Rant #2,035: Crumblin' Down

This was a pretty slow weekend in my neck of the woods.

There is nothing much to report on my end.

And evidently, nothing much to report on the Pontiac Silverdome's end either.

I am sure that you heard that the fabled stadium, which was the home of the Detroit Lions and Detroit Pistons for years, was supposed to come down this weekend.

Everything was set up, the explosives were in place, and people gathered to see this thing as they always do when older stadiums and arenas are to come down in one fell swoop like this.

I don't get what all the hoopla is about these things, but people really get into stadiums coming down like this. I guess it is akin to watching fireworks.

But anyway, the button was pushed, and the walls were to come down.

But it didn't happen.

Video shown on probably just about every news program in the country showed that the stadium was even greater than the explosives, and refused to budge much.

Officials said the cause of the non-collapse was a wiring issue on the eight main beams caused the charges to fail to level the arena.

The problem now is that while the facility did not fall to the ground, those beams were weakened, and they now could come down on their own at any time, making the site a hazard for anyone who has to go near there.

The last I heard is that another demolition of this sort has not yet been scheduled. I guess officials are waiting to see if this thing falls down under its own new weaknesses.

The Silverdome opened in 1975 and not only was the home arena for the Lions and Pistons, but it also hosted events ranging from a Pope visit to Wrestlemania.

Personally, it is sad to see venerable stadiums and arenas fall to the ground like this, replaced by supposedly more user-friendly facilities that are seemingly only erected to pad the pockets of owners.

Heck, I still don't understand why the Yankees needed a new Yankee Stadium (well, actually, I do know, but the reasons to me don't hold up), and so many other stadiums and arenas have come down in recent times, some not even of a reverential age.

But back to the Silverdome ... will it ever fall to the ground?

This was actually one phase of a multi-phase project to get rid of the stadium that is planned for the next 12 months, so yes, the facility will vanish, one way or the other, after time.

I just like that it didn't fall down like it was planned to with this non-implosion.

It's like the arena itself was talking, saying "Not so fast."

Maybe officials should take heed of the possibility of such stubbornness when they want to get rid of such a facility in the future.