Alamodome

The Alamodome's ability to easily accommodate basketball made it attractive to then-Spurs owner Red McCombs, who had been looking for some time for a larger arena to replace their longtime home, HemisFair Arena. The Spurs moved to the Alamodome after the 1992–93 NBA season. They played nine seasons in the Alamodome from 1993 to 2002, including their first NBA championship season, which was played against the New York Knicks in 1999.

During the regular season, most of the upper level was curtained off. However, on certain weekends and when popular opponents came to town, the Spurs expanded the Alamodome's capacity to 35,000 by opening three portions of the upper level. More sections of the upper level were opened for the playoffs, expanding capacity to 39,500. Attendance was 39,514 for Game 1 of the 1999 NBA Finals and 39,554 for Game 2.

Though the late 1990s saw the Spurs soar in popularity, the decision was made to move the team out of the spacious stadium and build a new arena. While the Alamodome had been designed to accommodate basketball, it was primarily a football stadium. As the years passed, Spurs management and fans grew increasingly dissatisfied with its poor sight lines and cavernous feel. Part of the problem was the manner in which the Alamodome was configured for basketball. The basketball court was at one end of the venue with temporary stands on one side of the court, leaving over half of the stadium curtained off (the same problem and configuration existed for the Detroit Pistons in the mid-1980s during their tenancy at the Pontiac Silverdome). Television broadcast trucks were usually set up on the unused half of the playing surface. By comparison, more modern domed stadiums that can accommodate basketball, such as AT&T Stadium in Arlington, place the basketball court in the center of where the football field would be, allowing for much larger attendances. Additionally, the Spurs tied up the Alamodome for most of the winter and spring due to their deep playoff runs (they only missed the playoffs once in their nine years there). With the Alamodome booked solid well into April, it was difficult to accommodate conventions, concerts or even a prospective football team. Moving the Spurs out of the Alamodome opened up more contiguous dates allowing the facility to schedule more events, though it has yet to host a Super Bowl. The Spurs moved to the new SBC Center after the 2001–02 season.

The 1996 NBA All-Star Game was played in the Alamodome.[13]

The Alamodome is the site of the annual Alamo Bowl, which matches the second-choice teams from the Pac-12 Conference and the Big 12 Conference.[14] The 2006 Alamo Bowl between the Texas Longhorns and the Iowa Hawkeyes was attended by 65,875, which set a facility-record crowd for a sporting event,[15][16][17] only to have that record broken by an Alamo Bowl event the next year between Texas A&M and Penn State, which drew 66,166 attendees.[18]

September 16, 2006, marked the first game in a college football "home and home" series, known as the AT&T Corps Classic, between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Army Black Knights. Army has elected to play its "home" game at the Alamodome in order to increase the program's exposure around the nation, as it competes as an independent. A sell-out crowd of 64,583 watched the Aggies defeat the Black Knights 28–24.[12] The second game was played at Kyle Field in College Station in 2008.

The 2006 East–West Shrine Game was played in the Alamodome on January 21, 2006. The game is an annual post-season college football all-star game. For most of its history, the game has been played in the San Francisco Bay Area, at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium and at Stanford Stadium. In recent years it has been played at AT&T Park. In 2006, the game was played in the Alamodome, moving out of the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in decades. The Shrine Game was moved once again for its 2007 event, to Robertson Stadium in Houston.

From 1999 to 2011, the Alamodome has been home to the Texas Football Classic, which kicks off the high school football season in Texas. Now in its 13th year, the event has expanded to five games, featuring prominent high school programs from across the state.[19] Former participants include former Chicago Bears and University of Texas running back Cedric Benson, University of Iowa quarterback Drew Tate, University of Houston quarterback Kevin Kolb, and University of Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel.

Since 2002, the Alamodome has hosted the All-American Bowl—a national all-star game for U.S. high school football. Played in early-January, the game features teams representing the eastern and western United States. The 2017 edition hosted a record 40,568 spectators.[20][21]

In 2011, the Texas vs. The Nation game was moved to San Antonio and was renamed the NFLPA Game, after the new sponsor of the event. The concept of The NFLPA Game remained "Texas vs. the Nation" with seniors having ties to the state of Texas taking on top seniors from across the Nation. That was a one-year deal; the game became the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl in 2012.

The UTSA Roadrunners football program began using the stadium in 2011. The Roadrunners set records for largest attendance at an initial game for a start-up NCAA college football program at 56,743, and largest average attendance for a start-up program's first season at 35,521. With a total capacity of 72,000 for football the Alamodome is currently the largest football stadium in Conference USA.

The Alamodome hosted the Big 12 Football Championship Game in 1997, 1999 and 2007.

The Alamodome has played host to six National Football League preseason games. Two each were played in 1993 and 1994, one in 1995, and one in 2001.

