Whether you’re watching for the game, the commercials or the excuse to chow down on snacks, all eyes today are on the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Have fun while you can, Houston, but we have about three years until those eyes are upon Texas, when we host the 2017 Super Bowl at Reliant Stadium. That may seem like a long time, but not nearly long enough to solve the problem of the Astrodome. Harris County needs to ensure that the Eighth Wonder of the World will serve as more than an eyesore for football fans.
Plan A fell through for the county when voters rejected a $217 million bond proposal to transform the Dome into an event space. We continue to believe that Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and his fellow commissioners bear the burden of responsibility for the plan’s failure. After all, they couldn’t provide the hard numbers that voters needed to be assured that the whole scheme was financially viable.
With plan A in the dust, Judge Emmett is quick to say that there is no plan B. There is, however, a plan C. A hasty power wash will be no difficult feat to help clean up the Dome in preparation for Super Bowl guests. But why stop there? With a little extra planning, Harris County can upgrade that plan to at least a C-plus.
Time is probably too short, and money too tight, to restore the Astrodome to any serious functionality. But the underlying architectural aesthetics and record-breaking history are still as strong as ever. A power wash, coat of paint, landscaping and maybe even hard hat tours could make the Dome a sight worth seeing. The National Park Service just added the Dome to the National Register of Historic Places – certainly that’s worth investing in a few bronze historic plaques.
With the right touches, the Dome could stand as an artistic installation for visiting crowds – or maybe just the world’s largest lawn ornament. Either way, it would be an improvement on what we have now while preserving the building for any future ideas.
We urge Emmett to appoint a task force to consider ideas and to recommend a plan that will get the Dome into shape. Rome may have its Coliseum, but somehow an Astrodome ruin doesn’t have the same cachet.
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