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Tacoma celebrates the 40th birthday of a cultural icon.

Not a person, but the Tacoma Dome, a South sound landmark that brought the world to our doorstep and provided a place for our community to gather in both good times and bad.

Tonight, the discussion about the importance of the dome and its impact on the re-imagination of Tacoma.

We take a look at a new film produced to tell the Dome story.

And Steve King is with more on the Dome and its role in encouraging what became a long line of major attractions and improvements in the city of destiny.

We're celebrating the Tacoma Dome tonight on Northwest now.

It was April of 1983 that the Tacoma Dome opened, and the city of Tacoma has been celebrating the dome all year here in 2023.

The city hosted an anniversary gala at the Dome where hundreds gathered to look back at the effort to build it and learn more about plans for the future.

I was proud to be part of that celebration that featured free food and the premiere of a film commissioned by the city and produced by Foster's Creative.

Here's the first few minutes of its The Dome.

April 21st, 1983 40 years.

We keep remembering, catching pictures from different angles between cracks and corner stones outside the windows and stomping grounds.

We keep seeing it's a town thing, a city thing, a253 thing.

It's the dome.

It's our dome.

It belongs to us.

All of us.

What?

Yeah, it's ours.

A dome of our own.

A claim to fame about us.

Tacoma As the Narrows bridge or walks along, Rustin A rainy winters and summers that move you water see?

Mountain, sky, dome.

Everyone knows about everyone.

Yeah, everyone.

They've all played here.

Performed here.

Say here.

20,000 fans cheering 20,000 family members gather, graduates cross over.

Neighbors celebrate a state heavyweight.

They say the scale and scope of our dome is unprecedented because it is.

It's magic.

1,000,001st 8 million stories to be told.

Legendary, iconic.

It's ours.

It's everyone's.

It's the dome, The construction of the Tacoma Dome was a huge milestone in the modern history of Tacoma.

But as Steve Kitchens tells us, it's just a piece of what one can argue is the place to live and work here in western Washington.

But I remember seeing the structure when they were building it, how the framework there was really cool.

It's impossible to miss.

And you drive along Interstate five where the freeway cuts through the city.

But the Commodore has stood for four decades bringing the South Sound community together.

Well, when you think of the dome, you think it.

Tacoma, the longest running recognition program, the city of Tacoma, recently commissioned a documentary celebrating the Tacoma Dome's 40th anniversary.

But getting here has been a journey.

After a few false starts, voters finally approved public funding that would redefine Tacoma's Hawthorne neighborhood and the city's skyline.

The dome opened to the public in April 1983.

Later that August, musician David Bowie became the first major performing artist to head Tacoma on the tour.

Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper.

Motley Crue.

Dave Miller.

See nearly all the big names here.

The dome is where countless memories were born, inside a place much closer to home.

Anybody visits Tacoma, they think of the dome.

Billy Simmons says the Tacoma Dome has become an icon.

Like when you go to Seattle, you think of the Space Needle.

Ever since it opened, downtown Tacoma has been transformed.

Seeing new museums and a university become neighbors.

The city's waterfront has since grown into a neighborhood itself.

Now Amtrak and sound Transit call the city's Dome district a transportation hub.

Without the public investment, some wonder if any of the neighborhood's development would have ever had within the dome have the event.

It's hard for any else to come in to do the visit with us.

Business owners in Somalia thanks his loyal customers for making his fish and Chips restaurant a success.

Inside fruit has square.

We believe it's possible to come again and bring even more business into the area.

I like to see that dome is more functional that just a week and this season.

$30 million was spent on upgrades and renovations just five years ago.

It's an investment not just for the Commodore.

It's a pledge to attract another 31 million visitors into the South.

Sound for the venue's next 40 years.

I think it defines Tacoma and Tacoma Steam tickets.

Northwest now.

Joining us now are Adam Cook.

The city of Tacoma is director of Venues and Events.

