So Long Silverdome
Andrew Norton
Built in 1973 and home to the Detroit Lions until 2002, the Silverdome is turning down the lights and locking the doors. It has been operating at a loss of $1.6 million per year in recent years. Pontiac officials have been entertaining various business proposals the last few years, but none of them have resulted in anything promising. It is a shame that this was built by Pontiac and its taxpayers as a way to bring development to the city only to have the development occur in Auburn Hills and the Lions to go back to Detroit. The city is stuck with this "white elephant" until a decent proposal for its use arrises.
City leaders might want to check out BigBoxReuse.com to see what other cities have done with empty "big box" buildings. There are some pretty cool and innovative ideas that folks came up with.
Read the full article - Pontiac to padlock Dome - 02/09/06 - The Detroit News