The RCA Dome was Indianapolis’s air-supported dome stadium at 100 South Capitol Avenue, home to the Indianapolis Colts from 1984 until the Colts moved to Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008. Opened as the Hoosier Dome and renamed after RCA bought naming rights in 1994, it was demolished by implosion on December 20, 2008, after 24 NFL seasons.
This guide covers everything people search for about the RCA Dome: its changing capacity over two decades, the engineering behind its 257-ton teflon-coated roof, the events that made it a Midwest sports landmark, exactly why and how it came down — including the explosive charge count — and what stands on the site today.
Quick Answer
The RCA Dome (originally the Hoosier Dome) was an air-supported domed stadium in Indianapolis that served as the Indianapolis Colts’ home from 1984 to 2007. It was demolished on December 20, 2008 — after its fabric roof was deflated in September and 875 explosive charges brought down the concrete bowl — to expand the attached Indiana Convention Center, since the Colts had already moved into the newly built Lucas Oil Stadium that August.
Stats at a Glance
Team(s): Indianapolis Colts (NFL, 1984–2007) • Location: 100 South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana • Opened: August 5, 1984 • Closed: February 26, 2008 • Demolished: December 20, 2008 • Capacity: ranged from 60,127 at opening down to 55,531 in its final seasons (2006–2008) • Construction Cost: $77.5 million • Notable Events: 4× NCAA Men’s Final Four, WrestleMania VIII (1992), 1985 NBA All-Star Game, 2006 AFC Championship Game.
Engineering Marvel of the 1980s
The RCA Dome’s air-supported roof was its defining feature. Rather than steel trusses or concrete, a teflon-coated fiberglass membrane — fabricated and installed by Birdair to a design engineered by Geiger Engineers — was kept aloft purely by slightly pressurized air inside the building. The ceiling peaked at 193 feet (varying up to 5 feet with weather) and the entire roof weighed 257 tons.
Architects HNTB and Browning Day Pollack Mullins Inc. integrated the structure directly into the adjacent Indiana Convention Center, with general contractor Huber, Hunt & Nichols handling construction, making it one of the few NFL facilities designed as part of a convention complex rather than as a standalone venue. The playing surface changed over the dome’s lifetime: AstroTurf served from 1984 until 2004, then FieldTurf replaced it for the final seasons.
RCA Dome Capacity: How It Changed Over the Years
The RCA Dome’s football capacity was not fixed — it shrank several times as the building was reconfigured for premium seating and safety code changes. It opened at 60,127 for the 1984–1991 seasons, edged up slightly to 60,129 for 1992–1995, rose again to 60,272 for 1996–1997, and peaked at 60,567 in 1998.
A round of suite and club-seat additions ahead of the 1999 season cut general capacity to 56,127, which held through 2002. It dropped further to 55,506 for 2003–2005, then settled at 55,531 for the dome’s final seasons, 2006–2008. That made it one of the smallest capacities in the NFL by the time it closed, a fact that occasionally fed debates about Indianapolis’s market size even as the Colts remained consistently competitive on the field.
Hoosier Dome to RCA Dome: The Naming Rights Deal
The building opened in 1984 as the Hoosier Dome, a name tied to Indiana’s official nickname. That changed in August 1994, when the Capital Improvement Board struck a deal with Thomson Consumer Electronics, RCA’s parent company at the time, renaming the venue the RCA Dome. RCA paid roughly $10 million for 10 years of naming rights, with two five-year renewal options priced at about $3.5 million each — options that were exercised, keeping the RCA name on the building until it closed in 2008.
Two Decades of Marquee Moments
Beyond Colts football, the RCA Dome built a reputation as one of the Midwest’s premier event venues. It hosted the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four four times — in 1991, 1997, 2000, and 2006 — as well as the 2005 Women’s Final Four. WrestleMania VIII drew a crowd of 62,167 in 1992, the largest single-event attendance in the dome’s history.
