Maybe. But probably not.
Ready and waiting
The fate of the Astrodome — a beloved Houston landmark that’s sat largely unused for more than 20 years — could soon be decided.
Commissioners are expected to discuss options for the 1 million square-foot building at Thursday’s meeting. The move came after the Office of County Administration released December cost estimates for demolishing the building and renovating it. Demolition would cost nearly $55 million, according to OCA, while renovating the Astrodome would require a staggering $752 million.
Interim County Administrator Jesse Dickerman said in a Dec. 19 release that renovating the Astrodome would not be feasible without outside investment.
“These cost estimates illustrate that it will not be financially feasible for Harris County to renovate the Astrodome without significant private investment,” Dickerman said.
[…]
The Astrodome — which, along with NRG Stadium, is owned by Harris County — has become a political hot potato as the years have rolled by with its doors padlocked. The property is located directly adjacent to NRG Stadium — proximity that largely undermines any potential for the Astrodome to reopen as a stadium. The price tag for renovating the building is likely to also put off any private developers seeking to transform it into a mixed-use or commercial property.
That leaves demolition as the most viable solution, but many Houstonians have fond memories of the Astrodome, and demolition would likely carry political ramifications, Beth Wiedower Jackson, executive director of the Astrodome Conservancy previously told the Houston Chronicle.
“No elected official wants the Astrodome’s blood on their hands,” Jackson said.
Although demolition costs just a fraction of renovating the Astrodome, the county could also face roadblocks set by the Texas Historical Commission. The commission designated the stadium a state antiquities landmark in January 2017, which protects the Astrodome from being “removed, altered, damaged, salvaged or excavated” without prior approval.
The county is spending millions insuring and securing the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” as it serves as a glorified storage container. The county spends upwards of $5.5 million per year to insure NRG Park, which includes both the Astrodome and NRG Stadium.
See here and here for the most recent bits of Astrodome news. If there is any movement towards demolition, I feel like it would be more likely to come with a County Judge who is not running for re-election. I agree that this is a legacy-defining decision, however, and I can’t speak to where Judge Hidalgo may be on that. The various groups that want to Do Something with the Astrodome still need to come up with the money and a plan that would take into account the fact that unlike, say, the Alamo, which is in the middle of San Antonio’s downtown and easily accessible by pedestrians who have plenty of other things nearby to visit, the Dome is an island in sea of asphalt abutting a freeway. Any NewDomeThing would have to be a real destination and not just something people would drop by because there won’t be any ambient people to do the drop-by-ing.
That’s the Conservancy’s problem, not mine. The truth is that the simplest solution for now and likely for the foreseeable future is to do nothing. The insurance cost is small – that $5.5 million is for the entire NRG property; surely the Astrodome is a minor piece of that price tag – and until such time as there is a financed and viable Plan for the Dome and/or the Texans and the Rodeo draw a line in the sand of “demolish it so we can make more parking spaces or else”, there’s no compelling reason to do anything else. It’s not going anywhere, it’s not hurting anything, it’s not costing much money, it can be something for Future Commissioners Court to deal with.
Kuff, we agree on most things, but keeping the Astrodome around ’cause it don’t cost much to insure it and if we continue to kick the can down the road it makes it someone. else’s probelm isn’t a solution or really a plan.
Assuming it’s been a cost of $2.5-5.5M/year merely to insure the structure itself, that’s $50-110M since Katrina, the refugees of same being the last tenants.
No private entity is going to buy it as the ROI isn’t there in either a short term or long term scenario. No govermental agency is going to do anything with it as the cost would never be approved by any voting body.
There’s only been one plan that I’ve seen that appeared viable – strip the structure of its skin and leave the steel frame in place as a ‘rememberance’. Bing bang boom, problem solved.
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/houston-architect-puts-forward-unique-vision-astrodome-overhaul
Thank you, Ed Emmett, for saddling us with this white elephant.
CL, just to clarify, that $3.5-5 million insurance bill is for the entire NRG complex, so NRG Stadium, NRG Arena, the Astrodome, and whatever else. I have to assume the Dome itself is a small piece of that. If it’s something like $1 million a year, versus a demolition cost of over $50 million, then yeah I do think that leaving it as is makes more sense. The math changes if the Astrodome piece of it is bigger, but even at $3 million a year you’re talking almost 20 years for it to accumulate to the demolition cost.
If the decision is to demolish it, then I say 1) wrap the demo cost into a bigger bond package, since one of those will be needed sooner or later anyway, and 2) no need to be in a rush, given these numbers, it’s okay to wait and see if interest rates come down.
From ChatGPT:
Here are realistic, creative reuse ideas for the Houston Astrodome that acknowledge the hard constraints you outlined: cost, location, adjacency to NRG Stadium, political risk, and the fact that it must be a true destination, not a casual walk-in.
1. The Astrodome as a Climate-Resilience & Disaster Operations Hub
This is the most politically defensible option.
