More Dome Renovations Coming
 

Louisiana Superdome undergoing $85 million renovation - ESPN


NEW ORLEANS -- The 36-year-old Louisiana Superdome is getting its biggest overhaul since Hurricane Katrina tore away a lot of the roof and flooded the arena with millions of gallons of water.
And it comes at just the right time as America's oldest domed stadium still called home by an NFL team gets ready to play host to college football's BCS Championship in 2012, the men's college basketball NCAA Final Four that year and the Superbowl in 2013.


Gone will be the groundlevel oval familiar to Superbowl viewers. In comes a jazzier, new rectangular configuration. Workers are also adding thousands of larger leather seats with cupholders, new concession stands and other upgrades as part of an $85 million makeover.

Can you say $20 dome foam?

Watch some Footage of the Superdome being Renovated here:

N.O. CityBusiness - Footage of renovation work at the @lasuperdome - hard to believe there was football here 3 weeks ago - TwitVid

I think this will be the biggest improvment for most fans. More space for all of us. I like that they keep renovating the dome instead of building something new. With the way they have fixed the exterior and now the inside the Dome will soon be like new :-)

naaa. they dont have to do all that. save your money, keep my ticket price down-- there's nothing wrong with the dome. it works just fine like it is. leave it alone.

I would watch the game in a bleacher seat outside. with a hand worked scoreboard, no big screen, and zero "amenities." Why do we have to Disney-fy everything? All I need is grass, a ball, and somewhere to go behind something and pee.

My production would be better. All noise would be made by the crowd, the little jazz band that comes around, and I'd have a SWAC college band
jamming everybody out. Parking would be free, and you could cook anywhere and bring whatever you want to drink. I'd sell the cokes, and have better food.

You cant tell me you wouldnt like this better. If youre a man.

I'm hoping that Benson will find it difficult to hold the state hostage for a new Dome with the renovations, and sold out games. Ticket prices may creep up, but I'm not as concerned about concessions. I smuggle in my own pints.

I don't see the math on spending 85 million to add 3,500 seats. It would take 5 decades if not more to recoup the investment and the Superdome won't be around that long. Financially, I'm really scrathing my head on this one. The article states it will lessen the burden on the state but does not dig in the weeds on how.

As much as I love the Superdome I get chills when I come in the city from Houston and I see it. It's like I know I'm home but I would love for the Saints to have a out door stadium. I mean I think the dome just look so dark some times I believe we need to change with the times. It's a old structure and I believe the 2013 Superbowl will be the last time it come to New Orleans because of that. The NFL is not going to let Tom Benson keep blowing smoke up there a$$ with the same old saying look at New Orleans we the night life, good food, it's a party town. That's not going to work any more even the north states have a better opportunity to get the Superbowl then us because of new stadium.

Luda, if we get a new stadium, we'll have to pay PSL's, and all that crap. Regular guys like you and me wont be able to afford it, and the stands will
be filled with yuppies and corportate circle jerks. think Reliant Stadium.

I didn't say it was going to happen I just would like to have a outdoor stadium and your right because I go to at least 2 Texans game a year and you right I never brought a ticket it always giving to me by my company or a nothere corporatation.

i work for a contractor that bid on this work and it is going to be very nice. especially for people in the plaza level. losers like me in the terrace wont benefit from it at all.
i am project engineer for the new champion square stair project which is going to be bad @$$ when it is done. the dome is going to look really nice next season

Renderings. I like!

http://www.superdome.com/uploads/lou...enovations.pdf

85 mil could be recouped by increased local tax revenue and bookings for the Dome. Keeping up with the Joneses it more attractive for hosting various events. I remember NCAA basketball and boxing snubbing the Dome for years due to seating and line of sight issues, among a few other internal maladies. Free advertisement for the city while hosting national events is always positive. NO already has the local amemities, logistics, and other entertainment going for her, so keeping the Dome up to standards at a cheaper cost to taxpayers is a basic requirement.

Personally, I'd like to see the Dome celebrate her 50th before talk about demolishing such an icon. I'd also prefer a new dome to an outdoor stadium. I don't like sitting in the sun for hours, and I don't like rain in my drinks.

the superbowl coming here is going to bring a ridiculous amount of money as well as college national championships.
its not just adding seats. the concourses around the plaza level wont be crowded anymore. there will be more bathrooms. each entrance (gate a, gate b, etc) are going to be sponsored by different companies like chevy trucks or similar. this renovation is going to pay for itself in a few years.
also the team gets new locker rooms. the locker rooms right now are an absolute joke. they look like 1975, and are so small. they are adding media areas under the plaza seating. right now they do the post game in tents.

