A plan to demolish a derelict NFL stadium near Detroit went awry on Sunday when a deafening series of blasts failed to topple the Pontiac Silverdome, to the frustration of officials and the bemusement of a crowd gathered to watch the spectacle.
Fans of the hapless Detroit Lions, the team that called the Silverdome home until moving after the 2001 season, joked on social media that the failed implosion was not the first time they found themselves leaving the stadium disappointed.
Gathered fans saw plumes of smoke exploding out at regular intervals around the stadium's perimeter with a smattering of loud bangs.
But after the smoke faded, the stadium was still standing proud, looking little different from what it has since its 1975 opening.
Demolition officials were quick to state the obvious. "That didn't work," one official onsite said.
They said about 10 per cent of the charges had failed to detonate, perhaps because of a wiring issue, the newspaper reported.
"Unless we find something in the next few hours researching the wiring, we will take it down mechanically," official Rick Cuppetilli told local media.
"We haven't found the wire yet. It's going to take us a while to research it all."
Gravity may yet belatedly pull it down anyway, he added.
Pontiac Mayor Diedre Waterman, who witnessed the failed implosion, told reporters that the stadium's tenacity gave people "a chance to share their memories and their nostalgia a little bit longer than we expected."
The stadium also hosted the 1982 Super Bowl, a papal mass, WrestleMania III and major bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.
It reopened in 2010 for various sporting events until its roof collapsed in 2013.
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