The Silverdome goes on the Auction Block..

[madinmaryland]

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/07/news/economy/silverdome_auction/index.htm?postversion=2009100715

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The hard-hit city of Pontiac, Mich., is auctioning off the Silverdome, a stadium of more than 80,000 seats that once played host to the Super Bowl.

The Silverdome, the site of Super Bowl XVI in 1982 and the former home of the National Football League's Detroit Lions, went on the auction block on Tuesday. Bidding will continue until Nov. 12, according to real estate auction house Williams & Williams, based in Tulsa, Okla.

Sitting on 127 acres, the Silverdome was the biggest stadium in the NFL when it was built for $55.7 million back in 1975, the auction house said.

Amy Bates, senior vice president of marketing for Williams & Williams, said there is no minimum bid for the Silverdome, and she declined to estimate the value of the facility.

"Auctions are all about price discovery through competitive bidding," Bates said. "All of us will understand the value of the Pontiac Silverdome when the auction ends."

..snip

I assume it is really the land that is for sale.

[Capt. America]

1. I'm in. Put me down for $2.50.

[charlie and algernon]

2. I'm in for $2.75

Gonna start an NFL team called the Pontiac Firebirds. Gonna win 7 Super Bowls in the next 10 years!

[madinmaryland]

3. Sorry Guys! Matt Millen just bid $2.4Billion for the stadium!

:D

[Capt. America]

4. Good one! (Oh, he also offered up his next two 1st round draft picks)

[jakefrep]

5. So, monster truck rallies and Promise Keeper events weren't enough to keep it afloat?

:shrug:

It'll probably end up in the hands of some scumbag TV preacher.

[RockaFowler]

6. The Pistons used to play there too

We lived about 15 miles from the Silverdome when I lived there in the early 80's. We went to Lions games (the only way to see the Thanksgiving Game back in the day was to go to the game) and Pistons games. I also have a few momentos from the Super Bowl (oh the snow that year was just awful). Hopefully they do something good with the property. Can someone tell me why the Lions left the stadium?? Why did they have to get a new stadium when the Silverdome was practically new?? I mean the Red Wings are still in the same Joe Louis Arena aren't they??

[madinmaryland]

7. Probably not enough luxury boxes.

:shrug:

[LisaM]

8. One problem the Silverdome had was that it was too big

hard for the Lions to sell out. It's also really not in a very convenient place - and putting the new stadia (both it and Comerica) is a way to draw people to downtown again. I remember the Pistons pulled a crowd in the Silverdome once of almost 70,000.

Plus, it was built back when everyone thought domes were the thing. IIRC, when they knocked down the Kingdome, it wasn't even paid for. I read a book once about old Tiger Stadium, and it told of the days when everyone thought a shared-use domed stadium was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Of course, the opposite turned out to be true - they were terrible when two different teams had to share them, they were horrible for baseball, and players got injured a lot on the rock hard surfaces. Not to mention that they're ugly.

[caraher]

9. That's right, size and luxury boxes

The few Lions home games I saw on TV were generally broadcast after someone bought up a big block of tickets just to lift the blackout. It happened regularly but not often. Of course, if the Lions were any good we probably wouldn't have kept hearing about how the stadium was too big...

at least until the luxury suite bug hit the team hard enough.

I feel sorry for the poor citizens of Pontiac, who got soaked to build the thing and were left with a useless building when the Lions returned to Detroit. If the right-wingers want to complain about "socialism" they might begin by boycotting pro sports teams benefiting from taxpayer-funded sports palaces...

[LisaM]

10. The Pistons left before the Lions did

Did Pontiac actually lose money on the deal? I know the Pistons moved to the Silverdome from Cobo, but they were gone long before the Lions were.

Unfortunately, when it was built, not only was it during the dome craze, it was also during the let's ditch the city for the suburbs craze. I'm sure Pontiac was more than happy to take advantage of that at the time (I can't say that I know the history all that well, so it's kind of just informed speculation).

[caraher]

11. It was always an abomination for basketball

And while Pontiac was certainly happy to take advantage in the mid-70s, I don't think it ever did much for that city (which was less like the northern Detroit burbs than like Detroit itself). The city of Pontiac itself saw only some of the promised riches but got stuck with all of the tab.

At the time (I was young and lived in Detroit) it seemed like a total sellout for the Lions to move (a Free Press sports columnist re-dubbed them the "Pontiac Pussycats"). But from what little I saw of Pontiac in the '80s it was just another industrial town fighting the same post-industrial battles all too common across the rust belt; the Dome was their version of casino gambling. I can see viewing it as their comeuppance, but I feel more compassion for their growing economic desperation.