The Alamodome is a domed 65,000 seat, multi-purpose facility used as a football, basketball, baseball stadium and convention center. It is located on the southeastern fringe of Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. The facility opened on May 15, 1993, having been constructed at a cost of $186 million.
The multi-purpose facility was intended to increase the city's convention traffic and attract a professional football franchise. It also placated the San Antonio Spurs' demands for a larger arena. The Spurs played in the Alamodome for a decade, then became disenchanted with the facility and convinced Bexar County to construct a new arena for them, now called the AT&T Center.
§Features
The facility is a rectilinear 5-level stadium which can seat up to 65,000 spectators for a typical football game and is expandable to hold 72,000 spectators, allowing the possibility of hosting a Super Bowl.
However, it was designed from the ground up to easily convert into a basketball or hockey arena. Converting the stadium for basketball and hockey takes 12-18 hours to set up retractable seating and installing the playing surface. In this configuration, typically only the two lower levels at one or both ends are used. The arena configuration seats 20,662 spectators, but is expandable to 39,500 when the upper level is opened.
The Alamodome opened with 38 luxury suites and 6,000 club level seats. The original design specifications called for 66 luxury suites. However, since the Spurs were the only full-time tenant at the time, only 38 luxury suites in the north end of the facility were built. The footprints for the 28 unbuilt luxury suites were open floor space just behind the club level seats that surround the south end of the facility. In 2006, the Alamodome underwent an expansion to accommodate 14 new luxury suites. The Sports Club and the Top of the Dome restaurant also received renovations in 2004.
The Alamodome has two permanent Olympic-size ice rinks that can be used for NHL games, figure skating and speed skating. The facility also contains 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) of meeting rooms and 160,000 square feet (15,000 m2) of continuous exhibit space.
Two NHL Pre-season games were held at the Alamodome. The Dallas Stars faced off against the Los Angeles Kings in back-to-back seasons at the Alamodome in 1994 and 1995. The Stars defeated the Kings 3-2 on September 27, 1994 with 14,342 fans in attendance. The following year Dallas claimed a 4-2 victory over the Kings in front of 8,122 hockey fans on September 26, 1995. Hockey Hall of Fame forward Wayne Gretzky participated in both preseason matchups.
§Events and tenants
The Alamodome is currently the host of the UIL State Marching Competition as well as the Bands of America San Antonio Super Regional each fall hosting between 60-80 high school bands over the course of a week. The Alamodome was also home to the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA from 1993 to 2002 and the San Antonio Texans of the CFL in 1995. In the NCAA, the Alamodome is currently the home of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Roadrunners. The facility also hosts special events such as the annual Alamo Bowl football game, NCAA basketball and volleyball tournament games, and the men's and women's basketball Final Four (men's 1998, 2004, 2008; women's 2002, 2010). Other NCAA events including the 1997, 1999 and 2007 Big 12 Championship Games were played in the facility. The 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival held some of the first paid events in the Alamodome in July and August 1993, including the opening and closing ceremonies and ice skating events. The 1996 NBA All-Star Game was played in the Alamodome, and the facility hosted the WWF Royal Rumble in 1997. The now-defunct San Antonio Dragons of the International Hockey League played some games in 1997 and 1998 at the Alamodome when its home, Freeman Coliseum, was unavailable during the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo (a similar scheduling conflict the Spurs now face at the new AT&T Center). The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) has held two Built Ford Tough Series events in the Alamodome (2007, 2008). Two 2005 InterLiga soccer matches took place in the Alamodome on January 6, 2005. The facility also was one of three "home" stadiums for the displaced NFL New Orleans Saints during the 2005 NFL season and was also the Dallas Cowboys' training camp site in 2002, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team played a home game against Washington State here in 2009.
State high school football playoff games are regularly held in the Alamodome, including championship games in 2006, 2007 and 2009.
After the opening ceremonies, the first major event held at the facility was Paul McCartney's The New World Tour concert, which took place on May 29, 1993.
The Alamodome has played host to music festivals, including Ozzfest. It has also hosted concerts to artists such as Britney Spears, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and many more.
From July 5-16, 2006, the Alamodome hosted the 2006 ELCA Youth Gathering. Approximately 40,000 youth and adult leaders attended the event, between the two weeks it was spread.
Every summer Drum Corps International hosts its DCI San Antonio - Southwestern Championships at the Alamodome.
The Alamodome also hosts the Bands of America Super-Regional Championships every year in November, as well as the University Interscholastic League State Marching Band Contest.
