OT: Detroit Lions - Sad State of the Pontiac Silverdome
Came across an article depicting the sad state of the Pontiac Silverdome. Some of the best memories I have in my Detroit Lions fandom happened at that larger than life (to me as a kid) venue. My first football games with my dad, and memories of Barry Sanders' unbelieveable cuts and some of the "glory years" of Lions Football (I know, 1 playoff win in forever) were made there.
The sorry state of the Silverdome today:
Guess I wasn't aware the roof collapsed speeding the already rapid deterioration of this iconic building. Maybe I'm too sentimental for a Wednesday, but I miss the Silverdome and am sad this is what it's become. It's too bad it couldn't have been turned into something useful.
who owns it, but memorabilia will be auctioned off in May: LINK
April 30th, 2014 at 10:00 AM ^
April 30th, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^
"ASSORTED SIGNAGE & BANNERS, BOXING RING, GYM MATS, ROLLER SKATES, SCOREBOARD, BLEACHERS, LOCKER ROOMS & FIXTURES, GOAL POSTS, ASSORTED ASTRO TURF, PISTONS SCOREBOARD, FLOORING BASE"
April 30th, 2014 at 10:05 AM ^
April 30th, 2014 at 10:11 AM ^
April 30th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^
like $500,000.
As a Lions season ticket holder all I can say is that the Silverdome parking lots were epic for tailgating and that 80,000 drunk NFL fans always ended up in tons of fights thoughout the game. The Oakland County Sheriff's Department was quite busy 8 Sundays a year.
One thing I hated though...the bathroom was not a safe haven. If a Green Bay fan was using the facilities he may get punched in the back of the head. I was frightened as a kid to go to the restrooms there.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^
omg the fights. monday night games against a norris division opponent - the fights were epic. if you sat up high you could monitor them all over the stadium as balls of bursting activity. it was so good.
I got laid in that parking lot and also at the Palace too.
Touche'!
April 30th, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^
Barry Sanders.
I watched him, not the Lions.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^
Don't forget about the Michigan Panthers! USFL!!!!
April 30th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^
Bobby Hebert to Anthony Carter. Completely forgot about that hook-up.
It has kind of a reverse retractable dome look to it. I'm surprised a Hollywood-type hasn't used it for some post-apocalyptic movie set.
Overall, it's a quite depressing scene, especially combined with the giant parking lot sprouting weeds.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:05 AM ^
April 30th, 2014 at 10:00 AM ^
Sounds reasonable. Surely William Clay Ford couldn't afford it.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:11 AM ^
Mike Illitch says hello
April 30th, 2014 at 10:00 AM ^
It was pretty much doomed to this eventual fate when they decided to build it in the middle of nowhere.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:03 AM ^
about that Palace of Auburn Hills...
April 30th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ^
I bet the same thing will happen if/when the Pistons move back downtown.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:28 AM ^
I would love a downtown stadium, but the Palace will be a ghost town if they move (as if it isn't already during games! /s).
April 30th, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
The Palace is currently used for stuff like concerts, and they could definitely find other uses for it. Hell, maybe OU could play there full-time just for shits and giggles.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:15 AM ^
The Silverdome had other events for a while too but at the end of the day it's pretty rare for sports venues to thrive once their primary tenant leaves. The Palace won't be able to survive on concerts alone, especially since the new downtown stadium is probably going to take away some of those events as well.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:07 PM ^
I remember when Led Zeppelin played there in '77. The place was packed and it held the record for an indoor concert for years.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^
Big East style.
April 30th, 2014 at 12:21 PM ^
I could see the Pistons giving it to OU as a center; at least they could turn it into something of value. Funny thing is, it still isn't THAT outdated compared to other modern arenas.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:26 AM ^
Not sure Pontiac qualifies as such, given the population of the northern Detroit suburbs during its lifetime as the Lions' and Pistons' home.
The Coliseum was built 20 miles from downtown Cleveland and 17 miles from downtown Akron. The Silverdomedomedome is 30 miles from downtown Detroit, not that either facility probably drew much from downtown residents.
