Candlestick Park.  That’s just in the United States, worldwide you have Panathenaic Stadium (Greece), Estadio Lluís Sitjar (Spain), Osaka Stadium (Japan), Don Valley Stadium (United Kingdom), and the various Olympic facilities such as Hellinikon Stadium, Olympic Village, and Aquatic Center, all located in Greece.

In the upcoming days, weather permitting, in the states two “majestic coliseums” that were considered in the top 10 greatest NFL stadiums ever constructed at their time, will be demolished.  We are talking about the Georgia Dome and the Silverdome.  

Georgia Dome - courtesy of Atlanta journal constitution

The first to go will be the Georgia Dome at 7:30 AM on November 20, 2017.  The Georgia Dome will be remembered for hosting 298 high school football games, 256 Atlanta Falcons games, 152 college football games, 74 Atlanta Hawks games, 64 entertainment shows, 57 band competitions, 35 concerts, 26 college basketball tournaments, 11 soccer matches, three Olympic events and two Super Bowls.

The Dome was owned and operated by the State of Georgia as part of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.  At its debut in 1992, the Georgia Dome was the largest covered stadium in the world by capacity.  Its successor, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, was built adjacent to the south and opened in August 26, 2017.  Preparation for the Georgia Dome implosion began many months ago. The gates that once welcomed millions of people to thousands of events for the past quarter-century, are now padlocked.  As the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium shines next door, demolition contractors are dismantling and emptying the 25-year-old building.  Thousands of seats have been removed to be sold to the hardcore Falcon fans.  For $599 plus free shipping you could get 2 Seats, Stand-Up Brackets, and Certificate of Authenticity; yes, DL Consulting, Inc. purchased it’s two.   In addition, windows have been knocked out, interior walls torn down, utilities have been disconnected, and even one of the main video boards has been dismantled.  Now lie piles of debris in a place that was once long praised for its well-kept condition.

According to numerous channels, the transit blockage will start at 5:00 AM until 11:00 AM.  The closures will affect many major roads, including Andrew Young International Boulevard and Northside Drive between MLK, Jr. Drive and Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.  To have so many roads closed for such a long time just for an “11 second implosion” seems humorous.

Silverdome

The second stadium to go will be the Silverdome.  Just reading the name “Silverdome”, the city of Detroit comes to mind with a once flourishing economy due the automobile industry.

The Silverdome is scheduled to be demolished following the Georgia Dome, by the same expert demolition company.  The Silverdome opened in 1975 and sits on 127 acres of land.  When the stadium opened it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, the first one to use this technique in a major athletic facility.  With a seating capacity of 82,000, it was the largest stadium in the NFL until 1997 when FedEx Field (91,000 capacity) opened in Washington, D.C.

Detroit was once the fourth-largest populated city and an American powerhouse.  After the 1990s the city’s population has since shrunk by more than half a million.  One of the saddest and most visual examples of the dramatic decline of Detroit and the surrounding area is the shell that remains of the Silverdome.  At one time it was the proud home to the Detroit Lions and Detroit Pistons that set numerous records in attendance, and host to Super Bowl XVI, endless concerts, FIFA 1994 World Cup matches and many other events.

After the Lions' departure, the city of Pontiac began to experience serious financial problems.  In order to spark development, the city announced in October 2009 that the stadium will be auctioned with no minimum bid and that zoning regulations would be relaxed for any buyer.  The winning bid was submitted by Canadian real estate developer Andreas Apostolopoulos, CEO of Triple Properties Inc., in the amount of $550,000 plus real estate fees of 6% making the total purchase price $583,000.  What cost $55.7 million to construct in 1975 (approx. $225 million in today’s dollars) only sold for $583,000 in 2009.

In 2010, Mr. Apostolopoulos vowed "to revive the stadium as a big-event venue by investing millions of dollars".  The Silverdome re-opened on April 17, 2010 with a monster truck event.  However, the lack of events coming into the stadium, combined with the 2013 roof collapse, put any further development plans on indefinite hold.  Inevitably, in March 2014 the owners announced that they would be auctioning off the contents of the facility.  Later, in October 2015 it was announced that the Silverdome would be demolished.  In 2017, the Silverdome was condemned and cleared for demolition.  The demolition of the Silverdome is scheduled to commence on December 3, 2017 with a partial implosion, followed by an excavation of the building from the inside out.

Soon the sounds of implosions will ring out across the respective cities, signaling the end of an era.  Thank you Georgia Dome and Silverdome for the memories!