By Michael Heilman
During Saturday’s AFC Wild Card game between the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans, ESPN showed NRG Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans, and next to it was NRG Astrodome. The former home of the Houston Oilers, Houston Astros, Houston Gamblers, and other teams. In 2014, The Astrodome was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city had planned to convert the Astrodome into an indoor city park, the plan failed. The Astrodome was going to be a massive underground parking garage as part of a strategy called the Astrodome Revitalization Project. This project besides a massive underground parking garage, would be used for festivals and conferences. The plan has since been stalled and construction has stopped.
What should the city of Houston now do with the Astrodome? Renovate the stadium to bring more teams to that area. There are a couple of examples of why this should happen, and they are Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX, and KeyArena in Seattle, WA. Globe Life Park was a baseball stadium home of the Texas Rangers that is now being converted into a football and soccer field where the XFL’s Dallas Renegades and USL League One’s North Texas SC will call home.
The KeyArena in Seattle, WA, is currently undergoing a renovation where the arena will be the new home for the NHL’s 32nd team, the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, and possibly could get back an NBA team. The KeyArena was home to the Seattle Supersonics from 1967 to 2008. Other notable stadiums that have undergone renovations recently were Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. So, why can’t Houston do the same with the Astrodome?
With the XFL season kicking off next month, one of the eight XFL franchises is based in Houston called the Roughnecks. They will play their home games at TDECU Stadium, the home of the Houston Cougars college football team. I’m sure if the Astrodome were renovated, the Roughnecks would consider moving there.
What sports fans like are taking old buildings and giving them new life. In 2002, Soldier Field in Chicago went under a $632 million renovation. Part of the stadium was kept for historical reasons like a pair of systole colonnades perched along the parallel east and west sides of the stadium. The original stadium was modeled after ancient Greek and Roman stadiums. Once the renovations were completed in 2003, the fans in Chicago quickly adapted to the stadium. Giving old stadiums a new life is a great way to tie history and the future together. You feel connected to the past, knowing that some of the greatest players in history have played at that stadium.
The city of Houston should look into renovating the Astrodome. It’s a shame that a historic stadium is just sitting there and nothing is being done about it. It’s a beautiful stadium that needs tender, love, and care. If they renovate the Astrodome, they will have teams like the Roughnecks or a future USL League One team playing there. In the movie “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner’s character John Kinsella hears a voice saying, “If you build it, he will come.” If the city of Houston got close to the Astrodome, they would hear a voice telling them, “If you renovate it, they will come.”
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