Last stand for the Alamodome? Despite ‘strong bones,’ Final Four host needs ‘overhaul’ to secure future events

Thirty-three years ago in May, Paul McCartney helped open the Alamodome as part of his “New World Tour.”  

In the years since, the 60,000-plus seat stadium just off Interstate I-37 in downtown San Antonio has hosted everything from a Bad Bunny concert to the second-largest (at the time) indoor boxing match in history. It also provided the canvas for the San Antonio Spurs’ “Memorial Day Miracle” — a Sean Elliott shot that helped spark the Spurs to the 1999 NBA Finals — and one of the biggest 3-pointers in NCAA Tournament history from Kansas guard Mario Chalmers against Memphis in the 2008 national championship game.  

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Saturday the men’s Final Four returned to the Alamodome for a fifth time in 28 years; the most of any venue in that stretch. San Antonio Sports estimates the event is expected to attract more than 100,000 people to the city over a three-day period, generating an estimated $440 million in economic impact.

It’s the type of showcase national event that’s helped push San Antonio — the United States’ seventh-largest city — into the national sporting and music consciousness.  

“Right off the bat (the Alamodome) elevated San Antonio to a level it had never seen,” Assistant Director of Convention & Sports Facilities Steve Zito told CBS Sports. “It’s been going ever since. It’s critical.”

Zito, who helped open the building nearly 33 years ago, said the Alamodome’s “never looked better” ahead of the Final Four following nearly $29 million in upgrades.

Yet as the Final Four is back at the Alamodome and the nearby Riverwalk, the building is at an inflection point.

Alamodome showing its age

The Alamodome was built for a modest $186 million in the early 90s. In the years since Zito said it’s received around $300 million in total upgrades. But compared to modern NFL venues – most of which now cost into the billions – the Alamodome is beginning to show its age.

Its concrete interior, bare floors and dated bathrooms don’t really compare to the shiny downtown stadiums popping up in places like Atlanta, Las Vegas and Nashville. 

As the NCAA prepares to examine a new round of men’s Final Four bids in 2026 — a round expected to span from 2032 to 2036 — officials in San Antonio have been told the city needs to do more with the Alamodome if it hopes to host again.

“That’s certainly been communicated to us in a way by the NCAA,” San Antonio Sports President and CEO Jenny Carnes said. “Everybody here realizes that.

“We’re really at a point where we have to make some moves.”

San Antonio partly built the Alamodome to attract an NFL team that never came.

The stadium hosted the San Antonio Spurs for a decade from 1993-2002, a run that included an NBA Championship. Then the Spurs left, moving to a smaller, NBA-focused area a few miles away.

So, what’s left?

A lot, according to Zito. The Alamodome hosted 124 events in 2024, ranging from UTSA home football games to the Alamo Bowl. When you consider “use” days – the Final Four will spend 35 days in the building between setup and takedown — the Alamodome is booked more than 300 days a year. These events range from major concerts — Post Malone and Shakira will stop through over the next two months — to high school graduations.

“Because of the versatility of the building, it’s one of the busiest stadiums in the world,” Zito said.

It took 21 years to turn a profit after the Spurs departed. Yet when you factor in the events that flow through and the revenue the city generates via hotel occupancy taxes and overall spending, city officials consider the building a huge part of San Antonio’s tourism backbone.  

“It’s been a business line for the city,” San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg, whose fourth and final term ends this year, said. “It’s helped fund things like our arts programs and other improvements.”

When the building hit its 30-year anniversary in 2023, a city-commissioned study by St. Mary’s University professor Steve Nivin estimated the Alamodome had generated nearly $4 billion in economic impact for San Antonio.

But after the Women’s Final Four comes to the Alamodome in 2029, there’s no guarantee San Antonio will earn a bid to keep hosting major NCAA events. Even with upgrades, the building is starting to look its age as it creeps into its mid-30s.

It doesn’t help that the competition to host events like the Final Four is fiercer than it was 30 years ago when the Alamodome began bidding for major NCAA championships.

