Well New Orleans doesn't have a baseball team either.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Well New Orleans doesn't have a baseball team either.

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Oh yeah. I'm an idiot. What about punts?

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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07ag said:

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Ferris Wheel Allstar said:

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this is still blows my mind

https://www.papercitymag.com/real-estate/roy-hofheinz-private-penthouse-celestial-suite-astrodome-hotel-peek-inside/

My grandfather worked on the dome, his stories are great

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Can you share some?

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If he did he would stop about 80 percent through the story and then never finish it.

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SHOTS FIRED!!!!

Sea Speed said:

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scd88 said:

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Damn, I loved the Dome and was in constant awe of it whenever I would go or even drive by on 610. It was iconic and such a Houston thing. Peak Dome era was peak Houston.

I know it's time for it to go, though.

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Driving to that side of town as a kid and getting the first glimpse of the dome in the car was the absolute peak of childhood tine life.

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Yup. Matched only by seeing the huge Saturn rocket at NASA.

Those days were awesome. We didn't know what we were living back then.

I got a lot of those same awe-inspiring feelings being described here every time I came around the bend in 610 near Braeswood and saw the Dome. It was always such an impressive structure.

As a kid, we only went to Astros games. No idea why dad didn't want to go to an Oilers game.

Some of my best Dome memories were one random September Saturday telling my dad I wanted to go to a game. This was 1981, so off we went. Turned out to be Nolan Ryan's 5th no-no. Still have the ticket stubs.

While I was at A&M, my roommate and I made a tradition of driving down for opening day 3 years in a row, 86-88. Then in 98, I was on the first row of the third base line, doubleheader against the Dodgers I think, when the Dome cameras caught me shoving in a Dome dog on the big screen. Basically a less slobbery version if George Costanza.

In 89 and 90, I finally went to some Oilers games. First one was a MNF game against the Bengals. The last I took my dad for his December birthday during a freaking blizzard against the Browns. I think they lost that one.

The turf in the dome was awful.
My first experience on it was in '86, and I thought, "wow, this is sad."

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As a kid, we only went to Astros games. No idea why dad didn't want to go to an Oilers game.

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The nickle Dome Foam riots probably ruined it for a lot of folks.

A soon as word trickled back as to all the hell being raised a nickel beer night, nobody's ass going to an Oiler game where I was at.

Zero jokes about the Dome being a boomer??

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Well New Orleans doesn't have a baseball team either.

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But there have been random spring training exhibition games there and New Orleans tried to get the A's to move in

The way this Dome business been handled over the years shocks the conscience.

The Astrodome is the most historically and culturally significant building in Houston but somehow escapes that designation and was left to rot.

OF all the absolute garbage that Harris county spends money on (covid hospital tents, dog park inside banks of bayou, renovating abandoned water cistern, trying to harness the natural flow of floodwater, etc.) ... somehow the Dome is left to rot.

All this bs about green building technology, good. Strip the astrodome down to steel and rebuild it with modern technology. Cover the roof of the dome with solar panels, process pee from the trough urinals into potable water, IDGAF. If there ever was a shovel ready project, this is it.

Point is the most historically and culturally significant building in the county shouldn't be a giant rats nest.

Buford T. Justice said:

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The turf in the dome was awful.
My first experience on it was in '86, and I thought, "wow, this is sad."

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To be fair, turf was invented and created specifically for the Dome first. Hence the term "Astroturf". Materials and tech at the time weren't anything close to now, and that crappy ass turf is what led to the development of modern field turf.

But yes, it was absolutely horrible.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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The way this Dome business been handled over the years shocks the conscience.

The Astrodome is the most historically and culturally significant building in Houston but somehow escapes that designation and was left to rot.

OF all the absolute garbage that Harris county spends money on (covid hospital tents, dog park inside banks of bayou, renovating abandoned water cistern, trying to harness the natural flow of floodwater, etc.) ... somehow the Dome is left to rot.

All this bs about green building technology, good. Strip the astrodome down to steel and rebuild it with modern technology. Cover the roof of the dome with solar panels, process pee from the trough urinals into potable water, IDGAF. If there ever was a shovel ready project, this is it.

Point is the most historically and culturally significant building in the county shouldn't be a giant rats nest.

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It shouldn't be a building at all anymore.