The Coliseum lasted 20 years, the Silverdome 30, before both were replaced with modern facilities downtown. The key difference lies in what happened after the closings. The Coliseum was vacant for five years, then torn down. The surrounding land bears no trace of the Coliseum's existence other than the now-unnecessarily wide road out front.
The Silverdome lost its primary tenant 12 years ago, but limped along with other events and vague plans to "save" it, much like a lot of Detroit-area real estate.
Oh, and from the CoolStoryBro files, these buildings are the two places I witnessed U2 concerts, six months apart in 1992.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:07 AM ^
April 30th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^
Just read an article about that. It's owned by a property development/management/investment company type thing out of Toronto. It looks like they originally bid for a site in downtown Detroit for a potential MLS stadium. They lost the bid for the downtown property and are still evaluating if the Silverdome is a viable option for renovation or to build another stadium there or other uses for the property.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:09 AM ^
Of course the mainenance cost makes this idea
/s
April 30th, 2014 at 10:13 AM ^
I grew up in Pontiac just a few miles from the Silverdome. What many people didnt know about the place was that while Elias Brothers owned the concessions, they rented out the labor to civic groups and churches so we could earn money for our organization. My church growing up, All Saints Episcopal in Pontiac, had a booth on the club seat row - right about the 50 yard line. For years I would volunteer and would get there real early on game day and start making hotdogs and such so I could sneak off at gametime and grab a seat for the game.
One thing to note. When the managers from Elias Brothers would do our inventory at the end of a game they would simply count cups to determine how many beers and sodas we sold. So to us - a cup cost the same whether it had beer in it or not. People used to get so mad when we'd tell them we had to charge them for a cup when they asked for one cause that's how we were charged.
Lastly, the Silverdome had a decent resturant in it at one time and that's where I took some dates for dinner back in high school. Cool view of the field while you ate!
April 30th, 2014 at 10:18 AM ^
I've done concessions at Saint Louis University basketball games and they are the same way. People freak out when you tell them that you can't give away cups.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
I grew up in Pontiac, too. Lived right across the street from the Silverdome, on Maurer, directly parallel to Featherstone.
Ottawa Drive here. In the heart of old Indian Village - Graduate of the now closed Webster Elementary - class of 1971!
I "heard" Elton John and Billy Joel in concert at the Silverdome while selling popcorn. Heard is in quotes because the acoustics in that place weren't great, and I certainly didn't see much of them from where our popcorn stand was. We were told to mix in the old popcorn from the previous event with new popcorn that we popped that night. I've been wary of stadium popcorn ever since.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:13 AM ^
I have very fond memories of taking my older brother there with my friends in 1979 to see the Michigan-Notre Dame basketball game. It was a lot of fun to see Michigan win too. That team had Phil Hubbard, Tom Staton, Mike McGee, the Bodnar twins, and Thad Garner. ND had Orlando Woolridge, Kelly Tripucka, Bill Laimbeer, and Bruce Flowers (many people may not remember him, but he was a huge high school star player in the Detroit area back in the 70's).
Mike McGee was a stud. People don't seem to remember how good this guy was. I believe he led the Big Ten in scoring twice, and his numbers would have been ridiculous had there been a 3-point line. He was in range just over the half court, and never met a shot he would not take. I think he also won a couple of rings as a sixth man for the Lakers with Magic. My favorite player as a kid. Also, had Phil Hubbard not blown out his knee, he might have been the best we've ever had here. Great memories.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:15 AM ^
Should really be torn down as soon as they are vacated. I know a lot of people think they should be saved for nostalgic reasons but more often than not we end up with situations like this.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:44 AM ^
Old buildings that can be re-purposed can be really wonderful. Stadiums and arenas usually end up somewhere in the weird or depressing category if they aren't torn down right away. Weird includes Maple Leaf Gardens. Depressing includes Tiger Stadium.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^
If not, Ryerson University has atheletic facilties in the upper part of the building and Loblaws has a grocery store in the lower part of the building. I haven't been in the Ryerson part of the buildng, but I go to the grocery store all the time. I think they did a pretty good job with it.
April 30th, 2014 at 12:00 PM ^
April 30th, 2014 at 10:18 AM ^
such a waste
April 30th, 2014 at 10:27 AM ^
I'd swear that was Sparty's stadium in 2012.