TOPIC: American Stadia

I don't know how much interest to anyone else this is, but I can't be the only one who finds the 1970-1980 style American Dome-Style Stadium a really intriguing, they had a lifespan of about 25 years and a lot have since been demolished, all costing millions and millions of dollars. Surely others must find Stadiums with a life span of 25 years, truly stupid and american. The demise of these places is something which really bugs me.

A few links below,

images.csmonitor.com/csm/2014/03/silverd...ias=standard_600x400

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8...ngdome_implosion.jpg

A list which features some american stadiums for anybody interested..

uk.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/03/50-de...-love/tulane-stadium

Depends really if they pay for themselves during their lifetime I suppose.

I agree with you there, what bugs me is that the Pontiac Silverdome had a capacity of 80,000 and cost $55.7 million to build which roughly is around $240 million in today's money, it had a lifespan of 33 years and lays empty and derelict now, but it is such an impressive site.

There are still a few domes still around but the astrodome in houston and seattles kingdome were smaller stadia than detriot but they say they produced a huge noise to home teams advantage.

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The amount of coin been bummed on stadiums since sky invented football has also been shocking... west ham are moving soon..shame its a great ground..spent millions upgrading upton park but now moving... crazy like..

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I have no idea how many games they play in a season, but if it were in the twenties, and they filled the stadium for each game their $55,000,000 would have been roughly covered, over a 33 year period, from $1 for each ticket sale. Simplistic of course, and no account taken of interest charges or the length of any loan etc.

OK, slightly off topic, but is It true that Darlington are still playing in that huge stadium that sent then broke, and if so is the Feethams still in existence.

I believe it's rugby that's played in that stadium now, but I could be wrong.

A lot of the old American stadiums are still standing and are left to ruin, I think it's crazy though the that stadiums were originally passed, as nice as I think they look, they were only going to last 30-40 years.

When you look at the new stadiums in America it's unreal, the Cowboys/AT&T; Stadium cost $1 billion to build and local taxes had to be altered to fund $300 million of that I think.

The stadium beside the Astrodome in Texas, could be Reliant Stadium, is really impressive.

John Oliver is justabout the best thing on telly anywhere in the world at the mo, here's his take:

markredfox73 wrote:
I agree there, it seems criminal to move out Upton Park it's unreal.

Quokkablue2 wrote:
Darlington have been playing at Bishop Auckland's Heritage Stadium. Hoping to move back to Darlington in the hear future.

Feethams was owned by the cricket club and remained derelict for a number of years after Reynolds moved out. I believe that it is now a housing estate.

Atlanta Falcons are getting a new stadium even though the Georgia Dome only opened in 1992!

Eight games a season is the answer for you Moorlad but a lot of these are multi-purpose so some will have College teams playing around six or seven Home games plus there are Neutral site games also.

I'm sure they do Monster Rally,Concerts etc to make sure the stadium is in full use. There doesn't look much wrong with it but a new stadium will follow in 2017.

Seems crazy, the idea of only having 8 home games per season to watch your team.

There's only 32 teams at most in most of there sports as well, isn't there? No wonder they all get such big crowds, even at College - there must be areas that are 5 or 6 hours away from any professional teams of any sport.

A lot of America is all about revenue and making money, the teams don't care about the states they are In, as in NFL it's not uncommon for teams to move to different states and cities if things aren't going there way where they are, I'm not an expert I could be wrong.

It just seems a waste of what I think are exceptional venues, something different and all look fantastic, another thing I've noticed is a few American stadiums are built down, and effectively recreated and modernised, have a look at that Stadium that was used for Dallas Cowboys before the Cowboys Stadium, it's called the Texas Stadium. I think the Giants stadium was knocked down for a like-for-like replacement in the New Giants Stadium (MetLife Stadium) same basic design just modernised.

Oakland Raiders new supposed stadium complex is gonna cost $900m. Theres a funding gap of around $3-400 million so they may be moving to LA. Re the 8 home game crack when Oakland played at Wembley last autumn the guys who do their podcast that i listen to and a lot of the people who phone in embraced the fact that they were losing a home game and were getting a chance to head over to London. Im sure they were in a overall minority but can you imagine the furore if that sort of thing happened over here?.

There was an article a few months back on the Guardian site about Houston's Astrodome and the future plans for it.

www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/09/h...-cities-50-buildings

Might be of interest to you James.

San Francisco moved last season to a completely new City in San Jose which is 48 miles away yet still retain their name. I hate how Clubs or Franchises as they like to call them basically hold the Cities in which they play in to ransom to get a new stadium built plus get the locals to pay through the nose to pay for it just for the pleasure.

Their is a stadium going up in the L.A. area even though there isn't a team there to fill it (they want two) and a few of the clubs are queuing up to move there thus giving many cities where the current sides play next to no choice but to adhere to the clubs demands for new facilities. It's all wrong and one of the things I hate about American sports.

I'd love to see a promotion/relegation scenario in play also but I don't think many of them would get it but it would lead to much more excitement rather than a closed shop. Excitement if you're not a Raiders fan that is as struggling near the bottom division year on year would be depressing given that Carlisle do the same.

The Wembley scenario, Is effectively like moving 2-4 games over to China or somewhere for a money spinner, it would cause uproar over here.

Hopefully the AstroDome finds a use, is there any specific reason why the Dome type stadium never took off here, did anyone ever plan a stadium as such, I could be wrong but it seems almost exclusively American.

The huge gaps in funding seem to be left to the public to pay via Taxes. 900 million to 1 billion on Stadium complexes seems unbelievable, what are the odds off the AT&T; Stadium still standing in 40 years time? It's odd how stadiums here are 100+ years old, and look crap but do the job.

*Id also like to add, thanks for the links these are articles and videos I've never seen and really enjoyed seeing them!

At least theyre in the top 4 in their division each year though . I really hope theyre starting to turn the corner not though. Look like theyve got some decent young players on the roster. Oakland Colliseum is a lot closer to Candlestick Park than Levi stadium is as well.

I love listening to the American Sports Network.

DB, is the Tampa Bay Turd Bowl still in use?

Another good link... features a few non-US stadia too.

www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2015/07/abandon...rts-arenas-of-world/

"Then, in 1999, the club relocated to the ultra-modern ONO Estadi", ha ha - what a load of crap that is!

Good article that.

I've been to Mallorca three times to the new ground it certainly is not ultra-modern and the facilities aren't exactly fantastic..

worldsoccertalk.com/2015/07/23/american-...blem-by-steve-davis/

Might be up your street James.