Dome Voyage
The folks in Irving imploded Texas Stadium this morning. I have been browsing the net for different views. I’ve been most impressed by the cuts from CNN.com
If you go to YouTube and search implosion, you can spend a good part of the date watching videos of buildings being blown to bits. While you’re enjoying the carnage, take some time to pay particular attention to this video of the Kingdome implosion, it’s an amazing look from the inside out of the demolition of a sports stadium.
I can’t help but wonder if we’re going to see the same sight here in Houston soon with the Astrodome. We’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the Astrodome for almost 10 years now. I’m slowly starting to realize it may be time to simply blow it up, make room for something new. I mean, Texas Stadium is in rubble to day. It saw more history than a lot of stadiums in U.S. sports history. Boston Garden, Three Rivers, Yankee Stadium, Chicago Stadiu, the list is long and distinguished. Is the Astrodome any different?
My inner-native Houstonian wants to scream, “HELL YES IT’S DIFFERENT!”
But I’m not so sure. I was of the mind the Dome was a symbol of Houston. It is a to our creativity as a city, and our ability to solve a problem by working outside the box. Watching baseball outside in a Houston summer would be absolutely unbearable. And, let’s be honest, in a city that hardly sees a frigid temperature in the winter time, we wouldn’t be very well suited for watching football in the cold. We leave that sort of thing to the folks in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In addition to the functionality of indoor sports watching, the Dome was also very much a luxury item. Who wants to sweat watching baseball? Thus, the bigger-in-Texas fashion founds its way into the ballpark. Big hair, big jewels and LOTS of leather? No problem in the air conditioned confines of the Astrodome. Businessmen special? I don’t even have to untie my tie.
With Minute Maid Park and Reliant Stadium, we still have that luxury. So why are we still keeping the Dome? For my part, I want to keep it, make something out of it. It’s the Houston thing to do, taking a seemingly big problem, and coming up with a creative solution. In doing so, we would allow the Astrodome to once again grab the spotlight for the City of Houston. But do we need it?
We got a Super Bowl, and we’ve got not one but TWO Final Fours coming in the next 6 years. Did you know Houston is the only site in Final Four history to be awarded a second hosting BEFORE they had hosted their first? Houston doesn’t need the Dome to impress anyone anymore. That, I guess, is a pretty good thing, but it makes me sad. So while I am not necessarily in support of it, I am going to start campaigning for the demolition of the Dome, but with a few provisos.
#1. We have to have a PARTY!
And tot just any party, THE PARTY! A Dome-sized fiesta, and the world is invited! We’ll call it Dome Voyage! And it will forever be a day of celebration in the city of Houston.
#2. We must REMEMBER!
Texas remembers the Alamo, and here in Houston we will remember the Dome. A memorial should be the centerpiece of any development (see below) after the Dome is torn down. I recommend a bronze “bust” of the Astrodome that fans can rub for good luck going to a Houston Texans game at Reliant. Make the Dome a talisman on which we will build the future success of our football team. There is magic in that dilapidated Dome, and it must be harnessed when it is blown from those walls.
#3. Listen to Joni Mitchell
We can’t pave paradise, and put up a parking lot. I am 100% against any plan that calls for the demolition of the Dome so it can become a parking lot. Tearing down the Dome to make room for more parking would be a crime, and fit right into the sad reputation of this city. Instead, we must give the former site of the Dome new life! I already mentioned the Astrodome Memorial, and our Super Bowl XXXVIII champion friends have given us a great solution for all that new land, Patriot Place. It’s a little big boxy for my tastes, but the general idea would be a perfect fit in the post-Astrodome Reliant Park.
In the end, I expect we’ll be seeing a scene very similar to the one we saw this morning in Irving, TX. While I would really like to see the building saved, it’s becoming increasingly evident that is not financially feasible. Nevertheless, the legacy of the Dome must be protected and preserved, even if the building itself cannot. Whatever happens, I know I’ll be there one Sunday morning, cheering a little, crying a little and remembers all the great memories I’ve had in that old building. That was the one thing that made the Texas Stadium implosion different for me; I’d been inside the building.
Watching the Dome fall will be like watching an old friend pass away. I just hope when that day comes, I’ll know its future will be a better place.