Jacquie Scott, one of the people instrumental in the effort to get a dome of our own, and Bill Byers, a former Tacoma mayor and one of the recognized experts on all things historical when it comes to the city of destiny.

Thanks so much, all of you, for coming to Northwest now.

Great to have a conversation about the real, I'd say the real physical icon in the city of Tacoma, which is the Tacoma Dome.

Been here 40 years now and I don't know, it feels like a fast 40 years to me.

But let's get to it.

I want you to each tell a story about how you got involved with the dome.

Adam, you're the newcomer here.

So how did you come to be in contact on a regular basis with the old Tacoma Dome?

Yeah, I've.

I've danced around the dome for a long time.

I worked in Seattle back in the early 2000s up at the Comcast Arena, then at Everett, and really knew the building and its wonderful history and legacy.

And I was fortunate enough back in 2019 that the then director Cambodia gave me a call and said, Hey, I may have an opening for a deputy.

Are you interested?

And I said, Absolutely.

I can't pass up an opportunity to work in such an iconic building and work with a great team that runs all of Tacoma as venues and made the jump down here and have not regretted it for a minute since it's been fantastic.

Good.

Jacquie, your citizen got interested in this project.

How did you get involved?

What sparked your interest?

Well, I was in Tacoma when the other versions of this were discussed and it wasn't particularly interesting, but I. I came home from Africa just before the vote for the Dome this time.

But I had already voted absentee and I had voted yes.

But then I caught the spirit when I got all the feel, it was just this live energy to get that thing passed and then we'd get it built.

And as to how I got on the jury, I have no idea.

Right.

Because you were part of the team that helped pass it as a to get it through.

I guess the some of the filters required to make it happen.

Yeah, but but, you know, very, very small part.

Yeah.

There's a lot of people that did a lot more than I did.

I'm sure grateful I got it.

Yeah, it was.

It's a once in a lifetime experience.

It's yeah.

And it played well to my interest and my skills.

Right.

Because a lot of folks consider you to be one of the citizen, one of the citizen Motors that got that to happen.

Bill, We're going to talk about the the the long history of the dome.

But in the modern history of the dome, how did you get involved?

December of 1993, I was on the city council at the time, a fateful call from Becky Bogarde, who was the government relations representative for.

But for the accolades I'll never forget, she said, Bill, why is it that Tacoma does not want the Seattle City, the Seattle Sonics, to play in the Dome for the 9495 season?

I said, Excuse me.

So we've been trying.

We've been reaching out.

We haven't getting a return phone call.

I said, I tell you what, Becky, I'll talk to you tomorrow and we'll find out what the story is.

So I called Ray Corpus, the city manager at the time, and he put me in contact with Jay Green.

And Jay said, Bill, this is all a ploy.

So what do you mean?

Well, they're negotiating, you know, a deal better deal with the kingdom.

They're using us as a bargaining chip.

I said, I don't think that's the case.

So I called Becky back and she said, you know, Bill, she said the very accurately disposed despises Randy Revelle, the executive King County executive.

They'll never play in the kingdom.

They want to play in the Tacoma Dome.

You got to make it happen.

And so that was the year, by the way, that Michael Jordan decided to play baseball here.

He had the Sonics loaded with Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton and that La shrimp.

Yeah.

Three all pros.

I figured, you know, if we can get them in the dome, we're going to win the NBA championship.

And unfortunately, fate made that not happen.

But so that was your interface with the dome is as a as a former mayor of Tacoma in the dome is monitor history.

But I want to jump right back with you.

Prior to the celebration event of the 40th anniversary, you and I had a brief conversation and we talked about the real history of the thinking about a dome in Tacoma.

And I was I could not believe how long this scheme had been brewing.

Talk to me a little bit.

December 17th, 1925, the front pages of the Tacoma News Tribune.

There was this this proposal to build a dome to cover the stadium bowl.

And as a matter of fact, I have some actually, I think I sent a picture of it.

But yeah, the the the engineer architect was Ed Taylor gardener.

