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Pontiac Silverdome
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The Pontiac Silverdome is a domed stadium located in the city of Pontiac, Michigan. It hosted the Detroit Lions of the NFL from 1975–2001, the Detroit Pistons of the NBA from 1978–1988, the Michigan Panthers of the USFL from 1983–1984, the college football Cherry Bowl in 1984 and 1985 and Motor City Bowl from 1997 until 2001, the MHSAA football state finals from 1976–2004, and four first-round games during the 1994 World Cup.
For the World Cup games, a natural grass surface capable of growing inside the dome was developed and installed by a team from Michigan State University. This grass surface was laid upon wooden pallets atop the artificial turf that is usually used.
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The Pontiac Silverdome is a domed stadium located in the city of Pontiac, Michigan. It hosted the Detroit Lions of the NFL from 1975–2001, the Detroit Pistons of the NBA from 1978–1988, the Michigan Panthers of the USFL from 1983–1984, the college football Cherry Bowl in 1984 and 1985 and Motor City Bowl from 1997 until 2001, the MHSAA football state finals from 1976–2004, and four first-round games during the 1994 World Cup.
For the World Cup games, a natural grass surface capable of growing inside the dome was developed and installed by a team from Michigan State University. This grass surface was laid upon wooden pallets atop the artificial turf that is usually used. It was the first time that World Cup games were played indoors.
The Silverdome also hosted the 1979 NBA All-Star Game, Super Bowl XVI on January 28, 1982, and the 1988 and 1991 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Midwest Regionals. In 1987, Pope John Paul II celebrated mass there. Elvis Presley also performed a concert there in 1975, and had vowed to play there every other year. Unfortunately, the 1977 show never happened due to his untimely death. On March 29, 1987, the World Wrestling Federation's WrestleMania III established the largest indoor attendance record for a sporting event, with a crowd of 93,173 in attendance.
On July 15, 1994, English rock band Pink Floyd performed their classic album The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for the first time since 1975. They played two shows on what turned out to be the band's final North American tour in 1994 in support of their album The Division Bell.
History
Conception
The idea a major sports complex was part of a dream of C. Don Davidson, a Pontiac, MI resident and star high school athlete. Davidson, who upon graduating from Pontiac Central High School in 1947 and active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, attended North Carolina State University on a football scholarship. After earning a masters degree in urban planning and architecture, Davidson began his career as a brilliant architect and was recognized for several government and city projects throughout the south including Florida's Jacksonville International Airport. Upon returning home to Pontiac in 1965, he was shocked to see the deterioration of the city of Pontiac and it's lack of a future plan. Davidson embarked upon what would eventually become an obsession for him to see his beloved city succeed. In 1966-67, he was hired as a professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of Detroit under the direction of Bruno Leon, Dean of the school of architecture.
Later on, Davidson met with various city and state authorities including William Clay Ford, owner of the Detroit Lions to discuss the possibility of a new stadium, made it a college class project to find a suitable place for a new stadium and even started his own weekly newspaper known as The Pontiac Waterford Times, to help promote his vision. After much controversy and sparring with Detroit city officials, Pontiac was chosen as the best site for construction of what would become known as the Pontiac Silverdome. Already having a stadium concept as part of his master plan for the city, Davidson was interviewed and ultimately hired as chief project designer for the stadium project by the architectual firm of O'dell, Hewlett & Luckenbach. Initial designs included a dual stadium complex for both football and baseball that was later scrapped due to high costs. Davidson was pleased to see a part of his vision for the city of Pontiac accomplished in the building of the 80,000 seat sports complex.
Completed in 1975 as the Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium, (PonMet Stadium for short), at a cost of $55.7 million, the Silverdome seated 80,311. It contained 102 luxury suites and 7,384 club seats.
Original silver-like roof
The original silver-like roof was built of Teflon-coated fiberglass panels, and supported by air pressure inside the stadium. Although the roof has always been white in color as viewed with the naked eye, the stadium obtained the name "Silverdome" due to a silver-like reflection caused by the sun, mainly noticed from the sky. The roof was replaced by a new canvas fabric reinforced by steel girders after a freak spring snowstorm on March 4, 1985 caused structural damage to the old roof. Because of the damage, the Detroit Pistons played the remainder of the 1984–85 season at Joe Louis Arena before eventually moving 3 miles north to a new 20,000 seat sports arena, The Palace of Auburn Hills, beginning with the 1988–89 season.
Noise
Being one of the largest stadiums in the NFL and also a domed stadium, the Silverdome was known for the extremely loud noise that the fans were capable of producing when the stands were filled.
Notable audience attendance numbers
The largest crowd was on March 29, 1987 for WrestleMania III, with a reported attendance of 93,173. Another notable audience attendance record had earlier been broken on April 30, 1977, when English rock band Led Zeppelin played in front of 76,229 fans at the Silverdome. This was at the time a new world record attendance for a solo indoor attraction, beating the 75,962 that The Who attracted there in December 1975.
Marching band activities and events
The Silverdome was also the home to many marching band activities and events, including the Michigan Competing Band Association State Marching Band Championships until 2005, the Bands of America Regional championships from 2003 to 2005, and the Bands of America Grand National Championships in 1987 and 1988.
Usage after Lions' move to Ford Field
The Lions moved to Ford Field at the beginning of the 2002 NFL season. When the World Hockey Association (WHA) tried to re-introduce itself, the new WHA Detroit team was slated to play their home games at the Silverdome. Plans were also mooted for a Windsor-based Canadian Football League team which could have used the dome for possible playoff games, but that team also did not materialize.
After the Lions relocated, activity in the Silverdome dropped drastically. However some usage was still present. Annually, Jehovah's Witnesses used the Silverdome from the late 1970s to 2004. Due to talk of renovation in 2004, the Witnesses opted to travel to The Dow Event Center in Saginaw, and the SeaGate Convention Centre in Toledo, Ohio for their District Conventions.
The Silverdome was the brief home to the Drive-in movies. Opening in 2003 with two screens, a third screen was later added. The Silverdome Drive In ran in the summers of 2003–2005. The Drive In opened for a short stint in 2006, but as of 2008 it is closed.
The Silverdome was used for Monster Jam on January 7, 2006. It was also used as a practice facility for the AFC Champions Pittsburgh Steelers for Super Bowl XL, with the NFL adding FieldTurf, which was later donated to a local high school. There was also a celebrity flag football game that Saturday which served as the last football event ever at the Silverdome.
Many attempts to sell the Silverdome have failed, however it was reported on July 10, 2008 that the Pontiac City Council had voted 4–2 to approve the $20 million sale of the arena to help solve the city's financial issues.
See also
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