BMX Rider Turns Abandoned Silverdome into “Playground”
PONTIAC, Mich., June 10 (UPI) — A viral video shows how a BMX rider became “the last professional athlete to perform inside the famed Silverdome,” the former home of the Detroit Lions.
The video, shared on YouTube by Red Bull, opens with shots of the abandoned stadium and the many ways it has fallen into disrepair before BMX pro and Michigan native Tyler Fernengel shows up to make the “desolate stadium his own playground.”
Red Bull said the stunt made Fernengel “the last professional athlete to perform inside the famed Silverdome.”
Fernengel spoke about the experience in an interview:
“The last time I was inside the Silverdome was nine years ago — at the last amateur Supercross race I attended when I was 10. When I showed up to scope for the shoot, so many memories were coming back. Just sitting in the tunnel — where you come out on the track and where the players would run out — I remembered sitting there, years ago, with my dad and all the other kids. It brought back a lot of good memories. Being out on the field, it was crazy to think that there once was a motorcycle track there, every year, with all the fans, but now it’s nowhere near the same — it’s like a war zone.”
