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Houston pitching options for idle Astrodome

FILE 1999/Staff photo

FILE 1999/Staff photo

The Astros and Oilers left first. And when the rodeo left for greener pastures eight years ago, the Astrodome no longer had a major tenant.

HOUSTON - Hailed as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" when it opened in 1965, the Astrodome now sits vacant and in disrepair out on Interstate 610.

The world's first domed sports stadium lost its last major tenant eight years ago. It hosted occasional functions afterward - a family rented the floor for a bar mitzvah party for $15,000 - but has been virtually shut down for two years. Its exterior metal work is rusting. Water stains surround the base.

It's no longer up to code.

"It's just sad," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said. "It's beginning to look like an old ship that just kind of washed up out there."


On Monday, the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. revealed multiple suggestions for the building's future. They ranged from demolition, which voters would have to approve at about $88 million, to a total refurbishing as part of a $1.35 billion makeover of Reliant Park costing the public $900 million.

Emmett anticipates that he and the rest of the five-member county Commissioners Court will soon put together a bond proposal, possibly the first in a series, for voters to decide the future of the Astrodome.

Not so much for economics but aesthetics. When the nation came to Reliant Stadium for the Super Bowl in 2004 and returns next year for college basketball's Final Four, the Astrodome next door can't be hidden.

"I don't think people will tolerate it much longer," Emmett said.

The Dome, as most locals call it, quickly became America's premier sports showplace in the '60s. It was the forerunner for the dozens of domes and retractable-roof stadiums that have followed, most recently Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

But the Astros left in 2000 to move near fan-friendly businesses downtown, where they will host the Rangers next weekend at Minute Maid Park. The NFL Oilers relocated to Tennessee in 1997. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo moved in 2003 to then-new Reliant Stadium.

"The building is not currently licensed for occupancy," said Willie Loston, executive director of the sports corporation. "It's pretty much sitting there waiting for the next thing to happen."

The architect

Down the hall from Emmett's office is a photo of Roy Hofheinz as county judge, a post he held from 1937 to 1946. Hofheinz was Houston's mayor in the early 1950s but was most often referred to as "The Judge" until his death in 1982. He was the guiding force behind the city's entry into big-league baseball and the construction of the Astrodome.

Awarding of the Houston Colt .45s expansion franchise for the 1962 season was contingent on Hofheinz's promise of a unique air-conditioned stadium to keep out coastal Texas' heat, humidity and afternoon cloudbursts.

And mosquitoes. Rangers president Nolan Ryan, a teenager living in nearby Alvin then, recalled attending games at Colt Stadium with fans cheering when the park was sprayed with DDT in the fifth inning.

The Harris County Domed Stadium wasn't simply the first indoor baseball park. The Judge built a lavish sports palace. It contained America's first stadium luxury suites, ritzy restaurants and unlikely accessories such as a barber shop and a bowling alley. Hofheinz introduced artificial turf, which quickly gained popularity outdoors.

And there was the $2 million scoreboard that stretched 474 feet above much of the outfield wall. It featured unprecedented animation, including a 45-second extravaganza of light and sound celebrating each Astros home run.

A city in the midst of putting a man on the moon had the proper place to kick back when the Astros hosted the New York Yankees in an exhibition game on April 9, 1965.

"It was the most exciting night," said Dene Hofheinz, who worked for her father then. "You can't imagine what a fun time it was."

Novelty fades

The Astrodome hosted Muhammad Ali championship bouts and the 1968 UCLA-Houston college basketball game that transformed the sport. Evel Knievel cleared 13 sports cars there, and Billie Jean King humbled Bobby Riggs in tennis' "Battle of the Sexes."

"It was the most glamorous thing I'd seen," said Larry Dierker, the popular pitcher, manager and broadcaster in Houston for 40 years starting in 1964.

The Oilers became tenants in 1968, and team owner Bud Adams was responsible for a significant alteration years later - and the major contribution to its current financial plight when he mulled moving his team to Jacksonville, Fla., in 1987.

Harris County agreed to Adams' demand to build more seats and suites. The cost was $67 million - plus the removal of the famed scoreboard. Dierker said the scoreboard, at least when dormant, improved the baseball ambience by creating the illusion of openness inside.

"Once they put in those seats, it looked like St. Louis or Pittsburgh or Cincinnati," he said. "It lost all its charm for baseball."

Ryan spent nine seasons with Houston before coming to Arlington in 1989. The Dome was a pitcher-friendly park ­ except right after an Astros road trip.

"They turned the air conditioning up to about 85 when we were gone," Ryan said. "It took a while to cool it down, and the ball would jump that first game."

Loston said the cost of the renovations, which only kept the Oilers through 1996, is primarily responsible for the current debt.

Said Dierker: "After the novelty of the Astrodome wore off, it was difficult to get the casual baseball fan to come to games with his wife and kids. You couldn't walk across the street to get something to eat."

Fuzzy future

Soon after the Oilers' exit, Reliant Stadium was built next door and welcomed the NFL's expansion Texans in 2002. Reliant towers over its predecessor, in part because the Dome's field level is about 30 feet down.

With the Astrodome no longer suitable for big-time sports, renovation suggestions have included a hotel, a movie studio, and a center for science and technology with a planetarium. Emmett likes making it home to the many outdoor civic festivals held in Houston. Someone mentioned an indoor ski slope.

And razing. Loston has noticed increased Internet traffic supporting that option since Texas Stadium was imploded in April. If demolition is the people's choice, the sports corporation suggests replacing the building with green space, not additional parking.

Dene Hofheinz recognizes her father's once-grand palace could become a memory. "But I don't let that stay in my mind very long," she added. "The historical value is beyond comprehension. It's a great testament to Texas, to Texans."

Ryan doesn't hold out much hope of saving it.

"Whatever they do would not be representative of what it was," he said. "I feel like they're just going to tear it down."

Said Loston: "Once the future of the building gets to a point of public debate, there will be folks that line up on both sides. I really don't have any idea which line is going to be the longest."

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