The Dome also hosts the Washington State 4A and 3A championships for both basketball and football as well as all of the Tacoma Public School Graduations. Both concerts were absolutely amazing and something I will remember for years to come. ![]() I had the pleasure of watching two performers at the Dome, Miley Cyrus in 2014 for the Bangerz tour and Justin Bieber’s 2013 Believe tour. I am curious to see what 2023 holds as only 6 shows have been announced so far at the Dome. 2022 did see a rise in concerts with 16 performances. Only 7 concerts occurred at the Dome in 2020 and 6 of those were before the shutdown and only 8 concerts happened in 2021. Just like with everything else, the COVID-19 Pandemic impacted the events happening at the Dome. Performers included Elton John, Post Malone, Chris Brown, Travis Scott, YG, and the City Girls. A year after renovations in 2019 the Dome had the most music events with 37 performances that year. Carrie Underwood’s last 2 tours were at the Key Arena and were also moved to the Dome due to the Key’s renovations. After the 2018 renovations to the Dome were finished, which came at the perfect time since the Key Arena had just announced its closure for renovations, the Dome hosted concerts for Drake, The Migos, Twenty-One Pilots, Fleetwood Mac, and Justin Timberlake. The Dome has hosted many concerts over the years with the first-ever concert there being David Bowie with “The Serious Moonlight Tour” and was 1 of four concerts in 1983. Check it out:Īuthor’s photograph from Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz Tour appearance at the Tacoma Dome, 2014. To honor the opening of the Dome a local musician, Arel Thomas wrote a song titled “The Doma Tacoma.” It was recorded by a band named The Kicks. The beam is still there and stands 150 feet above the Tacoma Dome floor. It is only right that thousands of people showed up to write messages and their names on a 5,000-pound beam before workers installed it, which is still a part of the structure today. ![]() ![]() The Dome’s structure is just as interesting as the story behind it, it is 530 feet in diameter and 152 feet tall with the roof being built with 1.6 million board feet and so much concrete was used in building the dome that it could have built a 70-mile-long sidewalk! The dome was made possible by both community voices and taxpayer dollars. The Dome’s design was mainly inspired by the NAU Skydome Flagstaff, Arizona, The Tacoma Dome ended up being better…I mean bigger making it one of the world’s largest wooden domes and the largest dome structure in Washington since the retirement of the Kingdome in 2000. The Dome capacity for different events spanned from roughly 20,000-26,000 for motorcycle races, soccer games, and boxing and wrestling matches while music performances were able to hold 30,000 people. Newspaper article from a couple of months after the Tacoma Dome opened depicting its story.Ĭourtesy of the Tacoma Historical Society.Įarly planners envisioned “a facility that has the greatest flexibility of any structure of its kind in the world” so the Dome was always meant to be a multi means stadium that could host a wide variety of events. The Tacoma Dome or “Dome” as many other Tacoma Natives and I call it opened its doors on April 12th, 1983 which was pretty on track for the scheduled opening (January 1st, 1983). Hawthorne neighborhood was eventually decided on as an ideal location even though some people’s houses were physically moved or bought by the city and completely demolished. No matter where the Dome was located, some sort of conflict and accommodations would need to take place. Building this Dome was not a new concept so ideas for locations of this Dome Downtown and near Cheney Stadium were a popular option for many Tacomans. In March 1980 the final vote was made to build the dome. There were numerous public meetings held to answer any questions people had and eventually the majority of Tacomans came together and supported the plan. The Tacoma community expressed their desire for a “Dome of our Own” so much that in 1980 community members rallied to make this dome vision a reality. He had envisioned an “indoor auditorium under the world’s largest pillarless roof, capable of accommodating gatherings of thousands…”. ![]() Just like most things, the Tacoma Dome started as just a vision by an engineer named Taylor Gardener in 1925. The Tacoma Dome is the city’s main event place for concerts, festivals, and even football and basketball games. When I hear people talk about this amazing city, they mention a couple of things: Tacoma aroma, the diverse group of people, and the Tacoma Dome.
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