RCA Dome
Encyclopedia
RCA Dome was a dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....

d stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

, located in Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, and the home of the Indianapolis Colts
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....

 NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 franchise for 24 seasons (1984
1984 NFL season
The 1984 NFL season was the 65th regular season of the National Football League. The Colts relocated from Baltimore, Maryland to Indianapolis, Indiana....

2007
2007 NFL season
The 2007 NFL season was the 88th regular season of the National Football League.Regular-season play was held from September 6 to December 30....

).

It was completed at a cost of $77.5 million, as part of the Indiana Convention Center
Indiana Convention Center
The Indiana Convention Center is a convention center located in Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. It contains over of open exhibit space and almost of group meeting space. It was finished in late 1983 along with the Hoosier Dome , which it was connected to prior the Dome's deconstruction in 2008....

, with the costs split between private and public money.

It was demolished in December 2008, as part of a project to expand the attached convention center.

Description

The roof was made up of teflon-coated fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...

 and weighed 257 tons, which was held up by the air pressure inside the building
Air-supported structure
An air-supported structure is any building that derives its structural integrity from the use of internal pressurized air to inflate a pliable material envelope, so that air is the main support of the structure, and where access is via airlocks.The concept was popularized on a large scale by...

.

The ceiling was 193 feet (58.8 m) high, though the height varied up to five feet as the materials expanded and contracted with the weather.

As was the case with other domes of this style (the Metrodome
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Opened in 1982, it replaced Metropolitan Stadium, which was on the current site of the Mall of America in Bloomington and Memorial Stadium on the University...

, BC Place, the Carrier Dome
Carrier Dome
The Carrier Dome is a 49,250-seat domed sports stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York, USA. It is home to the Syracuse Orange football, basketball, and lacrosse teams. High school football championships are also held in "The...

, and the Pontiac Silverdome
Pontiac Silverdome
The Silverdome is a domed stadium located in the city of Pontiac, Michigan, USA, which sits on . It was the largest stadium in the National Football League until FedEx Field in suburban Washington, D.C...

) there were warning signs posted cautioning patrons of the high winds at the doors when exiting.

History

It was similar in design and appearance to the Metrodome and the previous BC Place roof, owing in great part to the involvement of engineers David Geiger and Walter Bird, pioneers in air-supported roofs.

The stadium was originally named the Hoosier
Hoosier
Hoosier is the official demonym for a resident of the U.S. state of Indiana. Although residents of most U.S. states typically adopt a derivative of the state name, e.g., "Indianan" or "Indianian", natives of Indiana rarely use these. Indiana adopted the nickname "Hoosier State" more than 150...

 Dome
until 1994 when RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

 paid $10 million for the naming rights
Naming rights
In the private sector, naming rights are a financial transaction whereby a corporation or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, typically for a defined period of time. For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three...

 for 10 years, with two five-year options to RCA at a cost of $3.5 million if invoked. The stadium seated 56,127 for football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

; the smallest in the NFL, but was also one of the loudest. Modifications were made to the stadium in 1999 to expand the suites and add club seating. Before that, the maximum seating for a football crowd was 60,272. The dome was officially dedicated on August 11, 1984, as a sellout crowd watched the Indianapolis Colts defeat the NY Giants in an NFL preseason game. The stadium also holds High School football games.
Basketball was also played at the RCA Dome. The first game played there was an exhibition game in 1984 between an NBA All-Star team led by home-state hero Larry Bird
Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish...

 and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 Men's Basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team, coached by Bob Knight, who was at the time the coach of Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...

. The dome also served as the site of the NBA All-Star Game
National Basketball Association All-Star Game
The National Basketball Association staged its first All-Star Game in the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951. From that year on, the game has matched the best players in the Eastern Conference with the best players in the Western Conference....

 in February 1985, where a record NBA crowd of 43,146 saw the Western Conference
Western Conference (NBA)
Below is a list of current Western Conference NBA team rosters.-Western Conference:There are a total of 15 teams in the Western Conference. The current leading team of the Western conference are the Dallas Mavericks....

 beat the Eastern Conference
Eastern Conference (NBA)
The Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association is made up of fifteen teams, organized in three divisions of five teams each.The three division winners and the non-division winner with the best record are seeded 1 through 4 for the playoffs in order of their records, with all...

