Detroit Tigers
Pontiac Silverdome sells for less than 600K
Real estate is going for cheap these days, including sports arenas!
The Pontiac Silverdome sold for only $ 583,000 – the phrase dirt cheap doesn’t do it justice. That means they paid what a mid-shelf home in California goes for – for one of the largest NFL stadiums in the USA. With that great a deal, mortgage loan modification probably won’t be needed. The name of the winning bidders haven’t been announced yet, but it’s a Canadian real estate firm based out of Toronto. The sale isn’t complete just yet, but they did have a winning bid. According to an article from the Detroit Free Press, it was costing the city of Pontiac about three times that much just to maintain the place per year, and the Detroit area isn’t exactly the land of milk and honey lately.
The former loud and proud home of Detroit Sports
A local college professor and high school sports star, C. Don Davidson was the brain behind the whole thing. He had grown up in the area, and when he returned in 1965, he was surprised to see how the might had fallen, espescially in Pontiac. He thought it would be a dandy idea to build a stadium for the Lions. In 1966, he was hired by the University of Detroit in the architectural department. (He had worked on the Jacksonville International Airport’s design, and held a Masters in Urban Planning and Architecture.) The stadium was part of the overall project, an urban renewal of Pontiac. He got the ball rolling for the Lions moving to Pontiac by talking to William Clay Ford about a new stadium. Davidson was hired as Chief Project Designer by O’Dell, Hewlett and Luckenbach after Pontiac was Ok’d for a stadium in 1970. The new home of the Detroit Lions was completed in 1975 for just under $ 56 million. They had previously been sharing Tiger Stadium with the Detroit Tigers, as was common even back then for professional football teams, and by fall 1975, the Lions’ new home was open for business as Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium.
Why call it the “Silverdome?”
The top of the stadium was made of fiberglass coated with Teflon, which is white to the naked eye, but silver with reflection from the sun. One of the innovations of the building was the roof, supported entirely by air pressure.
From the ’70s until recently
In 1978, the Detroit Pistons moved in, and shared the building with the Lions until 1988. It was the largest (it seats over 93,000; 80,000 for football) and loudest stadium in the NFL until 1997, and it’s still the third-largest stadium in the USA (Cowboy Stadium is the largest NFL Stadium, followed by Fed Ex Field.) In 2002, the Lions left the Silverdome for Ford Field. It sat mostly unused and collecting cobwebs, except for the parking lot being used as a drive in cinema.
The Present
The Silverdome has been host to many events, including WrestleMania III, the sporting event with the largest attendance ever (the record still stands). It’s also a legendary concert venue – you name the huge band, chances are they’ve already been there twice. Pontiac decided it had to go, and in October of 2009, it went to the auction block. With the stadium the new owners got for next to nothing, they are said to be planning to use it to host Major League Soccer events. Granted, they didn’t spend only a couple payday loansworth, but that’s a STEAL.
Detroit Tigers 2011
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