After 40 years, the former stadium of the Detroit Lions was finally torn down several years ago, but not after it sat abandoned for nearly 10 years.
As most people know, Detroit was hit hard by the recession along with corruption in their mayor’s office, and many more issues regarding their city. About 30 miles outside of Detroit, was an enormous structure known as the Pontiac Silverdome. This was once a booming sports venue, but then left abandoned for nearly 10 years to basically rot and is wide open letting nature take its course. But how did this happen?
The Silverdome was once a very popular venue hosting such sporting events like the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and the World Cup. They also hosted concerts by Elvis, Metallica, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, and The Rolling Stones. Also, don’t forget that this stadium even had a visit from The Pope!
This is what the Silverdome looked like when it was operational.
And here is what it looked like after sitting abandoned for nearly 10 years. That is quite the difference. Notice there is no longer a dome. We will touch on that later.
The Pontiac Silverdome was finally completed in 1975 and cost a total of $55.7 million!
But in 2009, they decided to auction it off for a mere $583,000. That’s quite a price difference compared to how much it cost to build. This is also located in a city where they are buying people houses so they move there, residents are getting their water shut off for no reason, and people are literally selling their homes for nothing more than an iPhone.
In 1988, they even hosted an NBA playoff game between the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics. Attendance for that game was 60,000 people. Hard to believe that a venue that used to hold that many people, could just close and all but disappear.
In 1982, the San Francisco 49ers won a Super Bowl in the Pontiac Silverdome.
And in 1994, the World Cup was played here. This game was a little special because it was the first ever indoor game played at the World Cup.
This place really became an absolute mess.
But now, the dome is no longer there. It eventually became an accidental outdoor stadium that looked like a completely abandoned mess.
They had originally removed the dome for some renovations, but the weather changed that.
While the dome was removed, a winter storm came along making it impossible for the original dome to be put back into place.
In the luxury boxes, you could find moss and grass instead of people cheering.
At least the hot sauce had survived all of this time. I wonder what other food items were left behind.
But instead of being a place of beauty, competitiveness, and champions, became a place of rotting rooms, ceilings, and floors.
At one point, the stadium owners were offering stadium chairs for only $100 a piece.
In October of 2014, there were talks of some big changes coming to the Pontiac Silverdome.
But not much had been done other than some minor work here and there.
They planted some trees in the parking lot. I’m not sure how that is going to revive this stadium, but I guess every little bit counts.
After several failed attempts, it was finally torn down in 2017. More than 100,000 tons of pulverized concrete was processed on site to be used for fill on the bottom of the pit.
This is all the remains of the Pontiac Silverdome. In 2017, it was finally demolished.
This is terribly sad. Not only is it sad to see this once beautiful stadium in complete shambles, but it also brings an end to an era considering all the huge events this venue has hosted and the amount of people who have visited iconic place. Hopefully the new owners can do something with this 50 foot crater that was once a beautiful stadium.