So What's the Big Deal with the Astrodome?
 

Every night on the Houston local news they refer to the Astrodome as the 8th wonder of the world. Growing up in Kansas City, I have never heard this before. Was it a momentous feat in its time, or are Houstonians just full of themselves? It just looks like a shitty old stadium to me. I vaguely remember the Kingdome being a big deal, maybe in the early 90's, but they tore that down without much fuss.

That's just marketing from when it was built.

I remember when the Bad News Bears played there.

The most notable thing about it was they made the roof translucent because they thought they would be able to grow natural grass inside of it. Didn't work out so well though.

I thought I noticed what looks like stained glass in the roof. Seems like a dumb idea considering you can grow grass year round here.

They wanted real grass and air conditioning.

I know! It's called the ASTRO dome, but when you're inside you can't see the stars! Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?

It was amazing for its time. Not so much anymore.

I watched a game at the Astrodome a decade ago. I have to say I was very impressed. It was way ahead of it's time as far as plenty of restaurants, beer lines ect. Great sound system and an all around fun time. Lots of stadiums have surpassed it by now-but for its time-there was nothing like it.

the ones that realized that the ASTROS would play there

It was a pretty big deal back in the 60s. It's moniker as the 8th wonder of the world was very well-known, not just a local marketing gimmick. And, at that time, it actually was an impressive structure. As for the name, Astrodome, remember that space and space travel was practically an obsession and source of national pride back then. And Houston was a focal point, being the home of "mission control."

We went to the Chiefs-Texans game a couple years ago.

The Astrodome looks like an indoor practice facility compared to Reliant Stadium.

It was the first ever domed stadium. So I can imagine that it was kind of a mind-blowing scale for people back in 1965. I think it was close to 10 years before the next one was built.

Sounds like they're going to tear it down:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...ished/3452349/

9 things you didn't know about the Astrodome:

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/11/9-th...tic-astrodome/