Abandoned - Houston Astrodome

[Music] what's up guys my name is Jake and welcome to abandoned episode 47 this is the show where we talk about some of the most interesting abandoned places in the world this episode is brought to you by Dollar Shave Club go to dollarshaveclub.com slash BSF to get your starter kit for just 5 dollars almost two years ago I talked about the now infamous and demolished Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan but over a thousand miles away in the great state of Texas sits another enormous Stadium with its own tumultuous history so today let's take a look at the now abandoned Houston Astrodome all the way back in the 1960s Major League Baseball was quickly growing more and more in the United States over in Houston Texas the city was expected to get two new teams under the condition that the city built a covered air-conditioned stadium so the city and their enthusiastic mayor's set out to build which at the time was the country's first domed stadium an enormous an impressive engineering feat from architects Herman Lloyd and WB Morgan along with Morris architects as construction began in January of 1960 to the final design brought the structure to an incredible 18 stories tall with the dome spanning around 642 feet across and covering around 9.5 acres of land at the time it was built the stadium could comfortably hold around 42,000 people and became an outstanding piece of architecture for the city of Houston by late 1964 and radon its 18 million dollar budget the stadium was completed and as city's new MLB team the Astros moved into their new home the building was given the final named after its new team the Astrodome so on April 9th 1965 a sold-out make a crowd of 47,000 people along with president lyndon b johnson and tens of thousands more across the country watched the houston astros play against the legendary New York Yankees all-in-all it became a momentous beginning for what many called the astrodome as the eighth wonder of the world and as the Daily News called it the Taj Mahal of sports the newest and greatest American sports stadium ever built the world-class facility was also outfitted to the highest quality with 53 luxury box suites five different restaurants and each of those 42,000 regular seeds had comfortable cushions for an enjoyable viewing experience the stadium also became the first in the world to use a new field technology called astroturf the fake grass which is now used in almost every indoor field in the world to solidify this area of Houston becoming the ultra tourism hub across the street and connected to the main Astrodome facility was a brand new theme park called astral world in the following years the Astrodome held many major events becoming a huge part of the city and one of the most famous stadiums in America at one point it was even the third most visited attraction in America right behind the Golden Gate Bridge not only was it a marvel in design which hosted performances like Elvis Presley and Evel Knievel but it had special parts of it which people would remember forever like the hosting staff which were dressed in spacesuits and called cadets going along with the 1960s sci-fi theme of the Astrodome looking like a flying saucer it was memories like this which stuck with a lot of the sport and concert going public by 1989 in order to keep up the American Disabilities Act and to meet the needs of the Houston Oilers the Astrodome closed to go under renovations along with making the building more accessible the overall capacity was increased to now hold almost 55,000 people and the stadium could now host very sporting events from the MLB NBA and NFL by the early 90s the Astrodome was used as the major setting for the 1992 Republican National Convention to which George HW Bush became the Republican nominee by this time the Astrodome was nearing the height of its popularity as pop star selena quintanilla perez took the stage as over 66,000 fans watch her perform just one month before her death over on the sports side of things both main teams the and the Astros wanted a new stadium built as the 1960s era building was starting to become a little too dated for them however once funding was denied to both teams the Oilers had moved States over to Tennessee this sort of forced the city's hand in building a new ballpark for the Astros which instantly put the future of their home field into question as more and more people began to see the Astrodome as a dated venue the day's a major team would be playing there were numbered so as the new ballpark was being built in downtown Houston the team announced their last home game at the Astrodome was on October 9th 1999 by the early 2000s more and more of the major events which had been held at the stadium had found other and newer facilities during this time the city was awarded an NFL expansion franchise with the Houston Texans however instead of utilizing the now team 'less Astrodome the city instead built a brand-new 350 million dollar stadium directly beside the Aster toe the new facility which was now called the Reliant Stadium opened in 2002 with Houston's new team and with an increased seating capacity to over 71,000 people to make way for the new stadium some of the former facility structures for the Astrodome were demolished and replaced with flat ground parking which caused problems for the theme park across the street as they began to get into a parking dispute with the new shiny stadium built and open for fans the Astrodome became almost irrelevant as major events like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo moved elsewhere the now increasingly tired looking structure loomed in the shadow of the Reliant Stadium while the dome did host a George Street concert with a record 68,000 people attending by 2004 the stadium was on its last lakes with the less and less events being held in the facility the operating expenses were beginning to skyrocket with a little revenue coming in then in 2005 the Astrodome found a very unlikely use around 300 miles east of Houston Hurricane Katrina had just ripped through Louisiana and Mississippi doing immense damage to New Orleans immediately following the disaster the Department of Homeland Kirti had arranged a deal to transport thousands of people who have been trapped inside the New Orleans Superdome and staged them inside the Astrodome this had lasted through the end of August into early September to which the Reliant Stadium had just continued with regular games and the Astrodome was left dormant across the street the now Six Flags Houston formally Astroworld have fallen into some financial trouble and by the hand of its own company Six Flags decided to shut down than demolish the entirety of Astor world and by 2006 the one sprawling theme park but was now just an empty plot of land leaving the Astrodome as the sole remaining building in the one's tourism mecca by summer 2008 the city's inspection officers had sealed the domes fates as it was closed until further notice following various health and safety code violations the stadium was left in disrepair with a staggering estimate of around 30 million dollars to bring the building back up to code with the stadium sitting abandoned in nor the county or a private party willing to put up the money in 2012 Houston spent around $500,000 in a study to find out what to do with the decane building it was found that there was great public support to keep the Astrodome yet no matter what repurposing used they found it would likely cost the taxpayers around 124 to well over 300 million dollars the city began looking into different Revital Asian ideas all costing in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars all in the meantime it was costing around two million dollars a year just in maintenance keep in mind too that even if the city wanted to just remove it completely it would still cost upwards of twenty five million dollars since you can't just implode a structure to its proximity to the Reliant Stadium and the entire building would need to be completely gutted and removed of asbestos before demolition by the end of 2013 the city had planned and executed the demolition and removal of some exterior elements of the stadium like the ramp towers and small ground structures like ticket booths just a month prior to this taxpayers voted down on a 300 million dollar revamp proposed which again put the fate of the dome in very grim light the city and county continued to take in suggestions and proposals for the Astrodome like in 2014 when a new sort of bizarre plan came to light which proposed demolishing the structure yet leaving its exterior styling as sort of a skeleton around a new flat Park which in the middle would have a miniature replica of the Astrodome this plan was set to cost around sixty million dollars and never got off the ground other proposals included a Convention Center a luxury hotel a community space and park all of which had little financial support and just never made it off the drawing board while all of this was happening the Astrodome continued to sit in the hot Texas Sun now gutted of seats and completely abandoned in late 2016 a brand new 105 million dollar proposal was submitted detailing a plan which would utilize the Astrodome in a new way the schematics called for a raising of the Astrodome floor and utilized the new ground-level space as an indoor parking area above would be nine acres of event space at this price point city officials had actually approved the first part of this plan and just a few months later in early 2017 the Texas Historical Commission had voted to mark the Astrodome as a historical structure this now meant that no matter what the former stadium we couldn't be demolished unless authorized from the Commission this was great news for supporters of the revolution plans and the full 105 million dollars was approved in February of 2018 so now after 12 arduous years of failed ideas and almost certain demolition the Astrodome is set to return in 2020 though in mid-2000 19 the city had run into some budget problems as the air conditioner was for whatever reason not factored into the renovation budget so if the approved project does proceed then a more realistic opening dates would be around 2021 or 2022 though given the history of this facility maybe even more when I began this piece on the Astrodome I didn't really understand why so many people wanted to if a structure given its constantly passed but I began to understand that so many people not even just in Houston saw their first baseball game their aura was their first major Sadie they watched a football game then went over to astral world for the evening it was a place which gave so many people incredible memories and now as sports fans and concert goers peered down onto the Astrodome from the Reliant Stadium now called the NRG Stadium they ask themselves how did this happen and it's a good question because really the Astrodome was already enough and if they had just used the money they spent on the brand-new Stadium sitting right next to it and had completely revamped the Astrodome I don't think the city would be in the problem it's in right now but at the end of the day after all these mistakes hopefully one day sports fans will get to revisit and relive the abandoned asteroid [Music] [Applause] [Music] since we've been hard at work at filming my new documentary I have completely let my appearance go so thankfully this episode is sponsored by taller shave club last year they sent me a starter kit and I absolutely loved it so I was even more excited to see now not only does their starter kit come with their premium and genuinely fantastic razors along with three tubes of their shave products but now it also comes along with an oral care and a shower set including a superb toothbrush a trial sized toothpaste and three tubes of their new showering sets personally for me I have and will always love their premium razors and I am so glad I don't have to go to the store and constantly buy new ones since they ship right to your house if you want to test out Dollar Shave Club and reinvent your bathroom experience you can go to dollarshaveclub.com slash BSF to get your first starter set for just $5 seriously you should go do it and I'm just happy they've sponsored me again since I get to have a nice shave again anyway guys my name is Jake follow us on Twitter Instagram and snapchat and thank you very much for watching [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 2,486,702

