| The
home of the USFL's Houston Gamblers was
billed as the "eighth wonder of the
world" when its doors opened in 1965
as the "Harris County Domed
Stadium." Built as the home of
baseball's Houston Astros, the facility
was the first in the so-called
"cookie cutter era" of stadium
building: round, coliseum-style
facilities capable of hosting different
types of events, but incapable of being
perfectly suited to any of them. The
AFL's Houston Oilers became tenants in
1968, but after three decades would leave
for Tennessee when the City of Houston
dragged their feet on requests to replace
the facility. It would only be after
the Houston Astros also threatened to
leave town that the city acted, building
new facilities for both baseball and
football.
By
the time the Gamblers came on the scene in
1983, the Astrodome was already beginning
to show signs of age. Rats were
sometimes seen at Astrodome events, not
enhancing the image of the facility or the
team. Not that it mattered - despite
having Jim Kelly behind center and the
best young receiving corps in all of pro
football, despite a 1984 debut season that
saw the Gamblers go 13-5-0 and win the
USFL Central Division, attendance averaged
less than half of the stadium's capacity,
and by 1985 attendance had dropped below
an average of 20,000.
Today, save the periodic event, the
Astrodome is vacant, dwarfed in popularity
and size by its replacement, Reliant
Stadium, which was opened in 2002 as home
to Houston's new NFL team, the Texans.
As part of the deal to build the new
stadium, Reliant received naming rights to
the Astrodome as well.
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HOUSTON
ASTRODOME |
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Houston,
Texas |
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(pictured
at right, next to
Reliant Stadium) |
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