The Kingdome and the Season That Saved Seattle

The Kingdome was completed in 1976 at a cost of $67 million. It was a concrete dome built on the industrial southern edge of downtown Seattle, and it was ugly from the day it opened. Critics called it the Mushroom, the Concrete Cupcake, and less charitable names. Author Paul Goldberger, in his 2019 history of American ballparks, called it "a structure so banal that it made the Astrodome seem vibrant and fresh."

The NFL's Seahawks debuted in the Kingdome in 1976. The expansion Mariners arrived in 1977. For most of the next two decades, the Mariners were terrible, and the Kingdome was a fitting home for a terrible team. It leaked. The artificial turf was hard on players' bodies. The concrete amplified crowd noise to uncomfortable levels when the stadium was full, which was almost never.

On July 19, 1994, four ceiling tiles, each weighing roughly 26 pounds, fell nearly 180 feet from the roof and crashed into the seats behind home plate. The Mariners had been preparing for a game against the Baltimore Orioles that evening. Nobody was in the seats. The stadium was closed for repairs. The Mariners were forced onto a 22-day road trip. Two workers were killed in a crane accident during the repair work. The ceiling repair cost $51 million, nearly as much as the original construction. King County taxpayers didn't finish paying off the repair bonds until 2015.

Then came 1995. The Mariners, who had never won a postseason game in their 18-year history, put together a team built around Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, Jay Buhner, and Tino Martinez. They trailed the California Angels by 13 games in August and came all the way back to force a one-game playoff, which they won.

In the American League Division Series against the Yankees, the Mariners fell behind 2-0 in the best-of-five series. They won Games 3 and 4 at the Kingdome, where the concrete dome trapped the noise of 57,000 screaming fans and turned the building into something close to a weapon. In Game 5, trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the 11th inning, Edgar Martinez hit a double down the left field line that scored Joey Cora and Griffey Jr. from first base. Dave Niehaus, the Mariners' broadcaster, made the call that is still played in Seattle today. "The throw to the plate will be late! The Mariners are going to play for the American League Championship! I don't believe it! It just continues! My, oh my!"

The 1995 season saved baseball in Seattle. The state legislature, which had been reluctant to fund a new stadium, approved financing for what became Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park). The Mariners moved into their new home in 1999.

The last Mariners game at the Kingdome was played on June 27, 1999, a 5-2 win over Texas in which Griffey hit a home run. On March 26, 2000, the Kingdome was imploded. A 21.6-mile web of detonation cord triggered 5,905 charges. The 25,000-ton roof collapsed in less than 20 seconds. Thousands of spectators watched from office towers and hillsides around the city.

The neighborhood where the Kingdome stood is still called SoDo. South of the dome.