Posted on 08/19/2010 1:20:33 PM PDT by Willie Green
If you can somehow sneak into the Astrodome, first hold your nose, then look up.
You won't see a lot of world championship banners.
The Astrodome isn't known worldwide as "The House That Don Nottebart Built."
The Astros played in the Dome from Day One in 1965 through 1999.
No pennants. No World Series titles. No nothing.
The Houston Oilers played in the Dome from 1968 to good riddance 1997.
No championships. No Super Bowls. Close a few years, but no nothing.
The Astrodome hosted a lot of great moments and wonderful memories: UCLA vs. UH basketball, Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs, Elvis Presley, the Jackson 5, Madonna, Luv Ya Blue, a Nolan Ryan no-hitter, Paul McCartney, the Final Four, Motocross, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Selena and Wrestlemania 17.
The largest crowd ever was 68,266 for George Strait's grand rodeo finale in the Dome in 2002. The last time it was used, really, was to shelter Hurricane Katrina evacuees in 2005. Since then, it's sat lonely in Reliant Park, empty and costing us millions in maintenance and debt service. We can only imagine what's going on in there. I'm thinking cats and rats and black stuff on the walls. That's what happens when you abandon a building.
The Astrodome was proclaimed the Eighth Wonder of the World when it opened in 1965. Now abandoned and moldy, it has never been recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.
What are we holding onto, people? We have a gleaming, beautiful, huge stadium right next door. Nobody needs the Astrodome anymore.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
I would make one heck of a train station.
Shades of Karl Levin. He tried to get a few million in stimulus funds to save Tiger stadium and figured that putting a bus station in it would justify it.
Easy answer is to turn it into the ‘Iman Barack Hussein Obama’ Mosque/Party Place/Vacation Travel Agency.
Yes you would: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookhaven_%28Amtrak_station%29
Remember when Jack Tatum hit Earl Campbell dead center at the goal line and succeeded in knocking both of them virtually out??!!
But what if we have another Hurricane?
Among them, my darling ex-wife and I took in the Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs match and 25 cent beer... while I saw many Astro games there in the $2 nosebleed yellow seats in the early 1970s--
Willie.. is there ANYTHING in Houston you like?
If not, why not bail?
We didn’t need the beautiful, new gleaming stadium next door !
Instead of telling sports teams where to sick it, our wonderful “world class city” goobermint foisted the “Houston Sports Authority” on us, and jacked up taxes to fund “our” new stadiums.
Never mind that we were still paying for renovations to the Astrodome, that it was perfectly serviceable, and that their new stadiums hosed what was excellent parking.
But of course THAT was cool ‘cause they could force stadium goers to ride the usually empty Metro busses.
Wow, a goobermint twofer ! Screw taxpayers on stadium costs and ef up parking so Metro gets used !
Only the taxpayer gets it in the shorts - and NO Vaseline.
Earl scored.
I believe it was Tatus who said "it was like trying to tackle a coke machine."
sick it = STICK IT
Oh, well, you know what I REALLY mean.
Just damn ...
Back in the late 70s or early 80s, the Astrodome held a huge feminist rally that, in their mind marked their really first explosion onto society. “I am woman hear me roar” kind of thing.
Skoal Brother
Why doesn't San Antonio have a major league sports Team?
Answer: 'Cause Houston would want one.
Sorry--couldn't resist!
Turn it into a giant Battledome! Demolition derby to the death! Hand-to-hand combat...
Willie.. is there ANYTHING in Houston you like?
Hey, it ain't my fault the Astrodome is empty.
If it were up to me, I'd turn it into a big Amtrak Station.
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