The Houston Astrodome, What to do?

[gitchesum]

OK, now that we have a brand new football stadium, a new baseball stadium and a new basketball/hockey stadium(under construction), we have thie "8th Wonder of the World" sitting by idle.

The Houston Astrodome was the world's first domed stadium and hold a place in history, but it is also a tax burden to the residents of Houston and Harris County.

Should they preserve the Dome and find another use for it, or should they hire Controlled Demolition and have them do the magic that they do so well. It would be cool to see a building taken down with explosives, but it would also mean the loss of a Houston landmark.

What do you think they should do?

 

[illflem]

Fill it with water and stock it with fish. That way people could sit in the shade of the bleachers and have a great old time. Maybe ducks will find it and it could be opened for hunting also.

 

[gitchesum]

I actually came up with what I thought was a good idea.

Valet Parking for the events held at the Reliant Stadium. Since it's right next door, you could park the cars in the Astrodome and they could make some revenue off the deal. :-laf

 

[Shrimpy]

It cost (I think) 30 million to build when started in 1960. With refinancing, and updating, the good folks of Harris County owe about 70 to 80 MILLION on it.....



Just think if you bought a House, and 30 years later, due to creative financing, you owed double what you borrowed 30 years earlier. And you never missed a payment, or got behind on your payments, just refinanced every chance you got... ... ...



This is a government entity that did this... ..... and folks wonder how enron got away with what it did... ...

 

[JConley]

Are they still using the Astrodome for the livestock show and rodeo?

 

[Bill Lins]

No, the Rodeo will be over at Reliant Stadium this year.

 

[klenger]

I remember when they built it. Who would of thunk... ?

 

[TPCDrafting]

Stadiums are an ongoing maintanence issue and if they're not generating any revenue, they will always be in the negative.

Scrape it.

 

[DennyDay]

Astrodome

Got to go to the first base ball game in the "new" dome - Phillies beat the Astros don't remember the score, but they ran the home run scoreboard show at the end of the game to show it off.

 

[me4osu]

Blast it!!!

It sure would make a lot more parking space around Reliant Stadium. The dome was great during the day, but parking around Reliant sure is crap.

 

[gitchesum]

Re: Blast it!!!

Originally posted by me4osu

parking around Reliant sure is crap.

They have parking around Reliant Stadium. I know they have parking far away from Reliant Stadium.

 

[TxDieselKid]

Can't blast it man, it's still a good stadium. My thoughts back when they were trying to get a new place for the Astros was, if they can't fill up the Astrodome, why do they need a new park? Looks like it didn't help them in the after-season any.



Andrew

 

[gitchesum]

I didn't like the idea of either stadium. The city spent million to re-furbish the Astrodome for the Oiler before that lousy Bud Adams moved the team.

Why do the baseball teams and the football teams need separate stadiums anyway? It was done in the past, did we really need to spend almost half a billion dollars to build two new stadiums when the one we had would seat over 67,000 people?



I agree that it is a still a good stadium, but it's not creating any revenue but it's gotta be costing tens of thousands of dollars a month to upkeep.



If they do blast it, I'l lbe there with a video camera. I like seeing stuff blown up.

 

[Bill Lins]

Originally posted by gitchesum

Why do the baseball teams and the football teams need separate stadiums anyway?

Oh, my young friend- I can tell you don't understand politics. You see, with two stadiums you get to give lucrative contracts and other favors to twice as many friends- spreads the wealth, you see. Might be where I screwed up- mebbe I should have promised everyone in the county a new CTD or something!



Fairy tales begin with one of two statements- one of them is "Once upon a time... ". The other is "If elected, I promise to... ".

 

[gitchesum]

Originally posted by Bill Lins

Oh, my young friend- I can tell you don't understand politics. You see, with two stadiums you get to give lucrative contracts and other favors to twice as many friends- spreads the wealth, you see. Might be where I screwed up- mebbe I should have promised everyone in the county a new CTD or something!



Fairy tales begin with one of two statements- one of them is "Once upon a time... ". The other is "If elected, I promise to... ".

Heck, I would move to Wharton if I got a new truck out of the deal. Of course, a new truck is what it would take to get me to move out there too.



I wasan't around here when the decisions were made to build these stadiums. Was there a county election over the deal or was is a Harris County Sports Authority thing?

 

[Bill Lins]

As best I recall, there was an election regarding Astros/Enron Field/Minute Maid Park- I don't remember about Reliant Stadium.