The Pontiac Silverdome is an 80,000+ seat facility miles outside of Detroit and serves as
home to the NFL' s Detroit Lions. The stadium was opened in 1975 and since then has seen
its fair share of marquee sporting events, as well as serving as a permanent home for the
Lions. This has also been the home of the NBA Detroit Pistons during the 80's and has
hosted some special events such as Super Bowl XVI, NCAA Tournament action, the now
defunct Cherry Bowl, and currently the site of the Motor City Bowl.

This facility sits near I-75, and with plenty of open space for parking this is a great place to
have your friends over for a kickass tailgate. Season ticket holders get the prime spots
near the building while fools like us who go once a year get the spots within a short bike
ride of the place. Be sure to find the jacuzzi in the parking lot while tailgating regardless of
weather. Try to find that somewhere else.

Step into the building you will wander through concourses that are somewhat dark,drab,
and narrow yet provides views of the field without having to step into the seating
area(lower concourse only). Once inside the seating area you will see the traditional three
level setup with a jumbotron overlooking one endzone above the seating area, while a
restaurant called The Main Event overlooks the opposite endzone at the club level. This is
an indoor facility so on gamedays this building is not for those who dislike loud noise. For
the rest of us, however, there aren't many other places that can reach a higher decibel
level than here.

Extra Points
This place has a couple of things to note. To get the fans going the sound system blares a
lion's roar which is pretty neat...until you've heard it for the 35th time in the first half. When
the Lions put points on the board, the Lions band breaks out into an old fashioned fight
song that kinda adds to the fun atmosphere that is Lions football. Damned if we remember
any of the words. Strange and unique moment we witnessed - We actually saw a fan
removed from the stadium for yelling "five bucks an hour" at a passing usher who couldn't
handle a verbal shot from an obviously inebriated patron. Lions won 31-27 on a short TD
pass in the final seconds of the game. The play was set up by a 1st down conversion from
4th and 27. This game probably rates as the most exciting game we have seen on the
roadtrip.

Summary
This place is all the makings of what a fan hates about a football venue. Domed,  turf ,
oversized, lacks character. But when over 80,000 plus fans fill this building and bring the
decibel levels to levels no ear doctor would ever recommend, we would have to say there
is hardly anywhere else we'd rather be. The Lions will be moving into state of the art Ford
Field in 2002. Suffice to say we'll miss this place.

RATING (1-5 stars): 3 STARS
Silverdome
Pontiac
Silverdome
  



Detroit,
Michigan   




November
7, 1999




St. Louis
Rams
at
Detroit
Lions




Venue
closed -
January,
2002
Detroit
Lions
moved to
Ford Field
effective
2002
season