From the Super Bowl to Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali to “Last Resort”, Super Dome saw it all

New Orleans – Spring 1982. With 16 seconds left in the NCAA Final, the slim North Carolina freshman will offer the championship and fill in a life-changing jumper.

He appeared in New Orleans that week as Mike Jordan. He left as Michael.

By that point, the 7-year-old Louisiana Superdome, a vast steel building that provided the stage for Jordan to arrive at national consciousness – was used to hold the theatre unfolding within its walls. Ta. In November 1980, when seconds were etched at the end of the eighth round of the World Welterweight Championship, boxer Roberto Duran, tired of chasing Sugar Ray Leonard around the ring, was gloved to the referee. I shook it and shifted it to the corner. “No, mass, mass,” muttered Duran. It was the first time a world champion voluntarily recognized the title in 16 years.

Two years ago, the same stadium witnessed the end of Muhammad Ali's 56 professional victory. This is an unanimous decision against the Leons Pinks, who have regained the WBA heavyweight title.

Pete Malavic ran a break here. Keith Smart jumper won the title in Indiana. Chris Webber called it a timeout he didn't have here.

In 1978, the venue held its first Primetime Super Bowl. Thirty-five years later, another light went out. Tom Brady won his first victory here. Brady's idol Joe Montana won his last final here.

In 1981, the Rolling Stones performed in front of 87,500. Then there's a record crowd of indoor concerts. The Pope has come. The president too.

But for a native New Orleans, nothing matches Steve Gleeson's blocked punt night.

Not after Hurricane Katrina was devastated when it landed on August 29, 2005. As the levees broke and the parish flooded, the Superdome became a “last resort shelter” for refugees. Thousands of people were packed in and couldn't be turned anywhere else. The plumbing failed. The air conditioner failed. A vicious wind has peeled off part of the roof. Urine pooled on the floor. Blood stained the walls. One man reportedly jumped from the stadium balcony to his death.

The city was shaken, its citizens were hurt, and its iconic stadium was abused.

Twelve months later, the Superdome recovered, and with it New Orleans recovered. Doug Thornton, executive president of ASM Global, the company that runs the stadium, saw Saints fans file through the gate by rolling their cheeks to their cheeks on the night of the home opener. “I didn't think they were going back,” he says now.

The moments that followed were so iconic that the team erected a statue to commemorate it.

After pushing the Atlanta Falcon into three and three innings on the first possession of the game, Gleason laid out to block Michael Kohnen's punt attempt. Saints teammate Curtis DeRocci recovered the ball as he tumbled into the end zone for a New Orleans touchdown that began his cathartic celebration. “I've never been at the stadium louder than that,” ESPN's Mike Tirico later told NFL Films.

The 8th Super Bowl at the Super Dome arrives on Sunday. The other stadiums do not host more than six people. This is proof of the rarest place in American sports venues, and despite many factors fighting lifespan, including architectural advancements and the worst mothers that nature has to offer, time I've endured the test. More than that, fewer NFL franchises than NFL franchises would call Downtown home in an era of billions of dollars cutting-edge stadiums.

The saints still do so. And that's how New Orleans likes it.

“I spent half my life in this building,” he said, and the office for the past 28 years was located inside the Caesar Superdome, known since. “We've always joked that New Orleans considers the Superdome as a living room. That's where we see kids' alumni high schools. It's the same for the Saints Games. It's about to come to the Monster Truck Rally. For all these major events, we hold it like the Sugar Bowl every year.

“People just respect this place.”

Macy Washington tilts the bar on a walk-on just a few blocks from the stadium. New Orleans without a super dome? The thoughts remain in her mind for a while. She grows quietly. She has never considered that.

“Everything that happens at the dome, you feel it here,” she says. “It's the heart of our city.”

Consider a similar venue built in the same era. New waves of American ingenuity at the time: the Astrodome in Houston (opened in 1965 and closed in 2008), the Pontiac Silver Dome in Detroit (opened in 1975 and closed in 2013). King Dome in Seattle (opened in 1976 and closed in 2000). The Metrodome in Minneapolis (opened in 1982 and closed in 2013) and the RCA Dome in Indianapolis (opened in 1984 and closed in 2008). Everything except the Astrodome has been destroyed.

The SuperDome is still standing, and the Super Bowl LIX looks different thanks to the recent $557 million facelift that has spread over the four NFL seasons. More than $100 million of that came directly from Saints owner Gayle Benson, according to Jay Cicero, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. “If that's not proof, if they want to leave them there, I don't know what.”

Cicero does not mean staying in New Orleans. He means leaving it in the Superdome.

“How about planning and continuing to fund renovations at the stadium, rather than demolishing them and building them from scratch?” Cicero continues. “It tells us how important it is to New Orenians.”

It's deeper

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Thornton says the original price of the building was around $42 million, dating back to 1967. However, due to its long-standing announcement in 1975, the cost jumped to $160 million. It was a means of end. The city wanted an NFL franchise. In Legend, longtime league committee member Pete Roselle has brought New Orleans businessman Dave Dixon (who spearheaded the push) to the team as long as his city meets one critical condition. He said he could have it.

“It would be better to have a roofed stadium for all thunderstorms,” ​​Roselle said.

Dixon was mandatory. Louisiana has built the largest dome stadium in the country. The building covers 13 square acres. At its peak, the roof is 273 feet away from the floor. “2 million square feet under the roof,” Thornton marvels. “When it opened it was twice the size of an astrodome.”

It is also the NFL's fifth oldest active stadium, climbing fourth after the Bills open Highmark Stadium in the coming years (and third when the Bears leave the soldiers' field). The recent renovation, spurred by Benson and the Saints organization, modernised the facility and opened competitions for easy movement.

“It now looks more like a nightclub than a Coliseum,” adds Sam Joffrey, who spent 25 years at the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and actually designed the stadium's first website in the mid-1990s. “It's a pretty amazing example of what happens when you keep reinvesting in the venue, rather than tearing it apart.”

One message has been plastered around the city this week, with volunteers from Beads located at the airport, lined up at the Ernest N. Morian Convention Center. This is what we do. New Orleans takes pride in its ability to host major events. At its heart is a huge stadium, just a short walk from almost anywhere in downtown, and from the moment it opened it changed the possibilities of the city.

“The Superdome put New Orleans on the map,” Thornton says. “Before it was built, our main industries were oil and gas and transportation. Now our main industries are tourism, oil and gas and transportation.

“I'm always kidding,” he continues.

Like Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Madison Square Garden in New York, Superdome has developed a unique and intimate relationship with the city and its residents. “We're not the largest market in the world. In fact, we're much smaller than most NFL cities,” Cicero says. “But you can compete for these major events and host these major events. It starts with a truly amazing, amazing venue. The Superdome is just a part of the New Orleans fabric.”

This is why the saints are not interested in finding new homes.

That's why the Super Bowl continues to find its way back to New Orleans.

“There's a way to put a stamp in this community,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked earlier this week why Big Easy maintains a consistent player in the league's Super Bowl rotation. He spoke. “I think people here will wrap their arms around it and make it even better. I think we've realized this is the perfect place for the Super Bowl.”

(Illustrated by Dangold Ferb / Athletic;Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher, Manny Milan, Bob Rosart, James Drake / Getty Images with Sports Illustrated)