The City of San Antonio is keeping a promise it made to the NCAA. It is renovating the Alamodome, in order to get it ready for the 2018 Division I Final Four men’s basketball tournament.
This will be the first major renovation of the Alamodome since it was built in 1993. The $41 million approved by the council will be used to double the width of the circular hallway around the dome, and the city will also design new video boards, build a new press area, and renovate the locker room and bathrooms.
District Six Councilman Ray Lopez is hopeful the upgrades will attract new events. “Right now, while I think there’s a lot of headlines around NFL teams and things of that nature, there really is a very basic level of service that we need to provide,” said Lopez.
Michael Sawaya, Director of the Convention and Sports Facilities Department for the city, said improving the dome would give it new life. “We have a lease with UTSA for example, which goes for another 25 years. What this will do will not only give a great home for our current tenants, but also makes us extremely competitive for other national marquee events, like the college football playoffs that we’ll be bidding on this current year.”
The Alamodome has had around $26 million in minor renovations over the past 10 years. Design and planning for these new improvements will begin next week and construction should start in August.
The investment could be well worth it. It is estimated that the 2014 Final Four at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium had an economic impact in the range of $275 million for the Dallas-Forth Worth region.