 140–129. Since then it hosted many NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...

 games, including four Final Fours
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...

 (1991, 1997, 2000, 2006). The NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

, whose headquarters are in Indianapolis, has committed to holding the Final Four
Final four
Final Four isa sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably NCAA Division I college basketball tournaments. The term usually refers to the four teams who compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final round...

 in Indianapolis once every five years. The RCA Dome hosted its only Women's Final Four
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...

 in 2005
2005 in sports
2005 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.-Alpine skiing:* Alpine Skiing World Cup** Men's overall season champion: Bode Miller ** Women's overall season champion: Anja Pärson -American football:...

. The closing ceremony and the gymnastics and handball events of the 1987 Pan American Games
1987 Pan American Games
The 1987 Pan American Games, officially known as the X Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event which was celebrated in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, from 7 August to 23 August 1987. Over 4,300 athletes from 38 countries in the Americas competed in 30 sports earning...

 were held in the Hoosier Dome.

In addition, it hosted 1990 General Conference Sessions of Seventh-day Adventists, the World Gymnastics Championships
1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 26th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Indianapolis, USA, in the Hoosier Dome, September 6 to 15, 1991.-Medals:-All-round:-Apparatus:-All-round:-Apparatus:-References:**...

 in 1991, WrestleMania VIII
WrestleMania VIII
WrestleMania VIII was the eighth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on April 5, 1992 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana...

 in 1992, the Indiana High School Athletic Association
Indiana High School Athletic Association
The Indiana High School Athletic Association is the arbiter of interscholastic competition among public and private high schools in the State of Indiana. It monitors a system that divides athletically-competing high schools in Indiana based on the school's enrollment. The divisions, known as...

's annual boys and girls championships (with the boys' final game witnessed by the largest crowd [over 40,000] ever for a high school basketball game), and served as one of two sites for the FIBA Men's World Basketball Championship Tournament in 2002
2002 FIBA World Championship
The 2002 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball tournament held by the International Basketball Federation in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA from August 29 to September 8, 2002.-Venues:-Squads:...

, sharing the honors with Conseco Fieldhouse
Conseco Fieldhouse
Conseco Fieldhouse is a multi-purpose arena located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Opened in November 1999 to replace Market Square Arena, it is home to the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association...

, the home of the Indiana Pacers
Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers are a professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They are members of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association...

. Additionally, the RCA Dome served as the site of the Indiana State School Music Association
Indiana State School Music Association
The mission of the Indiana State School Music Association, Inc. is to provide educationally evaluated music performance activities for the students and teachers of the state of Indiana, to assist in the development of performance oriented assessment of state and national musical academic standards,...

 State Marching Band Competition, the Bands of America
Bands of America
Bands of America , a division of Music for All, Inc., is an organization that promotes and organizes marching band competitions for high school students. Competitions include both Regional and Super Regional Championships as well as the Grand National Championships...

 Grand Nationals, and the Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International , formed in 1972, is the non-profit governing body operating the North American drum and bugle corps circuit for junior corps, whose members are between the ages of 14 and 21. It is the counterpart of Drum Corps Associates which governs senior or all-age drum corps...

 Midwestern Regional, along with the NFL Scouting Combine in February of each year. It also hosted a PBR Built Ford Tough Series
Built Ford Tough Series
The Built Ford Tough Series is the "major league" tour of the PBR competitions. It is a 30-city event series culminating in the PBR World Finals every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. The top 45 riders of the PBR compete in the BFTS with the rankings determined by points and money won...

 bull riding
Bull riding
Bull riding refers to rodeo sports that involve a rider getting on a large bull and attempting to stay mounted while the animal attempts to buck off the rider....

 event in 2004.

