Pontiac has been spending $1.5 million a year on upkeep of the Silverdome.
http://www.freep.com/article/20091123/NEWS03/91123057/?imw=Y
Yeah, but dont forget, you also get the 125 acres that comes with it, and that is a lot of lawn to mow.
I think almost all that upkeep is to keep the blowers and air conditioning going.
If I bought it, I would turn it off so the upkeep would be almost nothing.
I would also get Pontiac to not property tax me for 10 or 20 years. 125 acres for only 500,000 and in that location is really a pretty good deal.
(Hmmm, now that I see what old sports stadiums go for, and since Fenway Park in Boston is a lot smaller, I wonder if I could buy Fenway Park for about $100,000? How would I go about making a $100,000 offer for Fenway Park?)
If you think he was surprised, just wait till you see his wife on Christmas morning. 
Dear? I got us box seats…
I sure wish that logic worked for Fenway. At 100,000 you’d be buying the cheapest and largest house in Boston
But those were still perfectly good stadiums and could have lasted another 50 years. The problem was that they didn’t have the corporate skyboxes that rake in big chunks of coin for the owners.
In other words, I can’t believe that a structure built as late as 1975 would be falling apart at the seams. Look at Wrigley and Fenway; both built with a century old technology and still going strong.
It makes me wonder about the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The Gophers and Twins have their new stadiums built and the Vikings are looking to bail next. What the hell are they going to do with an empty Metrodome?
You must not have seen the Kingdome in its last days. Chunks of its ceiling kept falling off. It had other problems, but those were the most visible.
How much does it cost to maintain those stadiums? What would happen to them if their teams up and left, as happened with the Silverdome?
From what I read, the Silverdome was bought by a Canadian company that’s going to put a soccer team there. I don’t have a good feeling about this…
Seattle’s Kingdome was imploded before it was entirely paid for. Detroit, IMO, made out well.
That’s the problem - a century ago, buildings were made properly, with fairly tried-and-tested methods and a decent budget. Then in the 1960s and 1970s, architects discovered lots of fancy new ways of building that seemed really nifty in the models, and looked great when the shiny new building was completed, but rapidly turned out to be Not Very Good, especially when combined with lowest-bidder construction.
The next thread after this was “Zero Point Field”…:dubious:
The big problem with the Silverdome had to be the Pistons leaving for the Palace, and the Lions leaving for Ford Field. Going from two teams, to one, then finally none, you can’t keep a place like that open with no teams, can you?
I always kinda hoped the WWE would buy it, just for the history involved with them. World indoor attendence record. I think it since has been beaten, but still, it’s right up there.