ROGER GOODELL: 2,500 EXTRA PARKING SPACES DOES SOUND PRETTY GOOD 
The study paid for by the Texans and the Rodeo that found the Astrodome could be torn down and replaced with 2,500 parking spots for $29 million — the one Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he’s putting on his shelf — has apparently made its way to the desk of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who seems to have crunched the numbers in light of Houston’s impending bid to host the 2017 Super Bowl. Goodell, reports the Houston Chronicle‘s John McClain, says he doesn’t want to get involved in the dome demo drama right before getting involved: “That issue is for the community to decide, but I think having an extra 2,500 parking spaces would enhance Houston’s bid.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Russell Hancock
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That’s only $11,600 per parking space. At their rates, they’ll have it paid off in about three months.
Destroy the only iconic structure that Houston has so that Houston has a non-guarenteed ‘better CHANCE’ of hosting a super bowl? That parking lot would be monument to short-sightedness, greed, cheapness, non-imagination, stupidity and defeat. And so would the city of Houston.
Gotta love the media savvy of the Texans talking up their points to Goodell and then putting a Chronicle writer/blogger in touch with Goodell.
Ridiculous. Spectators who came to Houston’s 2003 Superbowl certainly didn’t need parking “enhancements.”
Kinda reminds me of the time Bud Adams tore out the Astrodome’s scoreboard in the premise that the added seats would attract a Super Bowl.
>:-[
Let Roger Goodell and Bob McNair go stomp off to some corner and suck their thumbs. All cities need to wake up to the lunacy of being bent over by professional teams extorting money from them in the name of having some sport franchise or one shot championship game. The NFL, like the Houston Rodeo is a “non-profit” and they have the audacity to bully the city/county over their stupid games. The city of Houston and Harris county are both strapped by monumental debt to build everyone their own stadium.
PLEASE wake up and tell these teams to take their whiny teams and stick it.
omfg…are you kidding me with this!!..yes tear down one of the most famous stadiums ever built so you can “maybe” get the SuperBowl..gee, wonder if McNair dialed up Goodell..i resent the hell out of being strong armed and manipulated to tear down the dome..We Houstonians have made McNair a very rich man and he’s not a native so maybe he just clueless about the domes meaning to native Houstonians..but still, he has some nerve and im clueless why the Rodeo is so gung ho to tear it down..they only matter three weeks out of the year!..hey maybe we should tear down Reliant, and make McNair play in the dome..he’d lose the three hair he has left to be sure
Goodell has messed up the NFL plenty. Nobody should listen to him.
Well, the Shamrock is now a parking lot, why not the Astrodome? History means so little to muckety-mucks here.
Sad on both accounts.
And I agree with thomas,a place to park is not the big sell.
Again…. turn the Astrodome into fairgrounds so both Rodeo and Texans can both benefit. Not to mention the Houston area.
I’m really not seeing a better use in the next few years or decade as anything else. Perhaps we can turn around this part of Houston (south of the Med Center) into an area of note…. but it will require more than turning the Astrodome into a new convention hotel and/or new museum or whatever.
One of the most historic structures??? It never hosted a Super Bowl, ever. And no franchise ever won a championship either.
Where the county screwed up was not adding a clause to Bud Adams’ demands for more seating that tied him and the Oilers into a 20 or 30 year lease or they have to pay off the bonds used for the renovations.
Im against tearing it down, but the math does work. Converting it into a mini storage works too. these are only viable options.
@ Bitch …. ditto.
The nerve of these corporate welfare kings is amazing. Ed Emmett has the right attitude. If making more parking is in the interest of the city then we should do it, if it’s not, don’t. We should not be in the business of propping up these scam artists.
Why not build the parking garage inside the Doom? The Worlds Largest Under Cover Parking Garage! The Worlds Largest Domed Parking Garage!
We would be paying homage to our love of the Car and the Dome at the same time! Honoring the Past While Embracing our Gridlocked Future in Houston.
May I remind everyone Reliant looks no better than the Dome does sitting in a concrete jungle of a parking lot.
The Bob Mahal looks like poop and more parking spaces will make it look even more depressing.
Maybe this will ignite a fire under little Ed Emmet.
Yawn. So many vociferously defend the historical sanctity of the Dome, but so few want to pay for it.
Cherish memories on your own dime.
*Yeah* for history! We can watch one of the previous wonders of the world deteriorate for all of eternity!
i don’t care if it is grass or a parking lot, just tear it down.
Yeah, tear down the single iconic structure this city has, for a CHANCE to host the Superbowl. Then, either we get the Superbowl, which brings in a bit of extra revenue for a single weekend, and all of the visitors will leave Houston not having a single remarkable thing about the city in their minds, or we don’t get it, and we’ve still lost our only iconic structure.
Texans’ fans are not subjected to temps 80 by having the roof open, yet we encourage tailgating on asphalt parking lots? Tear down the down and make it a public park, complete with trees and public comforts.
When it comes to picking the pockets of taxpayers for this event, McNair/Goodell and gang have barely begun.