It's a sports stadium. Yes, really advanced for its time and cool that it was the first one and all. But its heyday ended decades ago and all it does now is suck taxpayer money and waste perfectly good real estate next to the sports stadium that is actually being used.

Only stadiums I can think of that are old and still in use anymore are Lambeau Field and Soldier Field, but both have been renovated umpteen times to keep from being torn down and continued to be used. There is probably a few others. Superdome maybe, Met Life Field or wherever the Giants and Jets play?

schmellba99 said:

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Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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The way this Dome business been handled over the years shocks the conscience.

The Astrodome is the most historically and culturally significant building in Houston but somehow escapes that designation and was left to rot.

OF all the absolute garbage that Harris county spends money on (covid hospital tents, dog park inside banks of bayou, renovating abandoned water cistern, trying to harness the natural flow of floodwater, etc.) ... somehow the Dome is left to rot.

All this bs about green building technology, good. Strip the astrodome down to steel and rebuild it with modern technology. Cover the roof of the dome with solar panels, process pee from the trough urinals into potable water, IDGAF. If there ever was a shovel ready project, this is it.

Point is the most historically and culturally significant building in the county shouldn't be a giant rats nest.

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It shouldn't be a building at all anymore.

It's a sports stadium. Yes, really advanced for its time and cool that it was the first one and all. But its heyday ended decades ago and all it does now is suck taxpayer money and waste perfectly good real estate next to the sports stadium that is actually being used.

Only stadiums I can think of that are old and still in use anymore are Lambeau Field and Soldier Field, but both have been renovated umpteen times to keep from being torn down and continued to be used. There is probably a few others. Superdome maybe, Met Life Field or wherever the Giants and Jets play?

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Other historical parks/stadiums in the US are Fenway and Wrigley. You are correct that Lambeau and Soldier are basically old stadiums in name only. The Super dome was built in the mid70s and Metlifw stadium is newer (2010) than NRG. MSG is the oldest NBA & NHL arena, opening in 1968. Everything else in those leagues is 80s or newer.

MetLife(Giants/Jets) is pretty new.

Imagine the year is 1986.

It's 103 degrees with 100% humidity.

Heat radiating off the pavement.

You standing in line to ride looping starship at Astroworld.

A rainbow bread mini loaf sitting heavy in your gut.

Your brand new Traxx sneakers from K-Mart soaking wet from thunder river; trench-foot setting in.

Somebody walks up to you and says they are a time-traveller from the year 2025.

You say 'wow! what's this place like in 2025, I bet it's f'ing rad!'

Then they say, 'well actually, where you are standing right now is a dirt parking lot. And you see the Astrodome across the street? In 2025 that place is abandoned and filled with rats. Nobody is allowed in there.

You'd probably say, 'no way! Was there a nuclear war or something?! Did the Russians attack?! Wtf happened?'

'No, just Harris County politics as usual. They never could get it together.'

'Well did the 'Stros ever win a world series in the Dome?'

'No, they moved to a downtown stadium named after a company that went bankrupt in one of the biggest corporate scandals of all time. But the good news is they would go on to win it all when they renamed the stadium after orange juice. Now it's named after a company that makes mini-split A/C units.'So bet the farm on the Astros in 2017. Also buy Bitcoin and Apple Computer stock.

'Oh wow, thanks for the heads-up '

[Poof -- the time traveller disappears in to the mist from those misters they use to have to keep patrons from dying of heat stroke]

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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A rainbow bread mini loaf sitting heavy in your gut.

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Could be the Mandela effect at work.

In my timeline it was Rainbo bread. Yellow tinted bag with a blue red and yellow Rainbo bread logo.

Bernstain bears, Rainbo bread, Mandela died in prison, Shaq starred in Shazam, New Zealand NE of Australia, 'Jiffy' was a brand of peanut butter. curious George had a tail, fruit of the loom drawers had a cornucopia on the logo, and the Monopoly guy wore a monocle. At least where I was at.

Edd Emmit is probably celebrating the 60th in the basement of the Dome with hookers and blow.

I'll never forget the huge Marlboro cloud that formed at the top of the Dome by the end of the game.

All part of the experience.

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A rainbow bread mini loaf sitting heavy in your gut.

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Truer words have never been spoken. I can still "smell" those delicious loafs when you first entered the park and walked by that location. Eh, stopped in there to get a loaf, actually.

Could be the inspiration for Rodney Crowell's sequel song to Telephone Road