The old stadium has been vacant for years.
When the Astrodome opened in Houston, Texas in 1965, it was called the eighth wonder of the world. It was supposed to last forever. It has been empty for 25 years and proposals have come and gone as people try to figure out what to do with the stadium which was deemed antiquated in the 1990s. The building has received Texas antiquity landmark status which has kept it around. There is a new proposal for the 59-year-old relic that has been introduced. It will cost about one billion dollars to make over the venue and the renovation plan includes the construction of four state-of-the-art buildings while retaining the field under the Astrodome’s roof. Outside the building there would be a retail village with restaurants and shopping.
In 2013, Harris County voters rejected a bond referendum to spend $217 million to turn the Astrodome into a multi-functional events space. A few years later, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett wanted to spend $105 million to fix up the place. Emmett lost his reelection bid in 2018 and that ended that plan. Roy Hofheinz got the Astrodome built in the early 1960s when he owned Major League Baseball’s Houston Colt 45s franchise. Hofheinz “invented” the luxury box. The Astrodome had everything needed in a new and modern ballpark. It had air conditioning. It was paid for by the taxpayers. It had “comfortable cushioned, upholstered seating” and $2 million was thrown inro an animated scoreboard. Hofheinz figured out people would attend games just to be seen, and if people in the box chose to do so, they could watch the game on closed-circuit TV. The only thing the stadium didn’t have was grass so a fake grass was invented. By the late 1990s, it was time for a new baseball and a new football stadium. Stadiums are not forever.
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Houston’s Astrodome
