The Astro Dome is a dump

[Elwood]

http://media.houstonpress.com/7756613.87.jpg

 

http://media.houstonpress.com/7756584.87.jpg

 

http://www.houstonpress.com/slideshow/8th-wonder-a-tour-of-houstons-rotting-astrodome-36498114/

[erik316wttn]

In other news, water is wet.

[imb]

I read that this morning. Some of those pictures are awesome. I really wish I had one of those rainbow seats.

[erik316wttn]

They couldn't have even been bothered to take the football field down before they just abandoned the place?

[Clem Fandango]

Looks like you can still smell the fresh scent of rape and murder form Hurricane Katrina!

[bukie]

Looks like you can still smell the fresh scent of rape and murder form Hurricane Katrina!

Wrong dome, sport.

[Clem Fandango]

Looks like you can still smell the fresh scent of rape and murder form Hurricane Katrina!

Wrong dome, sport.

 

Superdome evacuees were ushered to the Astrodome when it became unsafe for them to be there, but the rape and murders were a myth. I just felt like bringing back that old wives tale. You know, for nostalgia!

[J.R.]

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority still owes roughly $30 million on this place and has flirted with default in recent years after taking on two more new parks.

 

I'm not among those who oppose the funding of ballparks and arenas with public dollars. However, I think it is outrageous that so many structurally sound parks from the late '60s and early '70s were handed over to the rats or demolished with outstanding debt still on the books. The failure to negotiate enforceable lease terms that would at least cover the term of public indebtedness represents a gross betrayal of public trust.

 

How on earth did the authority get talked into new baseball and football parks without insisting that the former be paid off? Of course, they're not alone - long-gone edifices like Three Rivers Stadium, the Kingdome and Giants Stadium (Meadowlands) are still being paid off.

 

In sum, it is a relatively paltry figure in comparison to what this country wastes to prop up the military-industrial complex. However, lots of bridges and schools are going to [expletive] while cities pay off ghost parks.

[Soul]

I'm not sure I understand. How did they get "talked into" moving out of a crap stadium and into new ones that are better?

 

How would anyone talk them out of it?

[J.R.]

Perhaps I should have worded it better ... Harris County should have insisted that the Astros and/or Texans cough up the remaining Astrodome obligations before proceeding with the new facilities.

[UMFan83]

Perhaps I should have worded it better ... Harris County should have insisted that the Astros and/or Texans cough up the remaining Astrodome obligations before proceeding with the new facilities.

 

Well the Texans wouldn't exist if the county told the NFL that a new expansion team would be playing in the Astrodome. Around 1996 the Astros threatened to move without a new stadium. So unless Houston wanted to risk being a 1 team town, they pretty much had to build those stadiums.

[Soul]

It's definitely got that ghosts-of-the-past vibe happening now. I don't think I'd want to wander those halls as a security guard or whatever...

 

Demolish it. Re-purpose the land. Renew.

[J.R.]

Well the Texans wouldn't exist if the county told the NFL that a new expansion team would be playing in the Astrodome. Around 1996 the Astros threatened to move without a new stadium. So unless Houston wanted to risk being a 1 team town, they pretty much had to build those stadiums.

 

Not that they shouldn't have built the new parks, or that either team should have stayed in the Astrodome.

 

MLB and the NFL made lots of money in Houston through their respective franchises thanks to the county's investment in the Astrodome. It would have been completely honorable for the municipality to insist that these very wealthy conglomerates help to pay off the one-time wonder that both leagues suddenly found unfit. They didn't, and now Houston is left with big bills and no way to pay them with the carcass pictured above.

 

The fact that Drayton Mclane was allowed to basically abandon all maintenance in the latter years speaks to the fleecing that went on here, and contributed to the state of the facility at present. This scenario has played out in all four sports in just about every city caught up in the stadium boom.

 

Houston is unique in that their white elephant is still standing. Debt service on the $30 million owed and security is all they can manage right now. Coming up with the ~$140 million needed to demolish the thing is a pipe dream in Rick Perry's Texas.

 

What really irritates me is the fact that the team owners and suite inhabitants are the ones who benefited most from these arrangements across the country. From the average fan's perspective, good seats are exponentially more expensive, concessions are more costly, and with rare exception (intimate parks like Pittsburgh) the new cheap seats are no better than the old cheap seats.

[Soul]

$140 million seems pretty steep to demolish. But I'm not an expert, obviously.

[Guest]

$140 million seems pretty steep to demolish. But I'm not an expert, obviously.

 

Halliburton must have won the bid.

[ConstableRabbit]

http://media.houstonpress.com/7756586.87.jpg

[jwmann2]

Whats hilarious is that they can't demolish it because they're afraid it will damage the adjacent Reliant Stadium. It's costing tax dollars to maintain it and tax dollars to pay for Reliant. Huge mess.