The Tacoma Dome
The Tacoma Dome is an excellent indoor arena located in Tacoma, Washington. It sits approximately 30 miles south of Seattle. The Tacoma Dome is one of the largest wooden-dome structures extant in the world today. The Tacoma Dome was constructed by Tacoma Dome Associates and after the ground-breaking which took place on July 1, 1981, the Tacoma Dome was constructed in less than two years and officially opened on April 21, 1983.
The Tacoma Dome hosted David Bowie in August 1983 as the first of many major Tacoma Dome events. Many have pointed to the flexibility of the seating configurations in the Tacoma Dome as the source of its success. It is a well-known fact that 65% of the seats in the Tacoma Dome are moveable. This means that there is a great variety among the Tacoma Dome events which have included rock and classical music performances, ice hockey, soccer, basketball, monster trucks and rally biking.
Depending on the nature of given Tacoma Dome events, organisers can account for seated audiences between 5,000-23,000 people and up to 30,000 including standing. The Tacoma Dome website boasts that in any given year there is over 300 days of various Tacoma Dome events, this is testament to the excellent design and running of the venue.
Several professional sports franchises have used the Tacoma Dome as their home venue. These Tacoma Dome events were hugely popular, attracting millions of guests and huge revenues as a result of audiences drawn in by the Seattle Sonics and Tacoma Sabercats among others. More recently, the Tacoma Dome has played host to a variety of stage shows, family events, concerts and trade shows.
The Tacoma Dome website does not only focus on the history of the Tacoma Dome events, but it also promotes some great facts about the construction of the building. For instance, it tells us that the roof was built with 1.6 million board feet and weighs 1,444,000 pounds. The building also contains enough concrete to build a sidewalk 70 miles long.
The fastest-selling of the Tacoma Dome events with music was AC/DC’s show in 2008 which sold out in just 35 minutes. However, the WWF Smackdown scheduled for May, 2000 sold out in an astonishing 27 minutes, making it the fastest-selling of all Tacoma Dome events to date.
The largest general admission (standing and seated sections) concerts were The Police and Motley Crue, with each show attracting 30,000 fans, while the largest seated concert was Bruce Springsteen in April, 2000, an event which attracted a capacity crowd of just over 23,000.
The Tacoma Dome has hosted some other weird and wonderful events since opening, these have included the Professional Bull Riders’ Built Ford Tough Series bull riding event which has called the Tacoma Dome its home every year since 2003. The Tacoma Dome events have also extended into the world of religion with Jehovah’s Witnesses using the Tacoma Dome for large conventions since 1983.
Other musical acts to have graced the Tacoma Dome include Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Green Day, Britney Spears and Eric Clapton with Mark Knopfler. Much to the delight of local fans, Paul Simon opened his hugely successful Born at The Right Time tour in the Tacoma dome.
Even though the Tacoma Dome was struck with tragedy in early 2009 when a 6 year old boy died and a man was injured in a monster truck event accident, the Tacoma Dome continues to serve its community with poise and a tenacity which has attracted some of the world’s most influential musical acts to the area.
