Stadium for a Fiver - The Pontiac Silverdome

Wow. $538,000 for the Pontiac Silverdome, that's daylight robbery. Surely the very land it sits on -- about 130 acres -- is worth more than $538,000. But that's what it sold for, less than 1% of what it was constructed for between 1973 and 1975.

Most Americans know the Silverdome as the former home of the NFL's hapless Detroit Lions, nearly everyone turned on their television every Thanksgiving and saw the stadium in all it's, err, glory? It isn't really much, just a basic dome in line with so many others scattered about North America: Indianapolis' Hoosier Dome, BC Place in Vancouver, and Minneapolis' Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. All have been routinely criticized for lacking character, like so much architecture from the 70's and 80's, it was build for function and not always for form. With that said, the Silverdome has done it's job and has hosted some great events: A Super Bowl in 1982, World Cup matches in 1994 with the aid of a raised field and transplanted grass pitch, and of course WrestleMania III, which the WWE claims had an attendance of 93,173, although some dispute that number and say the actually attendance was closer to 73,000.

But getting back to my point, there are houses three streets away from me sitting on less than half-an-acre of land that sell for more than the Siverdome did, I know the City of Pontiac is severely despressed financially -- to the point where Michigan's Governor basically stripped civic officials of all power -- but to sell so much land for so little money is insane.

The Silverdome seats 80,300 people, which I believe is good for 22nd largest in the United States. It's a massive stadium, but it also carries a massive bill, upkeep of the aging behemoth is reported to be around $1.5 million per annum, which goes a good way as to explaining why Pontiac was so eager to get shot of it, but still, wow.

If possible, and recalling a piece I did for Pitch Invasion, run by the brilliant Tom Dunmore, I would look into making the Silverdome a "green" venue, along the lines of the World Games Stadium in Taiwan, or St-Jakob Park in Basel, Switzerland. The roof of the cavernous venue is vast and several solar panels could be installed on it, possibly saving a bundle in electricity, and if the upkeep for the stadium is as high as it's said to be, you need to be saving every penny possible.

The owners, who have yet to be revealed, have expressed a desire to have the stadium play host to a soccer team, possibly a new Major League Soccer franchise. I wrote about that here. If this is true, I certainly expect a reduction in capacity, because there isn't an ice cube's chance in Hell that they'll sell out the Silverdome for Major League Soccer, not right now.

Hopefully the new owner can find some use for the stadium, it's a shame to see it -- and more importantly the land it occupies -- go to waste. Seeing it sit idle like it has makes me think of Dixie Square Mall, in Harvey, Illinois...and that's not a good thing.

I took more pictures of abandoned stuff.

Yay.

I was in Huntersville today, I have no earthly idea why, and took some pictures of an abandoned motel on Statesville Road (opens to my Flickr map). I would have taken more but I heard people moving around in there and I'm skinny so I wasn't about to take my chances.

I can't tell you WHY I like abandoned stuff because I don't know that answer to that myself. I guess it's just one of my weird idiosyncrasies.

I also went to Alexandriana (it means "defender of man", for the zero people who care), the place where Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was allegedly signed. Kind of interesting, there is no proof it was an actual document, but as a native Mecklenburger I feel it my duty to say there is no proof that it wasn't an actual document.

More pictures of crap around Charlotte, and stuff about other stuff

I took more pictures of (quasi) abandoned stuff today. I don't really understand my attraction to abandonment. Maybe because I myself feel somewhat abandoned even though people do care about me, which makes it a really odd way to feel. That stadium in Winterfield is in really bad shape, I actually had no idea it existed until today. Surely it doesn't belong to the neighboring elementary school? Eastland Mall really needs no introduction, it should be torn down and redeveloped. I remember when you couldn't find a parking spot there on a friday night or weekend, now it's more empty asphalt than mall.

Everyone seems to be getting sick, which means when midweek or the weekend rolls around I'll be sick. I'm always the last one to be sick. My precious Janey (ok, she's not MINE, only in my wildest dreams, I just have to settle for being the e-Mr. Jane) is still sick. Hopefully she'll be better soon, I hate it when she's sick because she doesn't deserve it and I can't do anything about it, though I wish I could tend to her, so it makes me feel as if my hands are bound. I actually admire how tough she is, I get floored by the littlest stuff yet she keeps going through some things that would hospitalize my weak self. Jane, I bow to thee.