When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, the first use of the architectural technique in a major athletic facility.

After multiple attempts to solicit redevelopment plans, the city eventually sold the stadium at auction in 2009 with no reserve for $550,000 (less than 1% of the cost to build the dome) to Andreas Apostolopoulos.

The Pontiac Silverdome reopened in 2010 and hosted many events, including soccer matches, concerts, HBO championship boxing, monster truck shows and many more.

The harsh Michigan weather eventually got the best of the aging venue, and in 2013 an excessive amount of snow caused a portion of the antiquated roof system to tear.

Paired with the financial woes of the city, which included the inability to pay for police, emergency services and road maintenance, the decision to close the facility for good was made in 2013.

For the World Cup matches, a natural grass surface capable of growing inside the dome was developed and installed by a team from Michigan State University.

After the roof had been collapsed and the stadium abandoned, Red Bull produced a video of BMX rider Tyler Fernengel riding inside the Silverdome in 2015.

[19] The idea of a major sports complex was part of a dream of C. Don Davidson, a Pontiac native and star high school athlete.

[20] Davidson, upon graduating from Pontiac Central High School in 1947 and completing active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, attended North Carolina State University on a football scholarship.

[21] After earning a master's degree in urban planning and architecture, Davidson began his career as an architect and was recognized for several government and city projects throughout the south including Florida's Jacksonville International Airport.

[22] As part of an ongoing, comprehensive study by his architecture class on urban renewal for the city of Pontiac, Davidson met with various city and state authorities including William Clay Ford, owner of the Detroit Lions, to discuss the possibility of a new stadium, made it a college class project to find a suitable site for a new stadium and even started his own weekly newspaper known as The Pontiac Times,[21] to help promote his vision.

[25][26] Initial designs included a dual stadium complex for both football and baseball (potentially housing the Detroit Tigers) that was later scrapped due to high costs.

Although the roof has always been white in color as viewed with the naked eye, the stadium obtained the name "Silverdome" (which it would officially take on in 1977) due to a silver-like reflection caused by the Sun, mainly noticed from the sky.

Another notable audience attendance record had earlier been broken on April 30, 1977, when the English rock band Led Zeppelin played in front of 76,229 fans at the Silverdome.

[31] The Detroit Pistons also set numerous NBA attendance records during their time at the Silverdome; Regular Season, 61,983 vs. Boston, January 29, 1988; Playoffs, 41,732, vs. L.A. Lakers, June 16, 1988.

In an exhibition game between Germany and England in June 1993, English coach Graham Taylor criticized the indoor venue's lack of weather as removing an unpredictability factor from soccer.

[36] In particular, long-time Lions' defensive end Robert Porcher singled out the stadium's artificial turf as the worst part about playing at the Silverdome, echoing other players present that day.

[40] The Silverdome hosted Monster Jam on January 7, 2006, and was used as a practice facility for the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers for Super Bowl XL, with the NFL adding FieldTurf, which was later donated to a local high school.

[43] However, the city announced in October 2009 that the property would go to auction with no minimum bid, and that zoning regulations would be relaxed for any buyer in order to spark development.

[44] After reading about the auction in a newspaper, Greek-born Canadian real estate developer Andreas Apostolopoulos, CEO of Toronto-based Triple Properties Inc., submitted a winning bid of US$550,000.

[46] In the March 11, 2010, edition of the Detroit Free Press, Apostolopoulos vowed "to revive the stadium as a big-event venue by investing millions of dollars".

[48] On January 29, 2011, professional boxer Timothy Bradley defended his WBO light welterweight title in a unification fight against WBC champion Devon Alexander.

[citation needed] The owners indicated that they were pursuing a possible expansion team for Major League Soccer, and contemplated renovating the Silverdome for this purpose.

[50] In December 2014, Cleveland-based photographer Johnny Joo captured the Silverdome in a state of abandonment, showing destruction caused by the 2013 roof collapse.

Workers had been on the site for the past few months before main power feeds were disconnected preparing the Silverdome for demolition, including completing environmental remediation, universal waste removal and tearing out transite asbestos panels that were used in a majority of the suites around the perimeter of the dome; though not without a few local trespasser visits to explore the place leading up to the demolition.

[59] The firm contracted to handle the demolition, the Detroit-based Adamo Group, also imploded the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on November 20 before moving on to the Silverdome.

[66] By the end of March 2018, the last free standing wall of the Silverdome was destroyed, leaving a 50 foot (15 m) deep hole where the stadium once stood.