It may be the oldest dome and maybe it was one of the first domes, but the Louisiana SuperDome is one of the very few things our state got right.
The Dome still, and I mean on 12/30/2010, looked modern.
I was totaly against the building of a new dome years ago. Where? N.O.Superdome is right there IN the center of everything tourists and local fans need. With what money? Goodness knows, LA does not have money.
The Dome, like your house or wardrobe, needs some changing as timegoes on. Renovations are fine.
Adding and changing the Dome to bring it up from 1976 to 2011, fine.It has been renovation during those years to.
I think that pricetag of 85 million might be high.:doh: I don't know about the cost or if all of that is neccessary.
I just the Dome works!!:bng:

Opps,I did not read SpeedyRons' post enough.
That answered my other questions.

It's been several years since I was able to attend a game in the dome, and to be honest it wasn't a very nice (read clean) place to see a game...however even then it was better than the crap hole in Irving the Cowboys were playing in.

Personally I love the idea of renovating it as opposed to scrapping it in favor of some new, shiny corporate tool. It is an ICON. The images I see during game broadcasts - well, it looks like it belongs. It is truly a part of New Orleans and of Louisiana and I'd rather renovate it than deep six it.

It means something. It's a symbol...and not just for Katrina. My brother goes to all the home games and tells me it's quite nice, and I'm sure this next round of renovations will make it even better. It does still look modern, and it is synonymous with New Orleans. I'm happy to see the state invest in its history rather than try to keep up with Jerry and boys...those new Stadiums have no heart.

New stadiums have zero soul.

just ask me. I live in Houston, home of Reliant Morgue.

The Superdome has been really nice since the renovations after the Storm. I think the mood of the fans might also be a factor. There's just been such a positive attitude in recent years. You cant feel the Curse anymore.

I saw the Saints loose to Houston there a few years ago. You're right. That place has zero karma.

is that the game that reggie fumbled at the 1 inch line and changed the mojo?

Might have been. I don't recall, but what I do remember about that place is that is had no heart. Just cold...nothing interesting about it at all.

i gotcha, if its like there baseball stadium with the hill in center field its gotta be cold.

If you haven't been to the Superdome in years, you'll see vast improvements, they showed this season, The Bathrooms are IMMACULATE! Something fans have been screaming for some time.
The Concessions could use some expanding but i think that is part of the renovating..
Im happy they are adding LCD screens to the lobby and all but the Superdome don't need all of that really.. i don't see the point in walking past expensive LCD screens.. then again Walmart has em in the frozen food sections and at the cash registers so perhaps it's cheaper in bulk or that particular brand or something?

From what I'm reading this whole renovation together with te Championship plaza will pretty much bring the Superdome up to par with the newer stadiums in the leauge. I think renovating is the right way to go. I mean its $85 mil compared to atleast $800 mil for a brand new stadium.

LCD screens are hella cheap, especially in bulk. The cost of manufacturing a 50 inch LCD screen in China for example is way less than $100.

Your thinking of Minute Maid Park it's a whole different stadium that home to the Astro's.

No, Reliant has no soul. Its just a ridiculously huge building with a mile away view. Its dark, filled to the gills with advertisement and short attention span video graphics, and no discernable personality. It has "amenities," whatever those do for you, and probably looks exactly like that stadium in Phoenix, which looks like the one in St. Louis, looks like the one in Indianapolis. Its so filled with bells and whistles, but they forgot about the football game. I'm surprised they have grass.

I've been to Wrigley Field, Candlestick, the old Sombrero. Those were experiences I'll never forget. You were lucky they had bathrooms, but I'll never forget the games.

They should kept the Astrodome. That was a sports experience.

i just wish we would get bigger jumbotrons. the super dome has to have the smallest ones in the entire league. im not saying we need a 60 yard tv hanging over the field like jerrys world. just something about twice as big of what we have

We had the pleasure to have seats at Fenway Park where the support beam is in the way so you to move around to see anything, good times. We went when they were honoring Ted Williams right after his death so it's an experience ill never forget

As with the dome, fix a couple things and leave it alone, last thing I want is a new stadium because I refuse to pay psl's

RenovationsThe Superdome in early 2006 began to undergo $320 million in renovations in three phases, due to its contract with the New Orleans Saints. New windows have been installed for natural lighting, and a new face lift will be constructed. The roof-facing of the Superdome will be remodeled with a solid white hue and the sides of the dome panels will resemble a champagne bronze color. The entire outer layer of the stadium, more than 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of aluminum siding, will be replaced with new aluminum panels and insulation, and an innovative barrier system for drainage will be added by 2010. The dome is set to resemble its original facade.

