Tacoma Dome - History

History

Upon winning an international design competition, local architects McGranahan and Messenger completed the Tacoma Dome in 1983 for $44 million which opened on April 21, the arena seats 17,100 for basketball. It is the world's largest arena with a wooden dome in terms of total volume and seating capacity (23,000), with a diameter of 530 feet (160 m) and a height of 152 feet (46 m). The Superior Dome in Marquette, MI is a larger diameter geodesic dome at 536 feet (163 m), but is only 143 feet (44 m) high and only seats a maximum of 16,000. Unlike most other arenas of its size, the arena contains little in the way of fixed seating so as to maximize the flexibility of the seating arrangements and of the shape of the playing field. It can even host American football, albeit with seating reduced to only 10,000.

The arena hosted the Seattle SuperSonics from 1994-1995 while the Seattle Center Coliseum was being renovated into the venue now known as KeyArena as well as various regular season Sonics games during other seasons. It also hosted the Tacoma Rockets Western Hockey League team from 1991 to 1995, the Tacoma Sabercats of the West Coast Hockey League from 1997 to 2002, The Tacoma Stars indoor soccer team of the MISL from 1984 to 1992, gymnastics events during the 1990 Goodwill Games, numerous other minor league ice hockey and indoor soccer teams. The Dome also hosted the NCAA Women's Final Four in back to back years (1989-1990).

The Tacoma Dome hosted NHL preseason exhibition games in 1983, 1984, 1988, and 1992, and has been mentioned as a possible venue for a relocated NHL franchise.

The Professional Bull Riders hosted a Built Ford Tough Series bull riding event at the Dome annually between 2003 and 2009.

The first concert in the Tacoma Dome was David Bowie, with The Tubes as his opening act.

Pop superstar Michael Jackson planned to give three concerts On October 30 and November 1 and 2, 1988 during his Bad Tour. Although all the planned shows sold out, the concerts were later cancelled because of the performer`s health problems. These concerts were never rescheduled.

Also in the Dome's first year, Billy Graham hosted one of his crusades. He returned to the Tacoma Dome in 1991. In both crusades Graham averaged 30,000 spectators every night.