Florian Martin | Houston Public Media
The county-owned Astrodome opened in 1965 but has been closed to all events since 2009.
Since the Houston Astrodome was permanently closed to the public in 2009, there have been three presidents of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, two Harris County judges, and the succession within the McNair family in ownership of the Houston Texans. Yet, the Astrodome still stands.
Now, as the Rodeo plans to move a portion of its work to a new agriculture complex a few miles south, and the Texans will move their headquarters and training facility to Bridgeland, one of the Astrodome’s key preservation advocates is asking for private businesses to come up with proposals to revitalize it.
On Aug. 18, the Astrodome Conservancy shared a Request for Information (RFI) for private developers to revitalize the Astrodome. Demand has been so high, the organization said, that it has extended the deadline for proposals to Sept. 25.
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“We’re going to be less particular about what that final use and redevelopment looks like, and more concerned with the building still standing with a viable and sustainable use for the next 40, 50, 60 years,” Beth Wiedower Jackson, president of the Astrodome Conservancy, said.
In an interview with Houston Public Media, Jackson stated that the number of proposals received was “definitely up in double digits.” Over the years, Jackson has heard a plethora of pitches for the Astrodome. It could become a ski resort. AstroWorld could be housed under the dome. She’s even had a conversation about bringing the Space Shuttle Discovery to the Astrodome, as lawmakers are trying to relocate it from the Smithsonian to Houston.
Provided/Beth Wiedower Jackson
Beth Wiedower Jackson, executive director of the Astrodome Conservancy, stands in front of the Astrodome for the 2022 “Race for the Dome.”
“My favorite by far is submerging Battleship Texas, filling the lower bowl — the 30-feet-below grade — with water, and floating Battleship Texas inside the Astrodome,” she said. “I’m afraid, pun intended, that ship has sailed.”
Earlier this year, Harris County leaders, including judge Lina Hidalgo, indicated that renovating the Astrodome would require significant private investments. Jackson and the Astrodome Conservancy took that in stride.
“We knew that there was interest from the private sector in a public-private partnership redevelopment of the Astrodome,” she said. “And this is an attempt to qualify that to really produce a product that the county can see and vet and carry forward based on the work that the conservancy’s done.”
For as long as she has lived in Houston, Jackson has been actively involved in the campaign to preserve the Astrodome. She first became involved through the National Trust for Historic Preservation, moving to Houston in 2013 to campaign for saving the Astrodome. She’s worked to preserve Johnny Cash’s boyhood home in Arkansas and a historic natatorium in Honolulu. The Astrodome, though, is unique.
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“The reverence for this space is not tied necessarily to its architecture or its first-of-its kind engineering,” she said. “It’s tied to the activities, the day-to-day that happened under that dome. The seats along the third base line that father and son shared for decades. The concert that best friends attended. The wedding proposal that happened after an Oilers game.”
Walking down the east ramp to the floor of the Astrodome, she said, is an experience comparable to standing in the glass ledge of the Willis Tower in Chicago, or climbing the elevator in the Washington Monument.
In 2018, Jackson became the executive director of the Astrodome Conservation. Since then, much of the organization’s work has been to keep the Astrodome in the collective consciousness, including in 2024 when the organization released “Vision: Astrodome,” a privately commissioned vision for what revitalizing the Astrodome could look like.
Provided/Astrodome Conservancy
Astrodome redesign renderings from the Astrodome Conservancy.
Vision: Astrodome — notedly referred to as a concept rather than a proposal — was a way to excite potential private investors and contractors, Jackson said. The Astrodome Conservancy wanted to use it as a springboard to solicit private proposals with the RFI.
“We can’t deny that there are lots of opportunities and some challenges to this site,” she said. “One of them, both opportunity and challenge, being that there are two major contractual tenants at the table.”
In the RFI document, Astrodome Conservancy stated that a “successful outcome for the Astrodome will require alignment across the public and private stakeholder environment,” navigating a relationship with the Harris County Commissioners Court, as the facility is county-owned, and the two contracted tenants of Reliant Park, the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
In a statement, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo said the organization “has been proud to call Reliant Park home since 2002. As a tenant that utilizes the entire Reliant Park complex, the care and maintenance of the buildings that we currently use — Reliant Stadium, Reliant Center and Reliant Arena — will remain a top priority for the Rodeo. Additionally, the organization remains focused on its expansion to its new Highway 288 Agricultural Complex.”
Representatives from the Houston Texans did not immediately return a request for comment.
Jackson said she invited the offices of Harris County Attorney and Harris County Administrator each to participate in interviews with businesses following the RFI period but had not heard back from either. A spokesperson for Administrator Erica Lee Carter said Carter was “appreciative” of the invite and still reviewing. Representatives from County Attorney Abbie Kamin did not immediately return a request for comment.
Late last year, an analysis found that renovating the Astrodome could cost $750 million, while demolishing it could cost around $54 million. By Jackson’s own telling, it’s not immediately clear whether or not county leaders would approve a proposal to keep the Astrodome.
“There is still a very real threat to the Astrodome,” she said. “And it’s fun and it’s much more energizing to talk about plans moving forward. But I don’t want to forget — and I don’t want anyone listening to forget — that as long as the tenants are in the driver’s seat in determining the future of NRG Park without public input, and thus far there has not been a vehicle for public input, the fate of this building is still very much in question. And we are committed to fighting for the preservation of the Astrodome.”