HOUSTON
"This is a great landmark for the city of Houston," said Edgar
Colon, chairman of the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.
"We would like to see it stay that way and hopefully see it
returned to its rightful place as the 'Eighth Wonder of the
World."'
Officials' three-option plan also includes a proposal to level
the building -- the nation's first indoor air-conditioned multi-use
stadium -- and replace it with a plaza, although even that project
carries a hefty price tag at $873 million, said Mark Miller general
manager of SMG-Reliant Park.
Miller and others at Reliant Park, which includes the dome and
the adjacent larger and more luxurious Reliant Stadium, said no
less than a third of any renovation cost would have to be picked up
and approved by Harris County taxpayers in a referendum vote. Many
public costs in Monday's proposal were uncertain and listed as "to
be determined."
The $1.35 billion plan, which Miller called a "dream property"
named Astrodome Renaissance, would include a science center,
conference center, planetarium and county and city museum. A hotel
would be privately financed along with the possibility of a movie
studio.
An intermediate plan, at $1.13 billion, would be to
"repurpose" the dome, make it a science and technology center and
a place for storage.
Miller wants to add a 10,000-seat arena, exhibition space, a
garage and other meeting space connected by skywalks to any
renovation plan.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has said the county should adopt a
plan for the Astrodome by the end of the year. The public will be
asked to vote on a favorite plan, but the final decision ultimately
comes down to finances, said Willie Loston, executive director of
Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.
Opened in 1965, the Astrodome now sits deteriorating, idle and
costing Harris County officials about $2 million a year in
insurance and minimal maintenance and millions more in debt and
interest payments, the fallout after the National Football League
Houston Oilers left for Tennessee in the 1990s after renovations
demanded by the team's owner.
The Houston Astros left a decade ago for Minute Maid Park, a
$250-million baseball-only field downtown that features a
retractable roof and 42,000 seats.
In 2005, the dome served as shelter for more than 23,000
evacuees from Hurricane Katrina where doctors and other volunteers
greeted the newcomers from Louisiana with medical help, clothing,
toys and food.
President Lyndon B. Johnson and joined nearly 48,000 others on
April 9, 1965 for the first indoor baseball game, an exhibition
between the Astros and New York Yankees. Mickey Mantle hit the
first Astrodome home run but the Astros won 2-1 in 12 innings.
The stadium was intended to protect 55,000 fans from the searing
Texas heat and Gulf Coast mosquitoes. An 18-story building could
fit under the 208-foot-tall roof, although natural grass couldn't
grow under the skylights, which were painted to reduce glare for
fielders.
On April 18, 1966, the plastic AstroTurf made its debut as the
first artificial playing surface. Ballplayers soon began
complaining the surface was unfriendly to knees, backs and joints
and the ball didn't fly as far in the enclosed air.
The stadium also featured a $2 million, 474-foot exploding
scoreboard whose lights went into a frenzy of snorting bulls with
Texas and U.S. flags on their horns, a galloping roper trying to
lasso a calf and colorful fireworks after home runs and Houston
victories.
The scoreboard was removed in 1988 after Oilers owner Bud Adams
demanded it be replaced by 10,000 seats. Nearly 10 years later, the
Oilers moved to Tennessee.
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