Saturday, April 28, 2012

Stadium prints

Some very cool prints with MLB parks and the roads surrounding. You can see them here, just sign up. They were on sale, when normally they're 40 dollars.




Sunday, April 22, 2012

Unrealized Ballpark Concepts

I found a website with an extensive gallery of failed ballpark proposals. It's REALLY cool to see what could've happened, but didn't. In the 60s, Boston was planning a domed stadium. Could you imagine? But I recommend looking at all of these.





Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Astrodome Down

The "Eighth Wonder of the World" is looking pretty bad these days. The first domed stadium in the world has been without a team since 1999, and it's really been on the decline. Built in 1965, it was the first stadium in the world with a roof. With no natural sunlight, the invention of astroturf also came along. This was really the first big money stadium, a Cowboy Stadium of it's day. The scoreboard cost a million dollars, and 35 million overall. The thing is, to tear it down would cost almost 100 million dollars. So the city of Houston would rather keep the eyesore open. 

All of Houston's teams have new buildings. The dome hosted the Astros and Oilers from 1965 until both teams moved in their own way. The Astros, Texans, and Rockets opened new digs in 2000, 2002, and 2003 respectively. The Houston Cougars and Dynamo played at the Cougars' Robertson Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston. But the Dynamo built their new BBVA Stadium for this year, and the Cougars plan on razing Robertson Stadium, and build a new stadium in it's place.

The last time the Astrodome was really used was for Hurricane Katrina victims. But it looks like a tornado went through the dome. Here are some more sad pictures of the old dome.