Kingdome
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The Kingdome, officially known as the "King County Domed Stadium", and often referred to as simply "The Dome", was the world's first — and only — multi-purpose concrete domed stadium, which was owned and operated by King County, Washington, located at the north end of Seattle's Industrial District, just south of Pioneer Square. Completed in 1976 on reclaimed tideflat land formerly occupied by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway's freight yards.
The most notorious event in the stadium's history took place on July 19, 1994, when four waterlogged ceiling tiles collapsed in the vacant stadium just hours before a scheduled Seattle Mariners game. The root cause of this was the stadium's poorly designed concrete roof, which by 1993 was leaking badly. A plan to repair the roof involved stripping the original exterior sealant and pressure washing the exterior. This pressure washing resulted in seepage through the concrete roof, ultimately leading to the interior ceiling's collapse. The Mariners were forced to play the last 15 home games of the 1994 strike-shortened season on the road. Repairing the roof ultimately cost $50 million and motivated plans to replace the stadium. In 1997 plans were finalized to construct two new stadiums in Seattle, Qwest Field and Safeco Field. These two stadiums, future homes of the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners respectively, rendered the Kingdome useless and guaranteed its demise.
The stadium was demolished by implosion (sent to "Kingdome Come", as it were) on March 26, 2000 in the first live event ever covered by ESPN Classic, and set a world record for the largest implosion of a concrete building. The Kingdome might also hold a record as the first major stadium to be imploded before it was actually fully paid for. Qwest Field, the home of the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks, now occupies the site, as do the Seahawks, just as they had when the Kingdome still stood.
Besides the Mariners and Seahawks, the stadium also hosted the National Basketball Association's Seattle SuperSonics for a number of years. The NCAA Final Four was held three times at the Kingdome - in 1984, when Georgetown defeated the University of Houston, in 1989 when Michigan beat Seton Hall in overtime, and in 1995 when UCLA won their first championship since the retirement of legendary coach John Wooden, defeating Arkansas.