And it said in the in the article, you have to imagine the size of this particular proposal.

It was a stadium proposal.

It would be comparable to what we see in Seattle right now.

You know, imagine covering stadium bowl with a dome, the whole thing, and then somehow, Yes, 50 to 60000 people and the roof would be louvered.

So it would open and close.

It was so far ahead of its time.

Yeah, people got excited, but it was a little too far.

Little a little grandiose for 1925.

But that was the first, as far as I know, that was the first proposal for a Tacoma Dome, a dome of our own.

And it had come and gone a couple of times with different plans, different architects, different ideas.

I'm really glad they didn't cover up Stadium High School.

Yeah, well, it's actually exactly the stadium bowl, so I think it would have stretched over into into from the sounds of and of course we had an earthquake in 49 which would have created all sorts of problems right off the cliff.

Yeah right.

Adam, talk a little bit about what makes this the dome so special operationally as a venue.

I was impressed, but I've been in the dome several times for dome wide events.

But the way at this 40th anniversary, which I thought was so well done by the city of Tacoma, I want to put those props out there.

It was the way you can partition.

It was very impressive.

That was a real nice room.

It was right sized, it looked good, the lighting was great.

But there's a lot of ways that you can shape and use the dome.

And I'm sure that was maybe even part of your discussions recently in Nashville.

You when you went down to pitch the dome to agents and people who are buying venues.

Talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, we have a virtual origami of a building with the dome.

It's fantastic.

We can scale ourselves anything from a couple hundred people for a movie screening to 2500 for a small family show to 22,000, we can push the seats back and do large sporting events and flat shows.

Consumer shows.

We can put 15,500 people on the floor for the newest craze of electronic dance music.

I mean, it's absolutely phenomenal the things we can do.

And that really comes back to the staff.

Our team is just amazing at what they do.

They work hard every day and they know that they are delivering those experiences for the city.

So they really focus on how can we create new and entertaining ways to support our community in the dome.

Jacqui, I want to know what what what do you think?

Really kind of finally swung support to the dome because it was it seems like a no brainer.

Now, we sit here today and say, well, obviously we need that.

It's going to be great.

It's going to bring the world to our back door.

Well, that was a true backbone.

You know, I think one of it was Doug MacArthur and his friends put together a great campaign and they tapped into all the right people who may not have even paid attention because that wasn't their thing.

Ah, they didn't think it was their thing.

And the other was that there were cities across the country building facilities and maybe, you know, some people thought, well, we could have something like that, couldn't we?

And I'm sure there were people that I didn't know that had.

I know there were.

I deus that some people if you take my idea of what a dome, what the dome should look like, it might not be a dome.

But, you know, but it was energized by 100 people who sat in a room and put up enough money to put on a campaign and pound it out through some of the ideas and the competing ideas.

yeah.

And just kept it.

And I think it's one of the best run campaigns of anything I've seen, whether it be people or buildings.

And it from the beginning I think people felt the voters felt that's mine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's I think why it's successful too, because this is their building.

If, you know, a big money guy came in and built it.

Yeah, it's the city.

You own it.

It's it hosts hyper local events, but also with national import.

There's some great things built here.

I'm going to test you and put you on the spot.

Do you know who came up with the dome of Our own?

You mentioned it.

You know who I know who came up with the name Tacoma Dome?

That was council member Barbara Pixel.

Okay.

She came up with that idea.

As far as Dome of your Own.

Could've been Doug McArthur But I do have to give credit to Mike Parker, who was the mayor at the time, who came up with the idea of a World's Fair and Tacoma, which is a little too audacious.

And but I think it got people to think big a gesture that got people to think big.

And and Mike was a promoter and helped make that.

And of course, Stan, not Colorado.

Stan, the man was also involved in that campaign.

So want to swing right back to you on this piece.

Yeah, I know this is a huge question from a person who studies history.

You could probably do an hour on this alone, but where do you what has been the cultural importance in your mind of the Tacoma Dome?

What has it brought to us?