Rating: 4.8724728 out of 5

Keywords: ABANDONED 47, Astrodome, abandoned dome, abandoned stadium, pontiac silverdome, houston, astroworld, six flags astroworld, abandoned building, documantary, sports, Houston Astros, oilers, new york yankees, selena quintanilla, concerts, reliant stadium, NRG Stadium, Abandoned Houston Astrodome, abandoned astrworld, theme park, family friendly, clean, elvis, trending, astromain, abandoned texas, stadium, football, old footage, new documentary, 2019, 2020, 1965, hurricane katrina, redevelopment

Id: mU4lZBOpy90

Length: 13min 52sec (832 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 26 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/biggio1]

Very cool share. Thanks! I really hope something comes of the structure. I have so many fond memories of the Dome as a kid in the 80's.

[u/texlex]

The feels at the end... and then a swift transition to a plug for Harry’s Razors.

[u/sevargmas]

He didnt shed any light on what this new “mixed use” would consist of so I still don’t know what it’s being repurposed for...

[u/itallblends]

I remember listening to 610am a few years ago when the hosts were given a tour of the building. They basically said it was just a big building for rats and cats. They said it was really dusty and they all wore masks because of asbestos.

Also, when they toured the office areas, they said some of the computers from the 90s were still running. Not sure how true this is though. I didn’t think they would still have the power to the astrodome still on well into the 2010s.