The Alamodome has also hosted 3 Men's NCAA Final Four Basketball games (1998, 2004, 2008) and one Women's Final Four in 2010, and will hold the men's Final Four again in 2018.
The Alamodome hosted the 2011 NCAA Women's Volleyball Final Four.
The 1993 world boxing championship fight between WBC Welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker and challenger Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. was held at the Alamodome. Also, the 2013 bout between Saul Alvarez and Austin Trout was held at the Alamodome.
On January 19, 1997, the Alamodome hosted the World Wrestling Federation's annual Royal Rumble Pay-per-view event. In front of a Royal Rumble record attendance of 60,525 San Antonio native Shawn Michaels won the WWF Championship from Sycho Sid, while another Texas native Stone Cold Steve Austin won the Rumble for the first time (he would also win in 1998 and 2001).
TNA Lockdown was held in the Alamodome on March 10, 2013. This was the first time TNA had hosted an event in San Antonio.
As of 2013, the Alamodome hosts UTSA's graduation ceremonies, as well as most of Northside ISD's high school graduation ceremonies.
§NBA basketball
The Alamodome's ability to easily accommodate basketball made it attractive to then-Spurs owner Red McCombs, who had been looking for some time for a larger arena to replace their longtime home, HemisFair Arena. The Spurs moved to the Alamodome after the 1992-93 NBA season. They played nine seasons in the Alamodome, including during their first NBA championship season, which was played against the New York Knicks in 1999.
During the regular season, most of the upper level was curtained off. However, on certain weekends and when popular opponents came to town, the Spurs expanded the Alamodome's capacity to 35,000 by opening three portions of the upper level. More sections of the upper level were opened for the playoffs, expanding capacity to 39,500. Attendance was 39,514 for Game 1 of the 1999 NBA Finals and 39,554 for Game 2.
Though the late 1990s saw the Spurs soar to unprecedented popularity, the decision was made to move the team out of the spacious stadium and build a new arena. While the Alamodome had been designed from the ground up to accommodate basketball, it was primarily a football stadium. As the years passed, Spurs management and fans grew increasingly dissatisfied with its poor sight lines and cavernous feel. Part of the problem was the manner in which the Alamodome was configured for basketball. The basketball court was at one end of the venue with temporary stands on one side of the court, leaving over half of the stadium curtained off. Television broadcast trucks were usually set up on the unused half of the playing surface. By comparison, more modern domed stadiums that can accommodate basketball, such as AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, place the basketball court in the center of where the football field would be, allowing for much larger attendances. Additionally, the Spurs' deep playoff runs (they only missed the playoffs once in their nine years there) tied up the Alamodome for most of the winter and spring, making it difficult to accommodate conventions, concerts or even a prospective football team. Moving the Spurs out of the Alamodome opened up more contiguous dates allowing the facility to schedule more events, though it has yet to host a Super Bowl. The Spurs moved to the SBC Center (now the AT&T Center) after the 2001-2002 season.
§Football
§Alamo Bowl
The Alamodome is the site of the annual Alamo Bowl, which matches the second-choice teams from the Pac-12 Conference and the Big 12 Conference. The 2006 Alamo Bowl between the Texas Longhorns and the Iowa Hawkeyes was attended by 65,875, which set a facility-record crowd for a sporting event, only to have that record broken by an Alamo Bowl event the next year between Texas A&M and Penn State, which drew 66,166 attendees.
§Canadian Football League
The Alamodome was also home to the San Antonio Texans for the 1995 CFL season. The stadium was attractive to the Canadian Football League (which made an ill-fated attempt to expand to the U.S. between 1993 and 1995) since it was one of the rare American facilities that could fully accommodate the CFL's larger playing field. Its seating could be retracted to fit the full 65-yard width and 150-yard length of a regulation Canadian football field.
In the first CFL playoff game ever played between two U.S.-based franchises, the Texans defeated the Birmingham Barracudas 52-9 at the Alamodome on November 5, The team then lost to the Baltimore Stallions 21-11 in Baltimore on November 11. The Texans folded after the 1995 season due to low attendance, financial problems, and the disbanding of the other U.S. teams.
§Corps Classic
September 16, 2006, marked the first game in a college football "home and home" series, known as the AT&T Corps Classic, between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Army Black Knights. Army has elected to play its "home" game at the Alamodome in order to increase the program's exposure around the nation, as it competes as an independent. A sell-out crowd of 64,583 watched the Aggies defeat the Black Knights 28-24. The second game was played at Kyle Field in College Station in 2008.
