Detroit Pistons at the Silverdome

In 1978, Piston's owner William Davidson became displeased with Detroit's outdated, riverfront Cobo Arena, and chose not to follow the Detroit Red Wings to the under-construction Joe Louis Arena. Instead, he opted to move the team to the '1971' All-American City of Pontiac, a northern suburb at the forefront of a downtown urban renewal plan, where they played in the almost new, 80,000 seat Pontiac Silverdome, a structure built primarily for professional football and what was the home of the Detroit Lions NFL football team at the time.

One of the Marvels of the Midwest, the Pontiac Silverdome, site of the 1979 record setting NBA East-West All-Star Game, was completed 23 months after construction started at a total cost of $55.7 million and stayed within the budget. The Pontiac Silverdome opened in August of 1975 and welcomed its five millionth paying customer at a Detroit Pistons game on Dec. 29, 1978.

While football and soccer have a capacity of 80,500, the usual basketball capacity is 22,366. This figure was topped for the All-Star Game in mid January advance sales to better the all-time All-Star mark of 18,422 set at Madison Square Garden in 1968.

The Silverdome basketball floor was manufactured by Horner Flooring of Dollar Bay, MI., and was located in what had been termed the Pistons Setup, one of three possible locations. Others were across the south end of the Silverdome and at the center of the stadium. Each location had its own leveling setup to compensate for a 10-inch crown.

The first installation for a crowned field was designed for quickest setup and dismantling. The floor and two backboards were delivered at a cost of $68,234 and required 25-30 man hours for setup while the entire changeover took 29 men working 12 hours.

The unique feature of the Pontiac Silverdome Arena is the dividing curtain, installed in March 1978. Measuring 402 by 75
feet and containing 15 panels, the entire curtain weighed one and a half tons. It was composed of 5,000 yards of blue
polyester-loop knit material, cost $72,000 and provided for a concert setup of 20,000 to 35,000 on the reverse side of the basketball alignment. It was the largest theatrical backdrop in the country.

The portable seating was made up of 21 sections, 17 identical, all averaging 13,000 lbs. and offered twenty-one rows of upholstered seats. The sections in front of the retaining walls had four rows of seats.

All in all, the Pistons new home provided all of the comforts including great sightlines for basketball and had more good
seats than the Pistons previous home in downtown Detroit, 35 miles away.