What it becomes
Regional hurricane, flood, and heat-wave command center
FEMA and Texas emergency staging facility
Massive indoor shelter with permanent infrastructure (beds, kitchens, medical triage)
Training center for disaster response, search & rescue, and National Guard drills
Why it works
Houston’s geography makes this permanently relevant
Public safety spending is easier to justify than entertainment
Preserves the structure (no “blood on hands” problem)
Federal and state funding become realistic
Revenue
Federal leases
Training contracts
Emergency preparedness grants
Bonus
Frame it as “the Dome protecting Houston again.”
2. World’s Largest Indoor Expo + Robotics + Energy Innovation Hall
Think CES meets Space Center Houston meets energy transition.
What it becomes
Permanent exhibition halls for:
Robotics and automation
Energy tech (oil, renewables, hydrogen, carbon capture)
Space, aviation, and climate science
Rotating global expos and trade shows
STEM education campus for Texas schools
Why it works
Houston already leads these industries
Trade shows do not require weekly foot traffic
Corporate sponsorship offsets renovation costs
Fits the Dome’s cavernous scale
Revenue
Corporate naming rights inside
Expo rentals
Sponsorships and conferences
3. Mega Film, TV, and Esports Production Complex
Houston has space. What it lacks is scale.
What it becomes
Soundstages under the Dome
Permanent esports arena inside the bowl
XR / virtual production facilities
Post-production and training studios
Why it works
Texas already competes with Georgia and New Mexico for film incentives
Esports needs controlled indoor venues
You do not need daily visitors
Revenue
Long-term studio leases
Event rentals
Streaming and broadcast contracts
Political bonus
“You turned a money pit into jobs.”
4. The Astrodome Market + Food Innovation City
Not a mall. Not retail. Something Houston actually does well.
What it becomes
Wholesale + retail food hall hybrid
Test kitchens and incubators for chefs
International food festivals
Culinary school partnerships
Why it works
Houston’s food culture is global
Works episodically (weekends, festivals)
Tourism draw without downtown congestion
Revenue
Vendor rents
Events
Sponsorships
5. Astrodome: Museum of the American Future
This is a legacy project.
What it becomes
Museum of space, science, climate, engineering, and cities
Immersive dome-projection experiences
Rotating international exhibitions
Why it works
Houston = NASA + engineering
The building itself becomes an artifact
Philanthropy is more likely than pure commercial investment
Revenue
Endowments
Touring exhibits
Ticketed immersive experiences
6. Hybrid Solution (Most Realistic Path)
The smartest option is not choosing just one.
Lower bowl
Disaster response + shelter infrastructure
Mid levels
Film studios and training facilities
Upper ring
Museum / expo / rotating experiences
Floor
Event space that complements NRG Stadium instead of competing with it
This spreads cost, risk, and political blame.
The One Thing That Will Never Work
Another stadium
Conventional mall
Generic mixed-use development
The location kills walk-up economics.
The Core Truth
The Astrodome’s value is scale, symbolism, and permanence, not daily foot traffic.
If Houston treats it like:
infrastructure
resilience
innovation
legacy
…it stops being a liability and becomes something no other city has.
If you want, I can:
Rank these by political viability
Sketch a phased renovation plan
Write a one-page pitch that could actually survive Commissioners Court
Kuff, for many years (since the Katricians moved out) lending rates were at an all time low. They could, for all intents and purposes, drop to -0%- and investing $500-750M into an aged/ageing structure that’s going to generate $1-10M in revenue still generates no appetite in any venture capital world.
Robert, if any of those proposals were financially viable, it would have already happened or been seriously explored by developers. The fact that the bldg has been empty since George Strait’s 2002 HLSR performance says it all.
Best case scenario, outside of demolition, is transforming it into some at an extremely low cost that has little to no running costs associated with it… just like the Rice and UH proposals did. FFS, NY tore down the original Yankees Stadium, Chi-Town tore down Comiskey Park, Three Rivers Stadium, Pontiac Silverdome, Ebbets Field, Wembley Stadium, etc., all gone. While the Astrodome was the first domed, enclosed sports stadium that hosted Billy Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs, , it certainly wasn’t the first domed, enclosed structure. Hagia Sophia, anyone ?
” if any of those proposals were financially viable, it would have already happened or been seriously explored by developers.”
I think you give Houston and Harris county more credit than they deserve…
The “if it were viable it would’ve happened” argument also ignores two things:
Harris County has never issued a clear RFP with a defined use, funding structure, or public-private framework…. maybe tell them they can add a toll gate at the entrance and they’ll be interested.
The building is legally constrained as a state antiquities landmark. Developers don’t want uncertainty with historic handcuffs, but I’m sure it’s still possibe.
As for the Hagia Sophia comparison. It hasn’t survived for 1,500 years because it was “financially optimal.” It survived because societies redefined its purpose when pure economics failed to justify tearing it down
And speaking as someone from Boston, I’ve watched this exact argument play out after the wrecking balls did their work. Generations later, people still complain about buildings and neighborhoods that were torn down and ask why renovation or restoration was never seriously considered, Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Robert, a TX State antiquities landmark doesn’t prohibit the structure from being stripped of its exoskeleton and turned into an open-air structure – the City would merely need an alteration permit and an Antiquities permit.
Houston isn’t 400-year old Boston, and the 60-yr old Astrodome isn’t the 115-year old Fenway Park – we regularly tear old shit down and replace it with newer shit.