The local media should put down its poms-poms for a second and give the pertinent facts on the NFL’s demands in the competition for the 2016 Super Bowl:
Santa Clara’s already coughed up the money for a new ’49ers’ stadium. Now it has consented to NFL demands for such gifts as waiving the city tax on its 350 reserved hotel rooms. And it got waivers exempting SB tickets from a paltry 35-cent ticket surcharge that funds programs for seniors and youth.
Meanwhile, the NFL’s telling Miami-Dade taxpayers that they’ll have to approve $200 million in tax subsidies for stadium upgrades if they expect to land the SB there in 2016.
Of course, the loser for SB 2016 becomes the competitor against Houston for ’17. So the destruction of the ‘Dome here would only be the start of what’s in store for Houston in this farce…
Turn the Astrodome into a parking garage?? They would need to install a monster ventilation system to avoid the CO2 poisoning. Sounds liek alot of money to convert that….. Dumb idea.
Turn it in to a park like area. Open air. But keep a section of the seating and the roof(if not all of the roof). You can have concerts/pregame shows/livestock showcases. It would also attract more SBs/Final Fours/big college bowl game events with the extra facility. It would cots money for the rehab but i believe it would be the biggest bang for the buck.
Otherwise tear the rotten thing down and move on.
A PARK. Why are we not making it into a park? That has easily been the best idea yet. Strip down the dome to its bare essentials, weather proof it and reinforce the structure, and make it into a nice park. It would be a draw to the area, rather than the concrete blight the area is now.
Since reality does not seem to play any role in most discussions about what to do with the Dome, I would like to throw my hat in the ring. I want to see an indoor skeet shooting range that is serviced by midget strippers on roller skates. This will clearly provide the most good for the most people. And visitors will certainly remember the Dome now. How’s that sound Ed?
Yes I’m commenting again. This really burns me up. Who is this guy to come in here and dangle a carrot in front of us as if we should be so desperate. Sure making a parking lot out of the Astrodome may give us an edge in the superbowl running but after its all said and done, we still have to live with the fact that we made the Astrodome into a freaking parking lot. Seriously, how could we ever live with ourselves after committing such an atrocity. We would no longer be a city with pride, but merely a collection of short-sighted, pandering individuals with no real sense of civic duty or what it means to be a Houstonian.
I know some of you will come on here and say the meaning of being a Houstonian is tearing down all of our roots but I respectfully disagree. The meaning of being a Houstonian is forging our own path and doing things when others said they can’t or won’t. That is a Houstonian. Goodell says making the Dome a parking lot will help us? I say making the Dome an amazing sight and going against the grain will help us, both in the short term and the long run.
Sorry for going Braveheart on everyone, but we, as Houstonians, must have more pride.
I think all of you are way off base. First get over the dump.
It’s just a big Litter box wasting taxpayers dollars.
After ten years of asking for suggestions not one group has come up with a legitimate plan.
Just a bunch of far flung ideas that would end up costing the county much more and putting the investors in debt.It would shut down in a year.
First who would want or need to stay in a hotel out on 610 south. There’s nothing out there but Reliant stadium. Just think about it, that’s roughly 12 days a year and maybe the o.t.c. show, and the rodeo but besides that nobody would stay there. No one has come up with a use for it that makes logical sense.
And don’t give me it’s a great architectural monument. So was Yankee Stadium and at least they had some really serious history there and it’s gone.Like multiple world series.
It’s turned into an expensive eyesore that does nothing except house a bunch of cats.
Tell me about your hair brain suggestions to revamp the place. It’s Friday, and I need a good laugh.
It’s obvious the the Texans and HLSR will never relent until they get the parking spaces, which are much easier to capitalize on than hotel rooms or performance space or a theme park of anything else that might go within the Dome. Unlike the others, a parking space requires almost no maintenance – it’s just pure money.
Screw Goodell and screw the Superbowl..
The Dome is in the way. Tear it down.
Swamplot censors at work again… So sad what has happened to this site.
How many more parking spaces are needed?? Seriously, the former astroworld site is now destined to be one indefinitely. Sure, the astrodome site is more “premium” but give me a break. It’s literally a square mile of parking lots down there
isn’t there a field across the street that they can use for parking lot that would be a lot cheaper? There’s already a bridge over the freeway. and I bet it would be cheaper per spot than tearing down the dome, and it would offer up more parking spaces.
anyway, I’m over the dome, but I’m not willing to accept that a parking lot is the best use of the land.
We do not need more surface parking. That does nothing to attract out of towners (i.e. money). You want the Superbowl again? You need a convenient way to get the people there–who wants to rent a car and then spend hours in a parking lot, just waiting to get out, on ‘vacation’–and more ‘stuff’ for them to do (again, spend $). Be smart–there are so many ways to develop the space.
so keep the iconic structure and use AstroWorld’s parking (it’s almost free, duh)–why can’t Houston ever keep structures from the past like other cities do? I get the Texans want it torn down so that it doesn’t interfere with their park but really the current Texans stadium looks kinda generic when you look closely at it.