Edward Jones Dome
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The Edward Jones Dome is a 66,000 seat sports stadium in Saint Louis, Missouri, and home of the St. Louis Rams NFL football team. It was constructed largely to lure an NFL team back to St. Louis, and to serve as a convention center. Completed in 1995, it was known as the Trans World Dome, after Trans World Airlines, until 2001, when TWA was acquired by American Airlines. The facility was then briefly known as the Dome at America's Center (America's Center being the adjacent convention facility) until the naming rights were acquired by Edward Jones, a brokerage house.
The Edward Jones Dome became the site of the biggest indoor gathering in United States history in 1999 when Pope John Paul II held mass in the stadium. Over 104,000 people attended the service.
In April 2005 the Edward Jones Dome will host the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Final Four; in 2007 the NCAA Men's Basketball St. Louis Regional; and in April 2009 the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship Final Four.
Starting in 2006, Edward Jones Dome will become the home of the Urbana missions conference run by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; the event outgrew its former home on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.
In May 2005 the St. Louis Rams football team announced that the dome would now use FieldTurf instead of the antiquated, 10-year old AstroTurf. The surface is a one-year plan until a more flexible surface can be made with access to the power outlets on the dome's concrete floor.
External links
- Edward Jones Dome (http://www.edwardjonesdome.org/)