Stadium demolition more likely as vote goes against switch to convention centre.
Memories will likely soon be all that’s left of the Houston Astrodome, the world’s first multipurpose domed stadium.
Voters on Tuesday did not approve a referendum that would have authorized up to $217 million in bonds to turn the stadium that once hosted both professional baseball and football games into a giant convention and event center and exhibition space.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said while a final decision on what now happens to the Astrodome will be up to the Commissioners Court, the group of local officials who manage the county, the stadium’s future was pretty much sealed with the referendum’s failure. Emmett, who is a member of the Court, said there are no other plans to revamp the stadium.
“If we can’t spend tax dollars to repurpose the dome and there are no private dollars to repurpose the dome, then the only thing at that point is we can’t leave it sitting there. So it would have to come down. But that is a decision to be made by Commissioners Court,” he said.
Emmett said a final decision on the Astrodome would have to be made quickly but didn’t say exactly when that would happen.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting, 53 percent had voted against the amendment.
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