Profound.

Yeah, profound.

You know, just think of all the all the acts that come through Tacoma.

It just kind of blows you away.

I mentioned Bruce Springsteen before we came on the air.

I was there at the Springsteen concert.

The Eagles.

Paul McCartney.

Yeah.

You know, it goes on and on.

All the all the headliners, Lady Gaga, you name it.

Put Tacoma on the map.

We're just just absolutely fantastic.

And then the beauty of it, too, is that the facility was designed in a way that the community could use it.

yeah, as well.

You could have high school graduations, college graduations, high school sports, high school sports, Correct.

Some great basketball games have been played in the dome.

And as has been said earlier, it's just a multifaceted facility that can be used for the community in more intimate ways.

But also the big acts.

This wasn't brought up much, Jackie, in the 40 year celebration, because, you know, you don't want to bring the room down.

But as a citizen, I think it's important.

I want to talk to you and get your response to this.

I think the Tacoma Dome part of it's it's so powerful in terms of where it sits in our minds because we've had peak life experiences there.

We've had graduate wins and and watched sports teams that we loved, you know.

But I will also say this.

We've had some very sad community based events there, too, where we're at our lowest with funerals and memorial services for fallen officers and that kind of thing.

What are your thoughts about that emotional power and the tie that that building has to us?

I think the the dichotomy is there, but that's not the way it feels.

It's the end.

And it's a lot the mindset of the people that are involved on.

It's easy to be gung ho about a building when you're going to a concert that you've wanted to go to for 25 years or know whatever, but that the I think there's a pull on the citizens that some of the memorial services and those things, they should be there too because this is the people's dome and it isn't it wasn't built for Paul McCartney or any other big and it wasn't built to have the Sonics.

If we could have had them, we would have.

But that it wasn't built.

It what?

There was no prescription written on a piece of paper.

What would go on in the dome.

And I think the staff through these 40 years have done very well in reading what the community feels.

Yeah, yeah, I do, too.

Adam, when you you know, you've been exposed to the dome for, for a good 20 years now, when you're out selling it, do you have just selling it and selling the venue in mind, or do you also have what is it?

What is this going to bring to the community?

In other words, how can it does that ever cross your mind?

Like this would be very enriching or we really should have these people for other people.

Do you think that way and talk a little bit about we Absolutely.

We are always looking at not just can we bring the biggest name in, you know, we love to bring the biggest names.

They're fantastic.

To Bill's point.

They help put Tacoma on the map when you're playing.

We were just the largest the largest grossing stop on Morgan Wallen's indoor tour.

I hope you don't get the biggest tag, though, because Taylor Swift would literally tear the massive that population would explode.

We'll take 20 Taylor Swift shows.

We'll fit them all in somehow.

We'll do it if it's there.

But no, we'd love to do that.

But at the same time, it really is what's benefiting the community.

And so looking at both community events, we talked about the sporting championships, the graduations.

Asia-Pacific Cultural Center hosts their Lunar New Year celebration, as well as the diversity of our events and what we're bringing into the community so that we're representing everybody.

It's not just the country and the rock that we know plays so well in the Dome, but it's urban and hip hop and electronic and something for really everybody in our community.

It's always a focus.

And i think jacqui was gesturing at that.

Jacquie, it really is a little bit of a unique unifying force, isn't it?

Well, it is.

And and I think, Adam, what you said that you keep the community in mind and that is reflected in what I see from the dome and there was and I'm not even sure I can.

I'm just I hadn't thought about it in probably 35 years.

There was a moment where something we wanted to bring something to the dome and they asked, I think myself and another person who had been on the jury to help them with the preparation to go to and and they succeeded in bringing whatever it was.

It wasn't a big concert or anything.

It was more of a I think a can business I don't event.

Yeah.

But I think that well we saw it in the film the people want to go to the dome and they and I think one thing that has helped a lot is it's stayed affordable.

yeah that's you know and we were talking before we started this afternoon about the costs are going to things Yeah that's crucial that's hard in there of Ticketmaster and with with access they make their demands and the venues almost to some degree the innocent victim of that bill.

