The Edward Jones Dome is a 66,000 seat
football stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, and home of the St. Louis Rams
of the NFL. It was constructed largely to lure an NFL team back to St.
Louis, and to serve as a convention center. Completed in 1995, it was
known as the Trans World Dome, after Trans World Airlines, until 2001,
when TWA was acquired by American Airlines. The facility was
then briefly known as, the 'Dome at America's Center' (America's Center
being the adjacent convention facility) until the naming rights were
acquired on January 25, 2002 by Edward Jones Investments, a brokerage
house based in St. Louis.
Ingenious, imaginative engineering and architectural design allows St.
Louis' Edward Jones Dome to be transformed easily from exhibition space
to football field to concert venue. It also can be physically connected
to and part of the America's Center convention complex. The
$280 million facility opened on November 12, 1995. The inaugural event
was an NFL match between the hometown St. Louis Rams, and the Carolina
Panthers. Since then, the building has hosted major conventions,
religious convocations, elaborate trade shows and exhibitions, as well
as touring entertainment acts, ranging from rock concerts to motocross
races and monster truck rallies. And, in combination with the five other
America's Center exhibit halls, The Edward Jones Dome was the site of
the largest indoor gathering ever held in the United States - the 1999
Mass, celebrated by Pope John Paul II. More than 100,000 people were in
attendance.