Photo by Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board.

The RCA Dome was imploded on Saturday. I can’t pretend to be emotional about it. The building was indistinguishable from other cookie cutter stadiums of its era and I have few memories to associate with it. But it does mark the end of an era in which Indianapolis became known for something other than the Indianapolis 500. Built just a few years after I was born, the Hoosier Dome was a monument to Indy’s desire to stand out in flyover country. Never a bastion of the arts or education and lacking a definitive industry, Indianapolis carved it’s niche as a sports town, a destination host city for events that grew in size and frequency over time. Now college tournaments and Olympic trials, large conventions and stadium concerts are a fixture on Indy’s social calendar and the local economy is better for it. But as I watch the Dome go down I have to wonder, has this commitment to sports improved the quality of life in Indianapolis? Are we better for it? In some ways I’m sure it has – the downtown of my childhood was a ghost town, now I have trouble finding a good parking spot. But we have high unemployment and foreclosure rates, our public school system is a mess, our city council a three ring circus. And immediately south of the rubble stands a gleaming new monument, one which will inevitably be too dated and stifling for the next generation of Irsays. In 20 years when the shine is gone and Peyton is retired and the Super Bowl t-shirts are tattered and a wrecking ball kisses the bricks at Lucas Oil Stadium, will be stop to wonder if these buildings improve the quality of life in Indianapolis or will we be happy enough to shell out for seat licenses and file into the  next sporting temple?