The 1985 NBA All-Star Game (43,146 attendees) and the gymnastics and handball competitions of the 1987 Pan American Games also took place under its roof, along with large-scale concerts such as the Monsters of Rock Festival and Farm Aid 5, which took advantage of the building’s open, column-free floor.
The dome’s final football season ended with the Colts claiming their first championship as an Indianapolis franchise, defeating the Chicago Bears 29–17 in Super Bowl XLI in Miami. The pivotal 2006 AFC Championship Game — a Colts comeback win over the New England Patriots, 38–34 — was played at the RCA Dome itself, and remains one of the most memorable games ever staged there.
Why and How the RCA Dome Was Demolished
The RCA Dome closed on February 26, 2008, once the Colts and the Indiana Convention Center’s tenants had a new home ready next door: Lucas Oil Stadium, which opened that August a block south of the dome’s site. With the Colts gone, the dome no longer justified its footprint, and the Indiana Convention Center needed the space to expand its exhibit halls.
Demolition happened in two stages. On September 24, 2008, crews shut down the fans that pressurized the building and deflated the air-supported roof over roughly 35–45 minutes, removing the structure’s signature feature before touching the building itself. Then, on December 20, 2008, Controlled Demolition, Inc. imploded the remaining concrete-and-steel bowl, placing about 875 sequenced explosive charges — roughly 600 pounds of explosives in total — across four levels of framework. The implosion itself leveled the structure in about 25 seconds, a demolition that later appeared on the National Geographic series Blowdown.
What Happened to the Roof — and What Replaced the Dome
Rather than send the dome’s massive fiberglass roof to a landfill, the Indianapolis nonprofit People for Urban Progress rescued roughly 13 acres of the material and repurposed it into bags, wallets, and other durable goods, giving the RCA Dome an afterlife well beyond its demolition.
On the football side, Lucas Oil Stadium fully replaced the RCA Dome as the Colts’ home starting in 2008. The dome’s own footprint, however, wasn’t rebuilt as a stadium — it became part of a roughly $275 million expansion of the Indiana Convention Center completed in 2011, which added new exhibit halls and the Sagamore Ballroom, a 33,000-square-foot event space, on top of the former dome site. So while the Colts play a block away at Lucas Oil Stadium, the literal site at 100 South Capitol Avenue is convention center floor space today.
RCA Dome history and demolition FAQs
Why was the RCA Dome demolished?
It was demolished in December 2008 to allow expansion of the Indiana Convention Center, which was directly attached to the stadium. The Indianapolis Colts had already relocated to the new Lucas Oil Stadium, which opened in August 2008.
What was the RCA Dome originally called?
It was originally called the Hoosier Dome when it opened in 1984. The name changed to RCA Dome in 1994 after RCA’s parent company, Thomson Consumer Electronics, paid roughly $10 million for naming rights.
How was the RCA Dome demolished?
In two stages: crews deflated the air-supported fabric roof on September 24, 2008, and then Controlled Demolition, Inc. imploded the remaining concrete bowl on December 20, 2008, using about 875 explosive charges. The implosion took roughly 25 seconds.
What was the RCA Dome’s seating capacity?
Capacity changed several times, from 60,127 at its 1984 opening up to 60,567 in 1998, then down to 56,127 in 1999 after suite additions, and finally to 55,531 for its last seasons, 2006–2008.
What replaced the RCA Dome?
The Indianapolis Colts moved to Lucas Oil Stadium, which opened in August 2008 a block away. The RCA Dome’s own footprint was absorbed into an expansion of the Indiana Convention Center, completed in 2011.
Is the RCA Dome still standing?
No. It was fully demolished by December 20, 2008. The site at 100 South Capitol Avenue is now part of the Indiana Convention Center’s exhibit and ballroom space.
Get More from RCA Dome history and demolition
Log the coasters, stadiums, and venues you’ve experienced, rate RCA Dome history and demolition, and see what your friends thought. Get the ThrillZing app.
Want the day’s theme park news in your inbox? Subscribe to ThrillZing Daily — free.