Abandoned - Pontiac Silverdome

[Music] what's up guys my name is Jake and welcome to abandoned episode 33 this is the show where we talk about some of the most interesting abandoned places in the world in the heart of Pontiac Michigan sits one of the most famous abandoned structures in North America at one time the largest NFL stadium in the United States and host to incredible events like Super Bowl 16 this is the Pontiac Silverdome as early as the late 1950s the silver dome had been brought up on several occasions to incorporate it in city and state wide community projects by 1966 the stadium was finally realistically considered to continue the redevelopment projects for the city of Pontiac proposed to be constructed on a 128 acre plot of land at the corner of two major highways the Pontiac metropolitan stadium was extremely well received by the city urban planner Don Davidson had dreamed of the design and was architectural II drawn by Bruno Leon with approval in 1973 the Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium had broke ground after 23 months of construction on August 23rd 1975 the stadium had opened to the public it had instantly become the largest NFL stadium with a hundred and two luxury suites 7380 for club seats in seventy two thousand eight hundred and twenty five regular seats it's very unique roof made of Teflon coated fiberglass panels were held in place by interior air pressure this allow the stadium to operate year-round it soon became the permanent home of the Detroit Lions and their first game took place on opening day against the Kansas City Chiefs the stadium hosted many incredible venues into its first year with most notably the WHO and Elvis Presley both in December of 1975 since the Pontiac stadium had the capacity of four times the size of Madison Square Garden it hosted massive concerts from Madonna air Smith The Rolling Stones Genesis David Bowie Bob Seger Elton John Led Zeppelin Michael Jackson and tons more it also acted as the setting for many events like Monster Jam Supercross WrestleMania 3 Pope John Paul the 2nd mass celebration NBA games the 1994 World Cup and Super Bowl 16 in 1976 the stadium's metropolitan aspect of its name had been dropped however by the following year the name had been changed altogether to the Pontiac Silverdome a name chosen based off its silver roof as a few years past the silver dome continued in its growing popularity becoming famous for its size and amazing events in March of 1985 sections of the original roof had begun collapsing into the stadium due to high amounts of heavy snow it wasn't until the summer when the entire roof had been completely replaced by canvas panels and steel girders at the cost of eight million dollars the popularity of the silver dome reached its peak in September of 1987 when Pope John Paul the second gathered close to 95,000 people for a mass another huge event came for the silver dome when the 1994 World Cup was held in the stadium the first indoor match in the series history however following the event things started to move downhill for the stadium as both Pontiacs and Detroit's local economies were struggling with massive layoffs attendance was becoming an issue its massive size was becoming a little too large and regular football games had plenty of unfilled seats in 1997 an episode of ABC's home improvement was based around the family going there on Thanksgiving where Tim Allen pretty much causes a riot hey it's the tool man oh oh after the Detroit Tigers announced they would be building a new field in downtown Detroit the Lions made the decision to do the same a brand new 60,000 seat stadium would be built as the new home for the Detroit Lions which meant they would be abandoning the Silverdome following a lawsuit with the city of Pontiac the Mayans settled to end their contract four years early as Ford Field was completed in 2002 the final game for the Detroit Lions at the Pontiac Silverdome took place on January 6 2002 now this left the Silverdome without a home team and the future was honestly not looking good for the aging Stadium every once in a while the Silverdome would host some events however nowhere near the amount it used to the dome was still maintained in between each venue the space would host clearly though the city knew the future of the silver dome would not be anywhere near its past and between 2002 and 2009 the city began accepting potential bids to sell the property the city was left with a massive empty stadium that was charging them around 1.5 million dollars yearly just on upkeep with all of the proposals falling through though the city opted to hold a public absolute auction where the highest bidder would take the property off the hands of Pontiac so in 2009 the city officially placed the 128 acre property up for auction despite the history and the size of the structure bids were nowhere near the real value of the silver dome since it was an absolute auction there was no reserve price which meant the property would go to the highest bidder so on November 18 2009 the Pontiac Silverdome was sold for the unbelievable price of only five hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars with inflation the price to build a silver dome was at around two hundred and nineteen