In 2005, the NFL announced that the Alamodome would host three of the New Orleans Saints' regular season "home" games due to the damage caused to the Louisiana Superdome by Hurricane Katrina. The Saints played the Buffalo Bills (week 4), the Atlanta Falcons (week 6), and the Detroit Lions (week 16) at the Alamodome. Although there have been many NFL preseason games held in San Antonio over the years, these games were the first NFL regular season games played in the city. The Saints also played one 2005 season "home" game in Giants Stadium (against the New York Giants) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and four others in LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Overall, the Saints averaged 62,665 fans in the 64,000-seat Alamodome for the three games held there, a solid showing despite the short notice to sell tickets due to the hurricane. The Saints and the NFL announced that the team would return to Louisiana for the 2006 season even though at the time the NFL was uncertain where they would play their home games.

Additionally, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue indicated that if the NFL expands again, San Antonio would be on the short list of candidate cities. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has acknowledged his support for the city's efforts to become home to an NFL franchise even though public opinion is that he would never let go of his team's presence in the San Antonio market.[25]

The Dallas Cowboys held their 2002, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 preseason training camps at the Alamodome.

On July 29, 2014, it was reported by the San Antonio Express-News that Mark Davis met with officials from the city of San Antonio, Texas, to discuss the possibility of relocating the Raiders to San Antonio.[26] Davis confirmed that he did speak with San Antonio city officials while visiting San Antonio to honor former Raiders wide receiver Cliff Branch's induction into a local Hall of Fame, but did not comment on whether he was considering relocation to San Antonio.[27] If the Raiders had relocated to San Antonio, the Alamodome would almost certainly have been used as a temporary home until a new NFL stadium was built.[26] The Raiders decided against moving to San Antonio, first proposing unsuccessfully to return to its previous home in Los Angeles, then ultimately receiving permission to relocate to Las Vegas by 2020. In September 2017, San Antonio was identified as a potential temporary home for the Raiders in the event they are evicted from their current stadium, the Oakland Coliseum, before their new Las Vegas stadium is completed.[28]

The Alamodome was also home to the San Antonio Texans for the 1995 CFL season. The stadium was attractive to the Canadian Football League (which made an ill-fated attempt to expand to the U.S. between 1993 and 1995) since it was one of the rare American facilities that could fully accommodate the CFL's larger playing field and, having just recently opened, was one of the most modern facilities in a league where the majority of its teams were playing in decades-old or poorly fit stadiums. Its seating could be retracted to fit the full 65-yard width and 150-yard length of a regulation Canadian football field.

In the first CFL playoff game ever played between two U.S.-based franchises, the Texans defeated the Birmingham Barracudas 52–9 at the Alamodome on November 5, in front of 13,031 fans. The team then lost to the eventual champion Baltimore Stallions, 21–11, in Baltimore six days later, ending their season. This also proved to be the last game in franchise history; despite respectable attendance (15,573 average for ten home games) and manageable financial losses, widespread dysfunction among most of the rest of new American franchises led to the Texans' demise. (This made the Texans-Stallions game the last significant CFL game to be played in the United States.)

From 2012 to 2014, the Alamodome was home to the San Antonio Talons of the Arena Football League. The Talons, who relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2011, won the Central Division title in 2012 with a 14-4 record but were upset in the first round of the playoffs by Utah. The team slipped to 10-8 in 2013, missing the playoffs, then to 3-15 the following year, after which they folded. Attendance at the Dome for the Talons was mediocre at best, averaging 7,209 for 28 home games.

In 2019, the Alamodome was the home of the San Antonio Commanders of the Alliance of American Football, with the Commanders playing the AAF's inaugural game on February 9, 2019 against the San Diego Fleet. The Alamodome hosted each of the fledgling league's four best crowds, averaging 27,391 per contest (more than double that of the loop's other seven teams, who averaged 13,524) before the AAF was shuttered in April 2019.

In October 2020, Fox Sports 1 reached a multi-year agreement to televise The Spring League along with the option to acquire a minority stake in TSL. The initial agreement was to play a mini-season in late October and November 2020. The league began its fall season October 27 with six teams competing in a 12-game format over four weeks in a bubble environment, based out of the Alamodome. After experiencing problem with the COVID-19 virus at the Dome, however, the final week's games were rescheduled for a high school field in San Antonio, then cancelled. The TSL championship game, also originally scheduled to be played at the Alamodome, is now set for Camping World Stadium in Orlando on December 15.

During the 2008 NCAA Final Four.

The NCAA Final Four was first hosted at the Alamodome in 1998, Kentucky won the tournament. Then in 2004, it hosted when Connecticut defeated Georgia Tech in the championship game. It again hosted in 2008, with Kansas defeating Memphis. The Final Four returned in 2018; this time, the event used the current "center court" configuration mandated by the NCAA, where the game is played on an elevated court and all seating is utilized, allowing a crowd of over 70,000.[29]

The Alamodome has also hosted the Women's Final Four in 2002 and 2010, and the 2011 NCAA Women's Volleyball Final Four. It is slated to host the next Women's Final Four in 2021.

