Second Blast Brings Down Pontiac Silverdome
After a wiring issue caused the first attempt at imploding the Pontiac Silverdome to fail this past weekend, officials were able to get the job done the second time around on Monday afternoon. The 42-year-old building fell in a pile of dust as onlookers watched for the second straight day.
The Detroit-based demolition company Adamo is in charge of the process, which entails destroying the former home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions over a six-month period. The blasts on Monday brought down the upper section of the aging Silverdome that refused to fall just 24 hours before.
The Lions played in the Silverdome from 1975 until 2001; it was also home to the Detroit Pistons as well. The 80,000-seat indoor stadium hosted Super Bowl XVI, WrestleMania III, and several other widely known events over the years. The dome had been in pretty bad shape over the last few years since being replaced by Ford Field. While Lions fans didn’t have many fond memories with the team inside the building, many of them have attended several major city events at the venue over the years, making for bittersweet memories.
Detroit is not the only city doing away with an old stadium, as Atlanta began demolition on the Georgia Dome recently. Falcons fans are now able to enjoy the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but in a city like Atlanta, they needed parking areas. Team officials have said that once demolition is finished that the area that is now loaded with rubble will become a massive parking deck for fans and people of the city to use on game days.
WATCH: Second partial implosion attempt at Pontiac Silverdome successful https://t.co/Gr6BWbd8Ey pic.twitter.com/1WxGFe31Or
— Local 4 WDIV Detroit (@Local4News) December 4, 2017
BEFORE AND AFTER: Second partial implosion a success for Pontiac Silverdome https://t.co/Gr6BWbd8Ey pic.twitter.com/GBfoFchvPn
— Local 4 WDIV Detroit (@Local4News) December 4, 2017
Many within the city are now focused on what will become of the massive lot area that the stadium was built on. The stadium owners, the Toronto-based Triple Investment Group, had to be sued in order to do something about the site after leaving it in disarray and in need of serious repair for years.