§East-West Shrine Game
The 2006 East-West Shrine Game was played in the Alamodome on January 21, 2006. The game is an annual post-season college football all-star game. For most of its history, the game has been played in the San Francisco Bay Area, at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium and at Stanford Stadium. In recent years it has been played at AT&T Park. In 2006, the game was played in the Alamodome, moving out of the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in decades. The Shrine Game was moved once again for its 2007 event, to Robertson Stadium in Houston.
§National Football League
The Alamodome has played host to six NFL preseason games. Two each were played in 1993 and 1994, one in 1995, and one in 2001.
- August 7, 1993 - Houston Oilers (28) vs. New Orleans Saints (37) - Attendance: 40,308
- August 21, 1993 - Dallas Cowboys (20) vs. Houston Oilers (23) - Attendance: 63,285
- August 6, 1994 - Houston Oilers (31) vs. San Diego Chargers (3) - Attendance: 29,815
- August 20, 1994 - Buffalo Bills (18) vs. Houston Oilers (16) - Attendance: 40,504
- August 26, 1995 - Dallas Cowboys (10) vs. Houston Oilers (0) - Attendance: 52,512
- August 11, 2001 - Minnesota Vikings (28) vs. New Orleans Saints (21) - Attendance: 46,752
In 2005, the NFL announced that the Alamodome would host three of the New Orleans Saints regular season "home" games due to the damage caused to the Louisiana Superdome by Hurricane Katrina. The Saints played the Buffalo Bills (week 4), the Atlanta Falcons (week 6), and the Detroit Lions (week 16) at the Alamodome. Although there have been many NFL preseason and exhibition games held in San Antonio over the years, these games were the first NFL regular season games played in the city. The Saints also played one 2005 season "home" game in Giants Stadium (against the New York Giants) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and four others in LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Overall, the Saints averaged 62,665 fans in the 65,000-seat Alamodome for the three games held there, a solid showing despite the short notice to sell tickets due to the hurricane. The Saints and the NFL announced that the team would return to Louisiana for the 2006 season even though at the time the NFL was uncertain where they would play their home games. Additionally, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue indicated that if the NFL expands again, San Antonio would be on the short list of candidate cities. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has acknowledged his support for the city's efforts to become home to an NFL franchise even though public opinion is that he would never let go of his team's presence in the San Antonio market.
- October 2, 2005 - Buffalo Bills (7) vs. New Orleans Saints (19) - Attendance: 58,688
- October 16, 2005 - Atlanta Falcons (34) vs. New Orleans Saints (31) - Attendance: 65,562 (attendance set the facility record for a sporting event at the time; it has been subsequently surpassed by two Alamo Bowl events)
- December 24, 2005 - Detroit Lions (13) vs. New Orleans Saints (12) - Attendance: 63,747
The Dallas Cowboys held their 2002, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 preseason training camps at the Alamodome.
On July 29, 2014, it was reported by the San Antonio Express-News that Mark Davis met with officials from the city of San Antonio, Texas to discuss the possibility of relocating the Raiders to San Antonio. Davis confirmed that he did speak with San Antonio city officials while visiting San Antonio to honor former Raiders wide receiver Cliff Branch's induction into a local Hall of Fame, but did not comment on whether he was considering relocation to San Antonio. If the Raiders were to relocate to San Antonio, the Alamodome would almost certainly be used as a temporary home until a new NFL stadium is built.
§Texas Football Classic
Since 1999, the Alamodome has been home to the Texas Football Classic, which kicks off the high school football season in Texas. Now in its 13th year, the event has expanded to five games, featuring prominent high school programs from across the state. Former participants include former Chicago Bears and University of Texas running back Cedric Benson, University of Iowa quarterback Drew Tate, University of Houston quarterback Kevin Kolb, and University of Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel.
§U.S. Army All-American Bowl
The U.S. Army All-American Bowl is played each January. The bowl game features the nation's top 80 high school football players in an East vs. West match-up and is televised by NBC. It also includes the US Army All American Marching Band, 125 of the nation's best musicians and guard members that audition 8 months before the bowl game. The first All American Bowl game that included the marching band performance at halftime was in 2008. Past games have included players like Reggie Bush, Vince Young, Adrian Peterson, Brady Quinn, and Tim Tebow. The inaugural game was played on December 30, 2000, at Highlander Stadium at Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas. The bowl game was then moved to San Antonio, where the 2002 match was played in front of an Alamo Stadium crowd. The 2003 game was moved to the Alamodome, where it has been played since.
§NFLPA Game
In 2011, the Texas vs. the Nation game was moved to San Antonio and was renamed the NFLPA Game, after the new sponsor of the event. The concept of The NFLPA Game will remain "Texas vs. the Nation" with seniors having ties to the state of Texas taking on top seniors from across the Nation. In addition, The NFLPA Game will be nationally televised live on CBS College Sports starting in 2011.