From 2013 to 2017, the Texas Rangers played exhibition games at the Alamodome to close out their spring training camp, the only time baseball has been played there. The Rangers took on the San Diego Padres in 2013, the Houston Astros in 2014, the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015, the Kansas City Royals in 2016,[30] and the Cleveland Indians in 2017.[31] (The stadium is considered unsuitable for regular baseball use, since the right-field fence is only 272 feet from home plate,[32] well below the required 325 feet.[33])

Due to San Antonio's proximity to Mexico, the Alamodome has hosted Mexican soccer teams in various events since the mid-2000s in addition to American teams.

The Mexican national soccer team first played in the Alamodome on June 19, 2004, in a FIFA World Cup qualifier, defeating Dominica 10–0 in front of 37,642 fans.[34] Mexico returned on November 10 for an friendly against Guatemala, winning 2–0 in front of 22,000 fans.[35][36] Mexico played an exhibition match against South Korea on January 29, 2014, attended by 54,313 people.[37] An exhibition match between Mexico and the United States on April 15, 2015, sold out the stadium, attracting a crowd of 64,369. The US won the game 2-0, thanks to goals from Jordan Morris and Juan Agudelo.[38] The match was marred by Mexico's displeasure with the temporary grass field laid on the Alamodome floor, which was described as "uneven" and "full of patches".[39]

The United States women's national soccer team played an exhibition match against Trinidad and Tobago at the Alamodome on December 11, 2015, as part of their "Victory Tour" following the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. The match was attended by 10,690 people.[40]

The Alamodome was announced as a host venue for a doubleheader at the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and played host to a double-header on July 16, 2017, between Mexico and Curaçao and El Salvador and Jamaica.[41]

Two matches in the 2005 InterLiga series were played on the Alamodome on January 6, 2005, featuring Mexican club teams Club América, Chiapas F.C., Deportivo Toluca F.C., and Club Necaxa.[42] Club América returned for an exhibition match against Santos Laguna on July 9, 2016.[43]

The Alamodome was to be the home venue of a planned Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise in 2005, but the league was unable to come to an agreement with the city.[44] A new expansion bid plans to use Toyota Field, a soccer-specific stadium used by San Antonio FC, for the MLS team instead of the Alamodome.[45]

The 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival held some of the first paid events in the Alamodome in July and August 1993, including the opening and closing ceremonies and ice skating events.

The now-defunct San Antonio Dragons of the International Hockey League played some games in 1997 and 1998 at the Alamodome when its home, Freeman Coliseum, was unavailable during the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo (a similar scheduling conflict the Spurs now face at the new AT&T Center). The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) has held two Built Ford Tough Series events in the Alamodome (2007, 2008).

Two NHL pre-season games were held at the Alamodome. The Dallas Stars faced off against the Los Angeles Kings in back-to-back seasons at the Alamodome in 1994 and 1995. The Stars defeated the Kings 3-2 on September 27, 1994, with 14,342 fans in attendance (this was one of the last hockey games to take place before the 1994–95 NHL lockout). The following year Dallas claimed a 4-2 victory over the Kings in front of 8,122 hockey fans on September 26, 1995. Hockey Hall of Fame forward Wayne Gretzky participated in both preseason matchups.

In college football, Notre Dame has played two Shamrock Series (home-away-from-home) games here against Washington State in 2009 and Army in 2016.[46]

After the opening ceremonies, the first major event held at the facility was Paul McCartney's The New World Tour concert, which took place on May 29, 1993.[47]

The Alamodome has played host to music festivals, including Ozzfest.[48] It has also hosted concerts to artists such as Britney Spears, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and many more.

Every summer, Drum Corps International hosts its DCI San Antonio – Southwestern Championships at the Alamodome.

The Alamodome also hosts the Bands of America Super-Regional Championships every year in November, as well as the University Interscholastic League State Marching Band Contest.

The Alamodome was used as a filming location for the film Selena, a biographical film chronicling the life of Tejano musician Selena. It was used as a stand-in for the Astrodome in Houston.[49]

From July 5 to July 16, 2006, the Alamodome hosted the ELCA Youth Gathering. Approximately 40,000 youth and adult leaders attended the event, between the two weeks it was spread.

On September 10, 1993, Julio César Chávez Sr. challenged Pernell Whitaker for the WBC welterweight boxing championship title. The match, infamously, ended in a draw.[50] In April 2013, Austin Trout fought the undefeated Canelo Alvarez at the Alamodome.[51][52][53]

The Alamodome hosted the 2015 General Conference Session of Seventh-day Adventists.

The Alamodome has twice hosted WWE's Royal Rumble pay-per-view event. The first occurrence took place on January 19, 1997, and saw San Antonio native Shawn Michaels defeat Sycho Sid for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. The event also saw Texas native Stone Cold Steve Austin win the first of his record setting three Royal Rumble matches. The second Royal Rumble to be held at the Alamodome took place on January 29, 2017. Randy Orton last eliminated Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble match in the nights main event.