You know what we need? Another crazy scheme to save the Astrodome, that’s what.
Not actual size
Houston architect Imad Abdullah presented the most recent plan to save the Astrodome to Harris County Commissioners recently. But the same question remains: How to pay for it.
Abdullah’s plan includes redesigning the dome into a smaller building, lowering the dome 75 feet using the same techniques when it was built 47 years ago.
Abdullah told commissioners, according to KUHF, that the new look structure could host multiple activities at the same time.
“This option has tremendous cost saving opportunities for the city,” he said. “Because they don’t have to fill the 25 foot hole, they don’t have air condition the huge volume of the Dome, and it can be sub divided a whole lot easier to various tenants, and can generate a lot of income.”
Now, how to pay for it?
“For the longest time, Sports and Convention Corporation, Commissioner’s Court, everybody involved has sought individuals, companies, anybody that wants to do something with the Dome,” Harris County judge Ed Emmett said. “But nobody’s been able to come up with the money to convert it into anything.”
If there had been a way to pay for it, we’d have transformed the Dome into something else by now. The crazy ideas are the easy part. Coming up with something affordable, or at least with something that someone is willing to pay to do, that’s hard. Commissioners Court will present the options from its latest study in a couple of months.
By the way, that picture above is of a souvenir they gave out at the last Astros regular season game at the Dome back in 1999. No matter what else happens, we’ll always have our memories.
I have that same Dome tin! And inside it is my ticket from the game.