§UTSA Roadrunners
The UTSA Roadrunners football program began using the stadium in 2011. The Roadrunners set records for largest attendance at an initial game for a start-up NCAA college football program at 56,743, and largest average attendance for a start-up program's first season at 35,521. The Alamodome is the third largest football stadium in Conference USA.
§Arena football
From 2012-2014, the Alamodome was home to the San Antonio Talons of the Arena Football League, who relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2011.
§NCAA Final Four
The NCAA Final Four was first hosted at the Alamodome in 2008 when Kansas won the tournament. The NCAA has now said the 2018 Final Four will be held at the Alamo Dome.
§Baseball
Since 2013, the Texas Rangers played several exhibition games at the Alamodome.
§Renovations
On April 15, 2005, the San Antonio City Council voted to spend close to $6.5 million to renovate the Alamodome in an effort to lure a Major League Soccer franchise to the city. After the election of Phil Hardberger as the new mayor, those efforts were abandoned, though the approved renovations to the facility will continue as planned. The city administration and local business leaders have re-focused their efforts to bringing an NFL franchise to San Antonio.
On April 19, 2007, the San Antonio City Council unanimously approved an additional $8.3 million to fund renovations and enhancements to the facility.
In the summer of 2008 the audio system was upgraded.
In 2009 new LED video panels were added to the 5th level.
Although when the Alamodome was built it was an ideal state-of-the-art NFL stadium, by today's standards the facility would have to undergo renovations and add a considerable number of luxury suites in order to make it a profitable venue for an NFL team. Preliminary estimates put the cost of improvements at $100-150 million.
In September 2010, the Alamodome opened the new venue The Illusions Theater in the north half of the stadium. This setup uses curtains lit by LED fixtures to create a smaller feeling space for concerts, comedy acts, and other smaller acts. Floor seating can be configured to hold up to 1,000 seats with the plaza, club, and upper deck seating levels added as needed to give up to 15,000 seats.
In 2014, the Alamodome announced renovations with the condition the NCAA Final Four is held there. In Early 2015, a video with renderings was released to the public.
§Future events and tenants
The Texas Rangers played a series of exhibition games against the San Diego Padres in the Alamodome on 29-30 March 2013. This marks the first time a Major League Baseball game was played at the Alamodome. The Rangers also played two exhibition games on 28-29 March 2014 against the Houston Astros. The next exhibition games will be played here on 20-21 March 2015, both split-squad games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Notre Dame will play Army at the Alamodome on 12 November 2016, a Saturday night.
§Record crowds
Top 10 all-time Alamodome sports crowds (as of December 30, 2007):
Other notable attendance marks include:
- 70,956 George Strait's 2013 Cowboy Rides Away Tour
- 60,525: 1997 WWF Royal Rumble
- 58,891: 1993 Julio César Chávez-Pernell Whitaker boxing match
- 56,743: 2011 Northeastern State vs. UTSA regular season football game (record for the highest-attended game for an NCAA Division I FCS start-up program)
- 54,313: 2014 International Soccer Friendly, Mexico vs. South Korea
- 53,407: 2009 Notre Dame vs. Washington State regular season football game.
- 48,709: Paul McCartney's 1993 New World Tour concert
- 44,468: 2004 NCAA Men's Final Four Championship Game, Georgia Tech vs. Connecticut (a facility record for basketball)
- 44,000: 1999 Black Sabbath Reunion Tour 99, opening: Pantera and Incubus
- 43,257: 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Game, Kansas Jayhawks vs Memphis Tigers
- 40,509: 1998 NCAA Men's Final Four Championship Game, Utah vs. Kentucky
- 39,554: 1999 NBA Finals (Game 2), New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs
- 37,000: 1997 Filming of Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez. Centerpiece concert sequences which were recreations of slain singer Selena's 1995 Houston Astrodome Concert.
- 36,451: 2006 CONCACAF FIFA World Cup Qualification Round 2, Dominica vs. Mexico
- 36,037: 1996 NBA All-Star Game
- 29,619: 2002 NCAA Women's Final Four Championship Game, Oklahoma vs. Connecticut (the largest turnout to an NCAA women's basketball game)
- 22,043: Canadian Football: 1995 Calgary Stampeders vs. San Antonio Texans
- 19,211: Hockey: 1997 Phoenix Roadrunners vs. San Antonio Dragons
§References
§External links
- Official Website of the Alamodome
- Official Website of the Alamo Bowl
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