I wanted to move on with you from a historical perspective.

Not only am I going to make you look back here, but also going to get your crystal ball out, look forward is with social media and people literally having theaters in their home with big screens and surround sounds.

I mean, you can watch a a very nice concert in the confines of your own home.

Now, do we is is is a dome going to be is it going to go the way the buggy whip an elevator operator will will we still have a need for large venues in ten or 20 years or 40 years or.

No, nothing like really being there.

I mean, the excitement, the electricity, the experience, the ambiance.

You can't replicate that in your living room.

I do want to say probably my my biggest disappointment, if I could go down the rabbit hole here for a moment.

Terms of history.

It was during the Sonics when they were here and I mentioned to you the Big three and the real possibility of winning the NBA championship appear in Tacoma.

John Crowley was saying that could mean $20 million for the city of Tacoma.

I was really hyped.

Yeah, I was excited.

So we're in the playoffs with the Lakers.

Not that great a team.

We're in the playoffs.

This is a Tacoma story, right?

So the first game, it's a it's a it's a five game series.

First game, we blow, blow, blow out to the Lakers.

The second game, the team struggling.

But they're making it They're getting there you know, and and all of a sudden it's on national TV.

All of a sudden, a lightning bolt hits a generator and the lights go out in the dome.

Now we have newer lights, but back in those days, it took about a half an hour for those lights.

So the two teams go back into the dressing room.

Everything's pitch black.

We're on national TV.

Finally, they get the lights, takes forever.

And lo and behold, darn it, the team loses by one point.

They then go down in LA and lose to two straight and they're out.

Yeah.

And the rest is history.

It is.

It's a cover story, you know.

Well, and if I can, I think the diversity of stuff that comes to the dome, a lot of it like the Asia Pacific, that's ground I mean that's the people live here.

yeah.

Great.

That event.

You open the door and do what they need you to do.

And I think because so many people have experienced it very personally, it will it will change, maybe add to venues that are acts that come and things.

But it's it's going to I think it won't it will have to fall down before it.

Let's let's hope not.

Last 60 seconds, Adam, what's next for the Tacoma Dome?

If you have a wish list and wish list, gosh, you know, I'd love to have, you know, virtual screens or what?

What what is on your list?

Well, there's there's a lot right now, I'll be honest.

We have been putting some tremendous capital work into it.

Bill mentioned the new lighting that we just swapped out.

We've got a lot of security and guest enhancements that are coming up over the next couple of years.

But with any 40 year old building, there's a lot of repair and maintenance that goes into it and keeping it active and keeping it going for the next 40 years.

We're in pretty rarefied air as the Tacoma Dome.

We're talking buildings like Madison Square Garden in New York.

The forum in L.A. And to be in that company requires a lot of attention and a lot of effort.

But what we know is, as stewards of the building with our council, with our community supporting it, there's nothing we can't do.

And exactly to Bill's point, that live experience is going to be around forever.

Yeah, I'm trying to integrate that digital experience with the real world.

I think is going to be a real key going forward.

Great conversation, everybody.

Thanks so much for coming in to talk about the Tacoma Dome 40 years later.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Northwest now airs from Vancouver to Vancouver and from the ocean to the crest of the Cascades.

So when people ask me, do you produce shows for Tacoma or all of Western Washington?

My frequently unsatisfying answer is yes.

The bottom line our physical home is right here in Tacoma and the dome is a constant reminder of just how far the city has come in the past 40 years, thanks in large part to all of those who came before us and who had a vision for preserving the past and investing for the future.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking to watch this program again or to share it with others.

Northwest now can be found on the web at kbtcot org and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at Northwest.

Now a streamable podcast of this program is available under the northwest now tab at kbtc dot org and on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

That is going to do it for this edition of Northwest Now until Next Time.

I'm Tom Layson.

Thanks for watching.