In addition escalators will be added to the outside of the club rooms. Each suite will have modernized rooms with raised ceilings, leather sofas and flat-screen TVs, as well as glass, brushed aluminum and wood-grain furnishings. A new $600,000 point-of-sale system is also being installed, which will allow fans to purchase concessions with credit cards throughout the stadium for the first time. Once all three phases of the renovation are completed the Superdome will be one of the most up-to-date facilities in the U.S.

At the beginning of 2011 construction will begin to the lower bowl of the stadium, reconfiguring it to increase seating by 3,500, widening the plaza concourse, building two bunker club lounges and adding additional concession stands. Crews will start tearing down the temporary stairs that lead from Champions Square to the Dome, replacing them with permanent steps. Workers also will complete the installation of express elevators that will taxi coaches and media from the ground level of the stadium to the press box. Plans also call for two 7,500-square-foot bunker lounges on each side of the stadium. The lounges will be equipped with flat-screen TVs, granite counter tops and full-service bars. The lounges will serve 4,500 fans, whose old plaza seats will be upgraded to premium tickets, giving those fans leather chairs with cup-holders. The plaza level will also be extended, closing in space between the concourse and plaza seating to add new restrooms and concession areas. The renovations will also end the stadium's ability to convert to a baseball configuration.

This is not really directed at you, Matt, but just the sportsfan in general.

Why do you need a tv? You're at the game.

Was there a Jumbotron in Chicago Stadium for the Bears / Portsmouth Spartans NFL Championship? Did they have a tv at the Ice Bowl? When Johnny U. handed off to Alan Ameche in the Greatest Game Ever Played, was it up on a big screen? No, people watched it with their eyes. I'll bet everyone was looking too, because if you didnt look, you couldnt see it. Unless you were watching it on the radio.

Back in the days when we had to pay attention, we had attention spans. The more crap we have, the more we're missing something.

I aint mad at nobody, just yappin on my keyboard. cool?

Hey, did you know which stadium was the first to have a big screen?
hint: it was on a "gondola?"
Now do you know?

i agree with sky mike. the only thing the tv is good for is for replays. other than that i think theymake the place look cheap.
i worked on the dome project putting the new skin on the outside and the windows in the 4 corners of the dome @ the club levels.
trust me, for the beginning of this year the dome will be up to date and will look 10 times better than it ever did.
if somone can tell me how to put pics on here i can update pics from inside and out. im there almost everyday when im not doing paperwork for the project.

yeah its cool. i do alot of yappin on the keyboard. somtimes i think people misunderstand me. but i dont get how someone can say big screens make the place look CHEAP. the super domes screens look cheap cuz they're small and crappy. but bigger screens are very nice, very modern, and very helpfull to the crowd on some plays. u get to see that big hit by vilma, or that strip by jenkins, or when ivory plows over a guy near the sideline, up close and in slow motion. me sitting in the terrace section, sometimes its hard to see exactly what happens on the field. thats one reason why alot of fans now days would rather stay home and watch the games. i like being there in person myself. but BIG screen tvs are a MUST in my opinion.

Well this is America. You can like big screens if you want to.
Good thing you live in modern times.

But being there, to me, will always beat watching it on tv. The best
thing is when you're there, and Marques Colston makes a circus catch
and we win, then you drive home later that night, and watch it on highlights and see a whole different view + the look on his face.

i think dallas new stadium looks cheap with the big tv at mid field. if the dome was to get new tvs in the existing spots that had better resolution i would be for it. i sit in nose bleed. i would hate to not be able to see the other side anymore cause of a tv in the way. wouldnt feel right. plus with too many LEDs and other graffics going on it feels like a hornets game.

i agree with both of you guys. i much rather be in the dome on sundays. and i think a 60 yard long tv hanging over the field is just ridiculous. this picture below is more what i had in mind. jus hang one of these in the same 2 exact spots as the current tvs are, and then we'd really look up to date for the next 15-20 years.
Dan Snyder shows off Washington's new HD screens, says they're clearer than Jerry's & punter-proof -- Engadget HD
http://www.blogcdn.com/hd.engadget.c.../02-boards.jpg

BALTIMORE's big screenshttp://assets.sbnation.com/assets/409679/IMG_4449.JPG

you got season tix in the terrace? cool, im in 623.

LED/graphics, thats exactly what im talking about... the more crap we have at the stadium, the more we're missing something going on in real life. I'm much more interested, during the breaks on what the players
are doing on the sideline, or anything real. we're dying of graphics.

im in 636

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