million dollars the stadium was sold for 0.2 percent of what it costs to build while this was a steal for the property it was also a direct result of the recession and how bad the local economy was becoming a Canadian real estate company had purchased the dome vowed to put the massive venue space back into use and invested six million dollars into the property and in March of 2010 the silver dome finally reopened to host a monster truck events in 2011 the owners applied to massively redevelop the silver dome the plans were to divide the open section of the stadium into two levels the upper love would have a 30,000 seat soccer field as the lower level would have smaller event spaces this plan would have eliminated the roof and the expensive air fans ironically though by winter of 2012 the roof had been damaged by built-up snow and ice which began tearing through the canvas by January of 2013 the roof was deflated to prevent further damage to the canvas however by the end of the month the roof had been completely torn apart allowing the harsh weather to damage the interior of the Silverdome the owners filed a lawsuit against their insurance company over claims that they were wrongfully denied for the repairs while this court case was occurring the Silverdome was left abandoned with its roof unrepaired with the Silverdome sitting vacant in 2014 the owners had decided to strip the stadium's assets and liquidated them in what seemed to be a quick cash grab following the auctions the company allegedly raised around $500,000 nearly what they initially paid for the Silverdome while the megastructures sat vacant and rapidly deteriorating the property was evaluated to be worth around 2.1 million dollars which they could have sold it for yes they put a substantial chunk of money back into the dome but leaving the structure as it was reduce the value immensely 2.1 million dollars would have been the most realistic price they would have gotten but that just wasn't enough for the silver domes owners no no they instead listed the property for sale at get this 30 million dollars 25 acres of land had already been leased to other companies and of course the property was never sold instead as time passed the Silverdome sat completely abandoned by 2016 many people were finding their way in and furthering the destruction of the silver dome including a fire in the press box as a direct result of arson despite the continued promise of redevelopment by the properties owners the Pontiac Silverdome was continued to be left abandoned and in ruin though its massive property size has been put to some sort of use remember back in 2015 when Volkswagen cheated their emissions test and was forced to recall nearly 500,000 vehicles well I've always wondered where those cars and as it turns out thanks to the massive size of the silver domes parking lot Volkswagen has now stored hundreds of affected cars there until further notice the silver dome also appeared in what the 94th Transformers film all I know is that I got great reviews anyways finally in March of 2017 a preliminary deal was made between the properties owners and the city to finally demolish the complex though progress has been slow in July an official agreement was reached to fully demolish the structure I actually visited the site in early July of 2017 and you really can't appreciate the scale of the dome without seeing it in person construction crews were on site doing as what we were told waiting for the proper permits it does seem likely though that the land will be completely cleared by 2019 ending a long and painful run for the once incredible stadium at the end of the day I do believe that the owners triple Investment Group had truly killed a silver dome while I don't think the stadium would have ever returned back to its former glory as it was just too big for the area it was in the owners had stopped caring about the property and left it until the city needed to step in the Pontiac Silverdome really was an iconic stadium not just for the NFL but for so many historic events it held the millions of people who got to see it in its heyday I'm sure would all agree that it was truly an incredible piece of engineering it truly was an iconic piece of American sports events and architectural history only to be left abandoned

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 3,391,303

Rating: 4.8755894 out of 5

Keywords: ABANDONED 33, abandoned, Pontiac, Michigan, Pontiac Silverdome, Drone, 2018, 2017, Explore, urbex, exploring, inside, abandoned stadium, Detroit, Lions, football, suberbowl, wrestlemania, monster jam, creepy, destroyed, demolition, history, Silverdome, ford field, elton john, michael jackson, madonna, Home Improvement, transformers, NFL, basketball, sports, winter, snow, haunted, abandoned football, bright sun films, remains, detroit city, abandoned michigan, new, update, 2016, scary, family, friendly, kids, fun, 2019

Id: APV1ddu-mdc

Length: 10min 43sec (643 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/njdevilsfan24]

One of my favorite channels

[u/[deleted]]

Isn't that where Volkswagen is storing all of the recalled emissions cheating cars?

[u/Kazoo666]

Very well done. Very interesting.

[u/Clegane_BowlXXI]

Went to my first football game there