“For a while there were only 10 or 12 NFL stadiums that could host with downtown hotels and convention centers after the NCAA went to the (rotating) format,” Carnes said. “That number is only going up.”

Nirenberg described the building’s future heading into the 2030s as an “overhaul.” Zito said the building is already competitive but could use finishes throughout the stadium. Both agree that the Alamodome’s bones remain strong.

The Alamodome’s cavernous aesthetic can come off as unappealing at times. Nirenberg wants to see more natural light come through the mostly concrete structure. He’d also like to provide easier access on the upper levels. Zito mentioned the bathrooms need to be refinished. New floors and fixtures can be added throughout the building. He’d like to bring in fan zones, bars and interactive elements that are common in newly built stadiums..

Everyone CBS Sports spoke to said the building needs more suites and premium hospitality spaces. Carnes said upgraded seating and catering areas would help the venue greatly.

One upgrade that’s potentially on the horizon for the Alamodome is what those in San Antonio call “Project Marvel.” It’s a multi-billion proposed downtown sports and entertainment district that would include renovations to the Alamodome, a new Spurs arena and a land bridge that would cross I-37 and connect downtown San Antonio with the other side of I-37.

Building up the infrastructure around the Alamodome is a big priority; more green space, more places to eat and more connectivity to the other side of the highway, which includes the Riverwalk about half a mile away.

“It’s time for something more than we’ve been doing the last 20 years in terms of renovations and upgrades,” Carnes said.

“I think that’s one of the only ways we’re going to stay competitive when it comes to stadium concerts, any chance to host a round of the College Football Playoffs and certainly the NCAA men’s Final Four.”

Avoiding same fate as Astrodome

as the world’s first fully-enclosed sports stadium, Houston’s Astrodome was commonly known as the “Eighth Wonder of the World” when it opened in 1965. It hosted the Astros, Oilers and Houston Cougars football for more than 30 years. But those teams all departed in the 90s and eventually the building fell into a state of disrepair. By 2008, less than 50 years into its lifespan, the stadium closed because it didn’t meet Houston’s fire code.  

It still stands empty today, a historic landmark in prime downtown real estate with no real use to the city.  That’s a fate San Antonio hopes to avoid with the Alamodome. It wants the building to remain a foundational element of downtown.

“We have had that conversation: “Does the Alamodome have more life or is starting from scratch something we need to consider?’ Nirenberg said. “The answer was resoundingly it has significantly more life left.”

One of the tenants contributing to that continued use is UTSA football.

The Roadrunners, whose campus is 24 miles away, have called the building home since 2011 when they began playing Division I football. The building hosted Conference USA Championship Games in 2021 and 2022 with UTSA winning both; the Roadrunners are 29-3 at home under current coach Jeff Traylor.

UTSA athletics director Lisa Campos said the Roadrunners “could never replicate the dome.” It’s an indoor facility in Texas — where temps regularly top 100 degrees in September — and gives suite options for every UTSA home football game, revenue that comes back to the school.

So, though the idea of an on-campus stadium comes up from time to time from those in the Roadrunners fan base, Campos said the availability of the Alamodome allows UTSA to focus funds on other needed facility projects.

“When I got here that was the No. 1 priority, our facilities were just not at a Division I level,” Campos said. “We have so many other facilities we’re focused on that bringing something on campus is really a long term idea until we fix the other facility needs we have.”

City officials hope to see the building host a College Football Playoff game, NBA All-Star games and even a Super Bowl. And while an NFL team bid is part of a larger economic conversation, Nirenberg said he views the Alamodome as part of a future that includes an NFL team.

“It’s long been my philosophy that if we’re going to invest significant upgrades into a venue like this, we need to make sure it’s competing for the best of the best events,” Nirenberg said. “Obviously it’d need some improvements, and those are the kind of improvements we want to make anyway.”

Those in the city hope to spur large-scale upgrades soon.

As for the immediate future, Carnes is hoping a strong showing at this year’s Final Four will leave a lasting impression. 

“We like to say we’ll start that bid process April 4-7,” he said. “That’s our bid.”