The football playing surface was originally AstroTurf
AstroTurf
AstroTurf is a brand of artificial turf. Although the term is a registered trademark, it is sometimes used as a generic description of any kind of artificial turf. The original AstroTurf product was a short pile synthetic turf while the current products incorporate modern features such as...

; it was replaced with FieldTurf
FieldTurf
FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by the FieldTurf Tarkett division of Tarkett Inc., based in Calhoun, Georgia, USA. In the late 1990s, the artificial surface changed the industry with a design intended to replicate real grass...

 in 2005.

The stadium was replaced by a new retractable-roof stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium
Lucas Oil Stadium
Lucas Oil Stadium is a multi-purpose sports stadium in Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The stadium celebrated its grand opening on August 24, 2008, and its ribbon-cutting ceremony August 16, 2008. It replaced the RCA Dome as the home field of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. The stadium was built to...

, in time for the 2008 NFL season
2008 NFL season
The 2008 NFL season was the 89th regular season of the National Football League, themed with the slogan "Believe in Now."Super Bowl XLIII, the league's championship game, was at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on February 1, 2009, with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out victorious over the...

. The RCA Dome was replaced by additional space for the adjacent Indiana Convention Center
Indiana Convention Center
The Indiana Convention Center is a convention center located in Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. It contains over of open exhibit space and almost of group meeting space. It was finished in late 1983 along with the Hoosier Dome , which it was connected to prior the Dome's deconstruction in 2008....

. The new convention space will eventually connect to Lucas Oil Stadium in much the same way that the existing Indiana Convention Center had been connected to the RCA Dome (although the new connecting walkway will pass under a railroad track).

The stadium played host to music festivals, including Monsters of Rock
Monsters of Rock Tour 1988
The Monsters of Rock Tour 1988 was a festival tour of the USA in 1988, headlined by hard rock band Van Halen as part of their promotion for their OU812 album with heavy metal band Metallica as well as other bands including Scorpions, Dokken, and Kingdom Come. It formed the first section of the...

 and Farm Aid
Farm Aid
Farm Aid started as a benefit concert on September 22, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois, held to raise money for family farmers in the United States...

 5.

Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...

 and Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...

 brought the Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour
Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour
The Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour was a famed joint, co-headlining concert tour by the American rock bands Guns N' Roses and Metallica during 1992...

 to the venue on July 22, 1992, with Faith No More
Faith No More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist Michael Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike...

 as their opening act.

During a Monster Truck Thunder Drags race in 1997, Eric Meager was piloting Bigfoot, which was sporting the new 97 Ford F-150. The truck lost control and struck the wall, damaging it, and also causing the dome to slowly deflate.

The RCA Dome was also a close to home experience whenever Monster Jam came around to now 9 Time World Champion Tom Meents, driver of Maximum Destruction.

Demolition

On September 24, 2008, the roof of the Dome was deflated. On December 20, 2008 at 9:36 am, after the removal of the roof, the RCA Dome was imploded
Building implosion
In the controlled demolition industry, building implosion is the strategic placing of explosive material and timing of its detonation so that a structure collapses on itself in a matter of seconds, minimizing the physical damage to its immediate surroundings...

 at a cost of $3,500,000. The demolition of the RCA Dome was featured on the second series premier of the National Geographic show Blowdown
Blowdown (TV series)
Blowdown is an internationally broadcast documentary television series that follows a team of explosive demolition experts as they prepare and implode iconic, complex and challenging structures around the world....

.

During the process, the roof material was collected by People for Urban Progress, a local Indianapolis non-profit organization, and put to fresh use. Using the remaining material, and with the help of several local artists, People for Urban Progress designed and created messenger bags, wallets, clutches and bike messenger bags, all of which are uniquely hand-crafted using the white, red, and black fabric that came from the dome.
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