This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

For years the Pontiac Silverdome has been one of America’s most famous ruins, a shadow of the arena that once hosted the pope, a Super Bowl and the World Cup.

The Pontiac Silverdome: from dream arena to symbol of American decay Read more

On Sunday, the demolition of Detroits’s 80,000-capacity arena began with a partial implosion that was supposed to bring down the structure’s upper section, the first part of a process expected to take up to a year.

However, when the explosives were detonated very little happened, apart from a few puffs of smoke. Demolition company Adamo said 10% of the charges failed to go off. The building should still fall, it said – it was just unclear when.

“At some point, gravity is gonna take over, one of these sections is gonna go and it’s gonna rip everything with it. Everything is gonna come down,” Kevin Lindke, the project superintendent, told Michigan Live.

“If it doesn’t go, we’ll come back and we’ll either reload it or we’ll hook some cables and we’ll pull it down.”

Terry Foster (@TerryFoster971) The Pontiac Silverdome did not implode this morning. I guess the building is not used to implosion on a Sunday until 1 pm.

The Silverdome, 30 miles north-west of downtown Detroit, was first hailed as one of the world’s best sporting venues. But for many its eventual abandonment became a symbol of the decline of south-east Michigan, an area hurt by the decline of the auto industry.

Photographs of the decaying building became famous around the world; this year’s Transformers film used the stadium to portray a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Until 2001, the Silverdome was home to the NFL’s Detroit Lions, a team known for underperformance – they have not won a championship since 1957. On Sunday, the Silverdome’s fate was inevitably linked to the Lions’ failings.

“The Pontiac Silverdome did not implode this morning. I guess the building is not used to implosion on a Sunday until 1 pm,” wrote the retired Detroit sports journalist Terry Foster on Twitter.