Houston Chronicle By The Editorial Board, Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board – November 17, 2024
The strange thing about the Astrodome is that the longer the behemoth sits unused, the more it becomes a vessel for our dreams of the future.
In 1965, when the Dome first opened, it was an international sensation, “The Eighth Wonder of the World,” the world’s first air-conditioned stadium. Hippies tried to levitate it. Other cities tried to imitate it. Moonshot ambition, technological innovation and civil rights action were twined in its 1960s DNA.
In that heady heyday, the Astrodome seemed unimaginably futuristic and enormous. But over the decades, our ideas about stadium sizes and the future changed. It began to seem woefully out of date. By 2000, the Astros abandoned it and moved downtown. Shuttered and empty now, stuck next to NRG Stadium, its even-more-enormous replacement, the Dome looks sad and dinky.
This editorial board has long advocated for saving the Astrodome, and we’re not giving up now. Read Full Editorial Here