May 15, 1993: The Alamodome opens in San Antonio. The 64,000-seat facility was intended to be a larger home for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, and to attract an NFL franchise.
It had been built because San Antonio, from the 1980s onward, has been one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in America. And the existing Alamo Stadium, built in 1940 and seating 18,000 (with an additional 14,000 temporary seats), proved unsuitable for use by the San Antonio Wings of the World Football League in 1974 and 1975, and the San Antonio Gunslingers of the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985. So the Alamodome was an improvement, and predictions that the NFL was coming seemed pretty good.
Well, in 1993, the NFL gave its 1995 expansion teams to Charlotte and Jacksonville. In 1994, the 2 Los Angeles teams moved, the Rams to St. Louis and the Raiders back to Oakland. In 1995, the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore. In 1996, the Houston Oilers began the process of moving to Nashville. In 2002, Houston got a new team. And, that same year, the Spurs moved into a modern arena, after winning their 2nd NBA Championship at the Alamodome.
The Houston Oilers played 2 preseason exhibition games there in 1993 and 1994. The Dallas Cowboys were the opponent for 1 of those 1993 games. They played each other in the 1995 preseason. The New Orleans Saints, having played a preseason game there against the Minnesota Vikings in 2001, played 3 "home games" there in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina left the Superdome unusable for that season.
The NCAA has hosted the Final Four there in 1998, 2004, 2008 and 2018, and will again in 2025; and the Women's Final Four in 2002, 2010 and 2021. The Canadian Football League's brief U.S. experiment put the San Antonio Texans there for the 1995 season.
The stadium has hosted the annual Alamo Bowl ever since. It's hosted the Big 12 Conference Championship Game in 1997, 1999 and 2007; and the Conference USA Championship Game in 2021, and it is scheduled to do so again in 2022. And, on the TV show Coach, fictional Minnesota State won the 1993 National Championship there.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a school in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, what used to be known as "Division I-AA"), began playing there in 2011. It's been home to the Arena Football League's San Antonio Talons from 2012 to 2014, and the Alliance of American Football's San Antonio Commanders in 2019.
Setup for UTSA football
Mexico's national soccer team played 2 games there in 2004, another in 2014, and was beaten by the U.S. team in 2015, to date the only game the U.S. men's team has played there. The U.S. women's team also played a game there in 2015. Mexico played there again in 2017. Several Mexican club teams have played there.
The International Hockey League's San Antonio Dragons played a few home games there in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 season. Baseball has even been played there, Spring Training games by the Texas Rangers from 2013 to 2017, although the artificial turf field is bad, and the right field fence is only 272 feet from home plate. So, if San Antonio ever gets a Major League Baseball team, they will not be playing in the Alamodome.
The building remains a "white elephant." It’s beginning to look like the NFL will never put a team there, either moved or expansion. As I said, MLB isn't going to play there. And the current plan for a proposed Major League Soccer expansion team is for them to use a smaller, soccer-specific stadium.
(UPDATE: The United Football League's San Antonio Brahmas began play there in 2023.)
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May 15, 1993 was a Saturday. These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Mélido Pérez outpitched Al Leiter. Mike Stanley went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Don Mattingly was injured, and did not play. Paul Molitor went 0-for-4.
* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Chris Nabholz outpitched Bret Saberhagen.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Greg Maddux outpitched David West. Mark Lemke hit a home run for the Braves, and Darren Daulton hit one of the Phils. This result would be reversed in the National League Championship Series.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 14-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-5 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Greg Vaughn hit 2 home runs. Robin Yount, in his last season, went 0-for-2 with a walk.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The Florida Marlins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Ryan Bowen pitched a 6-hit shutout.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rafael Palmeiro hit a home run in the bottom of the 11th to win it, driving Iván Rodríguez in ahead of him. The former was eventually proven to be a steroid cheat, and the latter has long been suspected of it.
* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 3-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Trevor Wilson (4 hits over 7 1/3rd innings), Dave Righetti (2/3rds) and Rod Beck (1) combined for a 4-hit shutout.
* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett, in his last season, went 1-for-4.
* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-3 with a walk.
There were 3 games in the NBA Playoffs:
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 96-90 at The Coliseum outside Cleveland in Richfield, Ohio. Michael Jordan scored 32 points.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 97-79 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)
* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns, 111-96 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.
There was 1 game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
And the FA Cup Final was played at the old Wembley Stadium in London. North London team Arsenal and Yorkshire team Sheffield Wednesday played to a 1-1 draw. A replay was scheduled for the following Thursday, and Arsenal won it, 2-1. The rules were changed, so that, if the game ends in a draw, there would be extra time; if still level, penalty kicks.
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