DETROIT, MI -- The Pontiac Silverdome, its roof caved in, contents gutted, field where Detroit Lions great Barry Sanders once wowed the world now a turfy swamp, has for years stood as an empty architectural wart visible from Interstate 75 in Oakland County.

There's anxiety about the structure's future, whether current owner, Toronto-based Andreas Apostolopoulos, who bought the Silverdome for $583,000 in 2009 -- less than 1 percent of the initial $55.7 million it cost to build in 1975 -- and his real estate company, Triple Properties, will follow through with yet-to-be-determined redevelopment plans.

Triple Properties two weeks ago announced a contest for "architects, planners, students, engineers, designers and artists from around the world" to submit renderings and concepts for a redesign. The first-place winner receives a $3,000 cash prize. (More on the competition here)

Pontiac officials, in an effort to gauge the state of the structure and unbeknownst to the owner, sent in a team of building inspectors Thursday. They hoped to perform a full building inspection, but nixed the idea due to safety concerns, Pontiac Mayor Deirdre Waterman told MLive Friday.

She said the city wants a "fuller understanding" of the stadium's current state and to determine whether it violates city code.

The main reason the team canceled the inspection is due to lack of lighting. They did ensure the exterior and perimeter were secured to keep out trespassers, Waterman said.

Building owners were not notified about the inspection, according to Katherine Holmes, a contracted public relations representative for Triple Properties.

"And there would be no need for any city inspections for a building that is private property, not open to the public with no gas or electrical, that's completely boarded up and with around-the-clock security," Holmes wrote in an email to MLive Detroit Friday afternoon.

After purchasing the Silverdome, Apostolopoulos in 2010 invested $6 million upgrading concession and VIP areas, wireless Internet and outfitting the restaurant with flat-screen TVs.

A rebirth seemed likely. After four years of silence, fans again filled the seats for several events, including a Don King-promoted boxing match that drew 7,000 fans and later a soccer match between AC Milan and Panathinaikos that drew 30,000 fans.

Apostolopoulos, born in Greece, hoped to make the Silverdome home of a professional soccer franchise, but it never came to be.

Last summer, rather than preserving and improving the asset, Apostolopoulos' company began dismantling it, auctioning off scoreboards, concession equipments, seats and turf.

According the Detroit News, the auction raised almost $500,000, nearly as much as Apostolopoulos originally paid.

The 177-acre Silverdome property has an 2014-assessed market value of about $2.1 million, according to the Oakland County Assessor's Office.

Pontiac's mayor met with Apostolopoulos face to face once, about seven moths ago, and believes he is sincere about redevelopment.

Pontiac City Administrator Joseph Sobota called communications with Apostolopoulos and Triple Properties "one-sided" in a conversation with MLive Detroit in January.

Mona Hofmeister, who runs Pontiac-based Citizens Against Blight, is leary of the development company's intent.

She called the redesign contest a ploy.

"I don't think (Apostolopoulos) is going to do anything with the Silverdome," she said. "I think he's buying time.

"There's water, snow, ice on the steps, broken seats, water under the turf; it's like a slip-and-slide."

Meanwhile, Apostolopoulos is among two bidders for an 11-acre parcel of land in Allen Park where its former City Hall resided, the News-Herald reports.

Apostolopoulos offered $1.8 million, an amount since eclipsed by the $2 million bid made by Time Equities. Apostolopoulos hasn't obliged Allen Park City Council members' request to come before officials and explain his plans.

Hofmeister says she hopes Allen Park "takes a lesson out of the book of Pontiac.

"He doesn't have a very good track record," she said.