Representatives for Rodeo Houston and the Texans are fighting a new plan for the Astrodome.

“We are committed, willing to work with the county. The Texans are willing to work with the county, but we need to come up with a plan that works for all of them,” Leroy Shafer, COO of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, said.

A group called the Astrodome Redevelopment Company wants to turn the dome into a $450 million upscale hotel, complete with restaurants and amusement rides.

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The Astrodome

“It’s going to steal our business, our exclusivity of booking, exclusivity of sponsorship, exclusivity of merchandising” Shafer said.

But the group behind the development believes they can work it out.

“We can have revenue generators that work together. While the Rodeo and the Texans are powerful icons in our city, it just happens that the Reliant Astrodome belongs to Harris County taxpayers. So its future is in the hands of Harris County Commissioners,” Don Henderson of Astrodome Redevelopment said.

“It’s in the taxpayers’ interest, the county's interest, that whatever goes in there is a success. That's our definition right now. The Astrodome, if it is preserved, has to be preserved in a manner that is financially successful,” Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said.

The future of the dome should be decided by January.

So even though the cowboys and the football players continue to draw large crowds, for now the attention is on the empty “eighth wonder of the world.”