Silverdome sells for dirt cheap
If you’re looking for cheap real estate, you could get a sports arena for a discount these days too!
The Pontiac Silverdome, which is located in (surprise!) Pontiac, Michigan, sold for $ 583,000. That’s a huge sports arena for the cost of two to three homes. You wonder if they’ll ever need mortgage loan modification. The name of the winning bidders haven’t been announced yet, but it’s a Canadian real estate firm based out of Toronto. The sale isn’t completely closed, but they did have the winning bid. According to an article from the Detroit Free Press, it was costing the city of Pontiac about three times that much just to maintain the place per year, and the Detroit area isn’t exactly the land of milk and honey lately.
The former loud and proud home of Detroit Sports
A local college professor and high school sports star, C. Don Davidson had the vision, and made it happen. He had grown up in the Detroit area and returned to the Detroit area in 1965, surprised to see the Pontiac area having declined since his absence. He thought it would be a dandy idea to build a stadium for the Lions. In 1966, the University of Detroit hired him to teach architecture. (He had worked on the Jacksonville International Airport’s design, and held a Masters in Urban Planning and Architecture.) The sports stadium was part of an urban renewal project for the city of Pontiac. He began talks with William Clay Ford about a new Lions stadium. Pontiac was green lit for a new stadium by 1970, and Davidson was hired as chief project designer by O’dell, Hewlett and Luckenbach, the architect’s firm in charge. The stadium was completed in 1975 – at a cost of almost $ 56 million – as the new home of the Detroit Lions. They had previously been sharing Tiger Stadium with the Detroit Tigers, as was common even back then for professional football teams, and by fall 1975, the Lions’ new home was open for business as Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium.
Why “Silverdome?”
The top of the stadium was made of fiberglass coated with Teflon, which is white to the naked eye, but silver with reflection from the sun. One of the innovations of the building was the roof, supported entirely by air pressure.
From the ’70s until recently
In 1978, the Detroit Pistons moved in, and shared the building with the Lions until 1988. It was the largest (it seats over 93,000; 80,000 for football) and loudest stadium in the NFL until 1997, and it’s still the third-largest stadium in the USA (The Cowboys have the largest NFL stadium currently in Cowboy Stadium, and second is the Redskins and Fed Ex Field.) In 2002, the Lions moved to their new ground, Ford Field. Aside from the parking lot being used as a drive in cinema for a few years and a few other events, it sat empty.
The Present
The Silverdome has been host to many events, including WrestleMania III, the sporting event with the largest attendance ever (the record still stands). It’s also a legendary concert venue – you name the huge band, chances are they’ve already been there twice. It was put up for auction in October 2009, by the city of Pontiac. The new owners are said to be bringing Major League Soccer to the Silverdome, their new huge building they got for next to nothing. It was a great deal – it’s equivalent to getting a brand new Mercedes with a couple payday loans.
Tags: detroit, detroit lions, detroit pistons, michigan, mortgage loan modification, payday loans, pontiac, pontiac silverdome